My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

It's been a while since I've heard many of these songs. Honestly a good album with some cool features. Hearing Nikki Minaj brought me back to middle school. Definitely some bangers on here. You should listen at least once.

Hip hop really isn't a genre a follow, but I enjoyed the album. Interesting grooves.

Beautiful production, nice lyrical content in most songs, but definitely some glaring weak spots. Overall would say it’s DEFINITELY overrated; I don’t think this is his Magnum Opus. Very long winded and drawn out, probably could’ve been 10-15 minutes shorter. Features were spotty; Nicki on Monster was a highlight, as were the features on Gorgeous and John Legend on Blame Game. Jay Z and Fergie were not great. 7/10.

Really really great record here. Lyrically, there were moments that I enjoyed. Musically, from the beats to the production, this was solid AF. Not quite at the 5 star mark for me yet, but this was better than College Dropout (the only other Kanye album I've heard).

Good

Prog-rap? Yeah, I think so. Kanye might be a huge douche and kind of insane but this record *is* pretty amazing sounding. Lyrically it has some pretty problematic spots but it's also pretty funny. This isn't my genre and I'm probably not going to revisit much but it's a fascinating listen. Totally get why this is on the list.

Separate the man (colossal egoist) from the art (incredibly well produced hip hop album) and this is a banging record. I've never listened to one of his albums before but I enjoyed this way more than I expected.

Kanye West has gone off a deep end so profound that he can bring down an established three day music festival just by being named as its headlining act. Sponsors ran fast – the prevalent feeling being one that, for risks to brand reputation of this scale, there’s no returns policy. The mega cash cow of Brand Ye might be RIP, but it’s still debated as to whether there’s any conceivable way back for Kanye the artist. This album serves as a potent reminder for why some might secretly hope there is. It’s a maximalist triumph, full of discourse defining rhymes and super slick hooks. There’s a grandiose onanism to the whole thing; it might be recession pop’s most important record. Anyway, fuck Nazis ✌🏼

It reminded me that I like Kanye

Oh boy, I was intimidated going into this one. One of the biggest albums of my lifetime- what more can be said by a hip-hop newbie? What if I hate it? But nope- undoubtedly one of the best hip-hop albums I've heard. Despite being a blockbuster (in everything from maximalist production to roster of A-list guests) it has such a tight focus for most of its runtime as it bounces from one set-piece to another. I surely don't need to heap more praise on the opening rhyme and epic introduction to "Dark Fantasy"- the swaggering bravado of "POWER" and its inspired King Crimson sample- the anthemic wall of sound in "All of the Lights"- THAT Minaj verse in "Monster" which was my highlight of the whole album. This latter track had my favourite lyrics and beats across the board and set the high watermark for the record, so that "So Appalled" and "Devil in a New Dress" paled in comparison by feeling too repetitive and not demanding my attention. It was also around this time that I started to feel the length of the journey. But then came "Runaway": a gorgeous track I hadn't heard before and an absolute stand-out, striking me as the emotional and thematic heart of the set, where all the excess just came together and made perfect sense. It could have been a closer, but then "Lost in the World" and "Who Will Survive" formed a powerful note to go out on. Why not 5*? Needs more listens, but partly the middling songs mentioned above, and also the skin-crawling Chris Rock skit in Blame Game with the "Yeezy taught me" mantra. One of several uncomfortable moments where the arrogance stopped feeling ironic or satirical and just seemed like Kanye being Kanye. For the most part though, this was a roller-coaster and I believed the hype.

I'm normally not too big into these kind of albums, however after hearing this I have to say that this was bloody amazing. Does a good job in making each song diverse than the last. Despite being rap. POWER and All Of The Lights are magical.

This overcrowded album certainly brought together good arrangement ambitions in a pompous and multifaceted manner. (7/10) Favourite Tracks: Runaway, Lost in the World

Een over-geproduced hiphop/pop album en Kanye was altijd al (een beetje) vol van zichzelf, maar met wel enkele steengoede songs

Creative

Honestly? Yeah, okay, I'm about it. He's got some chops and the music itself is legit.

Saved Prior: POWER, All Of The Lights, Monster, Runaway Off Rip: Dark Fantasy, Hell Of A Life, Lost In The World Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Lots of great songs on this album (particularly Runaway POWER and Dark Fantasy) and the theme is really strong and ties the album together well. That being said, there's just something about this album that just keeps it from 5 status. I think it might be Kanye's sometimes lackluster rapping or maybe I don't like some of the hooks, but I can't quite put my finger on it. 4.(ialsodidntreallylikekanyespartondevilinanewdresstothepointwhereididntsavethesong.wouldvebeensavedifitwasjustthebeatandrickross.sorryiknowpeoplereallylikethatsong)

"The watered down one, the one you know Was made up centuries ago" (Dark fantasy) "You could be the King but watch the Queen conquer" (Monster) Siento mucho que lo mejor de este disco sea la estrofa de Nicki Minaj. Nah, es bromis (a medias), aunque a mí Kanye no me interese lo suficiente como para separar obra de autor (o que me interese más la posibilidad de que se vaya a montar una secta), es muy bueno en lo suyo y el disco funciona muy bien.

I never really gave this album a good listen, but I can see why so many rate it highly.

Ohhhh maaan that was intense! And incredibly good!! A wicked album.

Kanyee, power 5/5 a yks toinenki 5/5, mut en mä ny tätä täydelliseks sanois

I wanted to hate this, and assumed I would, but from the moment I heard the King Crimson sample I knew it would be difficult.

Classic, great album regardless of what people say

:) definitively the heaviest produced ye album. ton of man hours. great songs. not my personal fav though.

Great example of something I had written off previously but ended up really enjoying. Album flows brilliantly and has some great standouts

Good. Not my kind of music, but I would listen to it again.

(Listened to Before) Had this on repeat in middle school and listening back I have a similar opinion on it still. Some of my favorite Kanye songs are on here, but there’s also some mediocre cuts. Think this is maybe his 4th or 5th best album, but it’s still one of the most important and era-defining projects ever dropped. The production blows my mind for most of it and even on some of the tracks I don’t care for Kanye raps his ass off. Favorite Tracks: Hell Of A Life, Devil In A New Dress, POWER Least Favorite Tracks: Gorgeous, So Apalled, Blame Game

Good rap album

Episode 1

Middle tracks dragged a bit, but solid Kanye. Showed glimpses of the madness that was going to come (Chris Rock stand-up bit talking about pussy and the woman learning how to be dirty from Yeezy). Earlier collabs with Bon Iver.

suitably flawless production, messaging is a bit wonky here and there and references are dated, knocking a star off for trump love

Besides a fer not so hard hitting songs in the second part of the album (Blame game, Hell of a life) this album is an hip-hop masterpiece. It's hard to even call it straight up hip-hop, because it incorporates multiple genres from soul, edm, folk, rock etc.

Everyone says this is Kanye’s best album, I think it’s just okay. Part of me thinks the popularity of this album is solely based on Runaway, the only iconic song on this album, IMO. It’s a solid album, don’t get me wrong, but nothing really sticks with me. Kanye is definitely talented at creating a soundscape. As usual l, lots of very clever rhymes throughout. I find I like his gospel chorus sounds overly sincere, not up my alley. I appreciated the King Crimson sample but felt it gets cut off, he could let it play a little more and it would’ve made the song better. Lots of abrupt cuts in his soundscape, themes coming in an out chaotically, changing the song briefly before it goes back to normal, creates an interesting pastiche. Almost all the songs have a epic vibe to them, they feel big, the scale is big. But are they good? The rhyme “put the Pussy in a sarcophagus” just to rhyme with esophagus, seems a little lazy. There are a few fives on this album, few fours, a 2 and a threes. B+

good until about 70% through. i liked 808s and Heartbreak better

i can hear why it's good but i dont think i like it

8.25, pretty good

7/10

Krasses Pop Monster, schillerndes Sampling, kongeniale Instrumentierung, teils spontan wirkende Wendungen und ein Songwriting, das sich komplett auf einem Plateau durchzieht, sodass eine Reihe ebenbürtiger Einzelteile einen top draft schwierig macht, was die longplay Stärke betont. And god knows I tried to hate it. So hard. And failed...harder. But: Yeezy taught me

Geiler - was soll ich sagen/wie nennt man das, Hightech-Hiphop? aber ohne die Nerv-Faktoren Autotune und hyperaktives Sample-Geklicker. Supermodern (2010...) und trotzdem voll in meinem wertkonservativen Popsoundgeschmack, und nach 2,5 Durchgängen entsteht der Eindruck, dass das Ding von vorn bis hinten immer runder wird, bis „All of the Lights“, vielleicht auch „Monster“ ist noch bisschen holprig aber ab da fliegt er eigentlich konstant über 36000 Fuß. Hab Yeezy immer vor allem als Phänomen wahrgenommen, zwischen Amüsement und zunehmendem zuneHMENDEM ZUNEHMENDEM Kopfschütteln. Und auch wenn letzteres wohl here to stay ist - dies Album macht echt Bock auf mehr. Fuck it, sorry but not sorry: wenn ich Em für die Marshall Mathers 4 Sterne gegeben hab, kann das hier nicht weniger sein. Let's have a toast for the scumbags!

was very poggers

“My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” by Kanye West (2010). My first time listening to the music of Kanye West. Excellent album. Expansively produced. Horizon stretching. Near epic theatricality. My education in hip hop is only on a third grade level, but I appreciate music enough to recognize that this is really good. It’s well constructed as an album, starting with a beautifully engaging, poetic and choral intro. I couldn’t write. I had to zip it and listen. (However, imagine Mila Kunis doing the spoken intro instead of Nicki Minaj, and tell me what you think.) The album then builds in tension and intensity, expressing rage (of course), rack, resentment, regret, remorse, redemption and resolution. Very good collaborative writing and innovative production without being gimmicky. It’s all in service to the music. Many extraordinarily clever turns of phrase in the lyrics, which are intricately woven within the selected constraints of well chosen and disciplined rhyme schemes. Very accessible poetics. Thoughtful and culturally well grounded lyrical themes. Entrancing intros precede conventional but powerful hip hop rhythms. The cello and piano intro to “All of the Lights (Interlude)” followed by the synth-brass/vocal choral (Rihanna and friends) intro to “All of the Lights” is superlative (Elton John [!] on piano after verse 3 and the outro). The howling, haunting male chorus intro to “Monster” is another great example. And what the piano does in the intro to “Runaway” (and throughout) is superb. Let’s have a toast. I like this album, bought this album and intend to listen to it over and over. Moments of weeping and sobbing on only the second listen. So much more could be said, I might follow up with a supplement. The only weakness worth mentioning (and it’s not minor) is that Kanye West’s voice lacks timbre, range, control, and power. He compensates by bringing in better vocalists, but the weakness is pervasive. Otherwise this album would have been a “five”. 4/5

Runaway vale el LP

Kanye has always been a bundle of concepts. When they come together, they REALLY come together, which is the case for roughly 80 percent of this album.

Goddamit now I have to listen to more Kanye West. Kinda blown away.

Good. 2nd favorite Kanye album behind debut. 7-8/10 1. Gorgeous 2. Power 3. So Appalled

this was the first kanye album i've listened to, and i gotta say, i have a new respect for his music. it was a great album, well composed and mixed, and lyrics are damn powerful.

Kanye has such bonker lyrics so it easily very fun. Nicki's verse and the Ada rhymes were the best part

I miss the old Kanye. One of his many classics.

It's hard to separate the man from the musician, but this album is great despite being made by a shitty person.

“Too many Urkels on your team. That’s why ya wins low” This album is such a great culmination of the beats and rhymes of his first two albums. It definitely showed a changing point for Kanye and you could tell he was starting to unwind as a human and as an artist. The best track for me is “Monster” I use it all the time to show people what a powerful rapper Nicki Minaj is. On a track with Kanye, Rick Ross and one of the all time greats Jay Z, she absolutely steals the track and owns it with her schizophrenic rhyming.

I feel most conflicted over this one because of the personality. Fuck Kanye. But this was his second best album, and as an album, it’s damn good. But at the same time, he’s obviously mentally ill, and that’s none of my business, it just… well poor fucknut has a problem. So that said, I’ll remove the personality and just rate it as an album. Four stars.

Verrassend goed, kende natuurlijk wel al wat nummers

Great production up until the last few minutes of Runaway. After that the album dips a little in quality. However the front of this album is purely amazing.

Kanye's good, I gotta give it to him. I love the choir and the beats. All of the Lights, Runaway, and Lost in the World are my faves. And Monster - reminds me of Neil rapping along with Nicki.

An excellent album but not as good as College Dropout

belle découverte

I enjoyed listening to this album. While I've not always been a fan of Kanye, I think it's one of his best pieces. "Runaway" is probably my favorite track of his and particularly a bright spot on the album.

First time listening to this album, as Kanye is highly hit-or-miss for me. On the other hand, I really enjoy Yeezus in full and the single cuts from Fantasy are iconic. On balance, this reinforces my notion that middle Ye is the best. While patchy in parts (and the mixing here seems especially meh) and extremely self-indulgent, the highs are like nothing else in hip-hop.

Not bad but I couldn’t finish it

Ugh, this was such a how-the-mighty-have-fallen listen. Nicki DID have the best verse on Monster and that song still goes OFF. It’s not my favourite Kanye but there are some all-time greats on here (Power, Dark Fantasy, All of The Lights, Runaway, the aforementioned Monster). “I call it Mali-booyah” is such a bar. Just sucks that he’s such a POS (and also Nicki!! I can’t shake the icky feeling when listening to these guys)

It's the best Kanye by some distance, in my opinion, but there's also a good reason for that - it has quite a lot of it that is not, in fact, him. The number and variety of guests on here really stops it dragging in the way that his other, especially most recent, albums have, and give a real sense of light and shade to the record. In particular, getting Bon Iver and John Legend in just soften the edges really well. It's a long way from my cup of tea, and there were some songs that were pretty hard to stomach, but overall, I would say I enjoyed it.

I try to be understanding of Kanye and his mental health issues, but even if you give him grace it's still hard to ignore all the, erm... unpleasantness. There are some great songs on here (and the guy is a hell of a producer), but some stuff hasn't aged well and even the stuff that has is just hard to listen to the same way in 2026.

Favourite Songs: So Appalled Runaway

Llegamos al penúltimo día de trabajo con hip hop, sin duda uno de los géneros favoritos de éste libro. Nuevamente, toca un artista que ubico de nombre y por alguna que otra canción. Gran disco con tremendos temones. El álbum me gustó pero no me volvió loco como otros que aparecieron en el reto. Gracias y hasta mañana

a few songs are ok

o meu 3 com mais cara de 5 do mundo porque não quero que esse album apareça no meu perfil *imagem da menina com a balaclava ouvindo música* eu era vidrada nesse quando lançou e até hoje acho um album INCRÍVEL, de verdade mesmo. as músicas são hiper mega bem produzidas, hell of a life e power tem uns dos melhores usos de sample da música... enfim, pena que o artista morreu cedo (apesar de que tem gente aqui que vangloria uns artistas meio duvidosos kk mas né, somos todos hipócritas)

This took me all over the place as the artist seems to take on the world. At its heart though is a very listenable album.

Innovative and captivating- a flawed genius.

Tiene temas que estan incrustados en mi mente a lo largo de los años, pero salvo Runaway, ninguno de ellos realmente me apasiona. No había escuchado el album entero hasta ahora, ye ha acabado dejando un poco indiferente :(

:D

Lots of standouts but too many bad words

6/10 Kanye, Kanye, Kanye. Having really enjoyed College Dropout, I was interested to hear where our boy Ye had gone in the intervening 6 years. Well, if the braggadocious tendencies were clear enough to spot on his debut LP, the critical success that it and subsequent work received have only gone to enhance his sense of self-importance. The thing is, he is good. There are some brilliant tracks on here, like Power and Runaway, but much of the album feels quite scattergun and the maximalist production approach often produces tracks that are a little too cluttered or lacking in focus for my personal tastes. And he also spends much of the album continuing to brag about how wonderful he is, or railing against perceived injustices, interspersed with more introspective or self-critical moments that I can never really tell to be truthful or some attempt at false modesty. There’s some really good stuff on here, but he has a tendency to drag a decent track out for too long without adding in enough range to the musical content to maintain interest, or throwing in elements that detract from the better moments within a track. He can also be quite lyrically repetitive, which doesn’t help, particularly with the less instrumentally varied cuts on the record. After a few listens, I still can’t quite wrap my head around what this album is. It feels like he’s a man with so many ideas, but without the ability to self edit in order to allow the best of those ideas to sing. I kept getting the nagging feeling that he was trying to do way too much, and as a result, the record feels a touch confused and quite bloated, despite the presence of a real streak of excellence that bubbles under the surface. In effect, this kind of feels like a signpost for the direction that Kanye was sending himself from this point on. Erratic, scattered with moments of genius, but ultimately victim to Kanye’s inability to control his own thoughts and direct his talents towards a coherent and focused output. Dark Fantasy - Kanye grabs bits and pieces from all over the place, doesn’t he? An opening verse by Roald Dahl, delivered by Nicki Minaj, autotuned vocals from Bon Iver, samples from Mike Oldfield. It’s pretty good and there’s plenty going on to keep it feeling fresh, including sections where he doesn’t rely on a beat to drive the song, and instead focuses on harmonic content and strong melodic hooks. The verses give it a good hip-hop core, but it’s good that he doesn’t just settle into that or drag it out too long. It does feel a touch disjointed in places, but I think the ambition here is to be applauded. Gorgeous - I’m not convinced by the guitar / lead vocal doubling to kick this off, and that guitar riff is vastly overplayed without any variation until right near to the end. It’s a good starting point, but it just goes nowhere. There’s some decent soundscaping work to give this a dark, foreboding tone, but it’s just way too repetitive and lacks much musical depth. Boring. Power - More eclectic sampling choices from King Crimson and Continent Number 6, most prominently. There’s a lot more going on here and it has a great, dirty feel with crunchy beats, plenty of melodic quality and harmonic richness. It doesn’t insist on driving the beat the whole way through again, and there’s a lot of development of the musical ideas across the run time, which is impressive. This one was excellent. All Of The Lights (Interlude) - This is a lovely piece of piano and cello work. I was surprised to find out this wasn't a sample, so fair play. It’s fleeting, but a pretty little interlude. All Of The Lights - I’m not sold at all on the horns here and while the atmosphere of the track is good, it feels like it doesn’t do enough musically to really maintain interest throughout. He’s gone for a sound that throws a whole load of vocalists together, but for me it feels a bit overfull and disjointed as a result. It was a good concept, but poor execution. Monster - When Kanye drifts back towards more straight hip-hop, I feel like he loses something of what makes him special. This is a good hip-hop track, but in all honesty, he’s not the greatest rapper in the world, which is exposed on a track that he shares rapping duties with others. This is also quite repetitive, both musically and lyrically, which is exacerbated by it being over 6 minutes long. Not that it’s particularly bad, it’s just a bit bland. So Appalled - The dark vibe here is good and I quite like the slightly broken beat nature of the drums. Within the tonal work there’s actually a decent bit of development and range, but it’s rhythmically quite uneventful. As with the last track, it’s not bad, just a bit too repetitive and too long so becomes played out by the end. Devil In A New Dress - The main loop for this is very nice, but it’s short and just goes on and on. I don’t think the rapping performance is great here either. When we get a breakdown in the middle, it improves things, and in the second half, Rick Ross’ verses are better. If there was a bit more range to the main musical hook, this could be quite good, but it doesn’t really do enough to maintain interest apart from the nice middle section. Runaway - The dark, foreboding atmosphere of this is really nice. We’re back into the kind of production that really showcases Kanye at his best, with long, developing musical themes, a good blend of sung and rapped vocals, and a skilled arrangement with plenty of production depth and good hooks. Despite being the longest cut on the record, it has enough range to justify its length, with interesting instrumental sections, good rapping from both Kanye and Pusha T, and a quality sung chorus hook from Kanye himself. Really good stuff. Hell Of A Life - The bass here is pretty mean and, again, we get an example of Kanye just grabbing stuff from everywhere, using the melody from Black Sabbath’s Iron Man for the chorus. Unfortunately, he uses it for a horrible, auto-tuned and frankly, shit, chorus vocal. There are some really decent bits of sound design on this track, including some nice atmospheres and harmonic compliments to the bass, but it’s gathered up into a song that has some pretty weak rapping, a horrible chorus and a fairly inconsistent flow. Blame Game - And now we get a sample of Aphex Twin’s glorious Avril 14th. As with much of this album, there’s some really great stuff in here. The blend of lo-fi drums and the crisp piano sample and complimentary cello work are excellent and there’s some cool effects and editing work on Kanye’s vocal. There’s a bit of an edge of Stan by Eminem to the delivery and rhythm of the rapping in places. But while the instrumental work is really nice, it’s incredibly repetitive for an almost 8 minute track. And the last couple of minutes with Chris Rock that are supposed to be funny are absolutely cringeworthy. I mean, really, really bad. Lost In The World - We’re back full circle to a sample of Bon Iver’s lovely Woods (apparently re-recorded for this with new elements). There’s a decent amount of range to this and plenty of development of the themes. The parts often clash against each other and then find their way together in a really satisfying way. It’s very full, but feels purposeful despite being a touch cluttered. There are a few moments when things get stripped back a bit, which gives the more maximalist elements space to breathe, which is cool. As with much of the album, I think this is decent, but I’m struggling to fully connect with it. Who Will Survive In America - And we finally roll straight into our closer. It’s got a good beat, some nice piano work and the sample of Gil Scott Heron is great. But it is essentially a remix of Comment #1 rather than a fresh track and Kanye, as usual, appears to value his input more highly than is probably justified.

This shit is fucking ridiculous

TOP 3: Devil In A New Dress, Monster, Hell Of A Life.

OK, but I'll never listen to it again. ★★★

I can't give this streams right now but this was the last thing he put out I enjoyed.

Surprisingly or perhaps not, this is much better than I expected. I think I can see why his early career was so highly praised before he went bananas. At least strong 3 stars, maybe even 4 but we will see, 3.5 on RYM.

I'm not a big fan of Kanye (for a myriad of reasons), but this album might be my new favorite of his. There's some good lyrics and beats on this one. Sampling 21st Century Schizoid Man was a cool choice and the Kid Cudi tracks were good. Album might have been a little long and I didn't like the back half as much as the front, but good overall. If Kanye wasn't such an asshole, it might be easier to like his music more.

No entiendo nada. Dice que es uno de los mejores discos de rap y de la vida. Me pareció muy lleno de cosas. Lo volvería a escuchar, pero no entiendo la letra

Never understood this one, why is it so important? Never found a review I cared to look at.

This is the album hat tipped me over the edge. I used to be Rap-Agnostic, neither being a Hater or a Lover. Alas, after an onslaught of Rap albums on this 1001 site...I've tipped into the "Oh, FFS. Not another formulaic acclaimed rapper with a Messiah complex."

Was hyped to get an album after 2000, was disappointed. I dont like him. The album was ok. Sounded like 2010. would not listen again.

Going into this thought it would be a 4+. The highs are high but the lows are just as low.

Wait, this was actually pretty good. As somebody who has a stoic disdain for Mr West it came as a complete surprise to me that I enjoyed myself here. The beats are catchy, the mixing is on another level, and the lyrics explore a very complex relationship with the world of fame. However, stars have been deducted for the simple fact that it's less of an album and more of a collection of songs, with a couple here and there not quite scratching the itch. Not amazing, but still pretty cool. Favourite track: Devil in a New Dress Least favourite track: Blame Game

First time listening to this album. I've always heard Kanye was a music icon in the beginning, and most of this album was just alright to me. However, Lost In The World slaps!!

Too many Urkels on your team, that's why your wins low. What a fucking line. Two Kanye albums in a row for the generator, this and Yeezus...which, both very different, but both fantastic. I don't listen to much rap anymore but when I do, it's the stuff I listened to in the 90s in high school. But this is still great. I should probably come back to this and listen to it more.

Je n'ai pas fini, assez iconique mais beurk Kanye West

++: Gorgeous, Power, All of the Lights (Interlude), All of the Lights, Devil in a New Dress, Lost in the World, Who Will Survive in America +: Dark Fantasy, Monster, Runaway +-: So Appalled, Hell of a Life --: Blame Game 6,3/10

Ja nei.. Veldig 2010. Måtte skippe et par av traumatiske årsaka. Koffør skal alle sangan være så helvetes lang? Jaja, det skal det få en snill treer her også.

The inevitable misogyny present seemingly in all rapid albums aside, listenable enough. I don’t think it breaks any barriers though, just well produced and polished rap.

Le préféré de Clara

First listening of anything by him. Super catchy tunes, I love the gospel and old school hip hop being featured.

I don't think I ever listened to the whole album. College Dropout thru Graduation were really more my era, but I had some Pandora stations that included a few of these songs as well. This was my last stop on the Kanye Express though.

some really essential songs

Unfortunately this one was really good. Really have to separate the art from the artist here

me gusto mucho si

Not a fan of Kanye West the human; his music is alright. Nothing stood out to me on this album.

70

No es el mejor álbum de K, por eso la puntuación. De todas formas muy bien álbum

Have never intentionally listened to Kanye, surprisingly good.

Pretty fine. Liked the beats over the rapping but there is the occasional satisfying turn of phrase.

bro kan vf ni zingen… ma respect dat hij niet voor een overvloed autotune gaat. Ik kan er wel ni doorgeraken, omdat ik heel de tijd met het knagend gevoel zit dat ik naar een nazi luister… 2,5

After listening to this, particularly "blame game" I know know why Lewis Hamilton is going out with Kim K. Rap's not my thing, probably never will be, but this was OK.

Some good tunes actually

I actually enjoyed it more than I thought when i started listening with a slight prejudice. But being able to list so many known artists into a piece is actually epic

3.5/5

Okay, so rap definitely is my blindspot. Listened, went "yep", moved on.

Hvis skiller kuns og kunstner fra hinanden.. Hvis man nu ser bort at at han er nazist... Hvis man nu tænker på at det var en anden tid den gang... Ærligt, så er det en bedre hiphop lyd for mig. Flere melodier, flere forsøg på at gøre det mindre hiphop, og mere pop.

Oh I am SO ready for this one. I hate the man, but his music is just so good. Fav song is ‘Runaway’.

Some great songs on here but also some not so great, mixed bag

This would be infinitely better if Kanye wasn’t babbling all over it.

Album seems to be backloaded quite a bit. Took me fully half of the album to start finding tunes I liked, then it seemed to get better after that. Obvious care and effort went into the making of this album, but still it mostly boils down to rhapsodizing about bitches and ho’s and my dick‘s bigger, minus the incessant references to murder and popping a cap in someone’s ass, which at least does elevate it above the usual gangsta rap fare.

Some pretty good music, but his nasally voice wears thin pretty quickly, plus he’s an asshat. A reluctant 3.

#102/1001 🇺🇸 Well you can't say that he isn't a musical genius when he tries. This infinitely better than the Yeezus album i listened a month or so. There are too many colabs on here for my liking and when the main act has such an ego hearing more largely misoginistic bragging over each track just becomes tiresome. Best Tracks: Runaway,

7/10

🤭 I had just been thinking "I really should re-listen to MBDTF" yesterday and...here we are. This has never been my favorite Kanye album. I've usually found myself wondering what people find appealing about this album over the others. 💯 This album features one is the greatest collabs ever: Monster. From "Blame Game" onward should have been removed from the album. There are some absolute bangers but as a Kanye album: even he can do better IMO.

Varias vibes, otras un poco densas

me sorprendio, me gusto bastante. siento que lo tengo q escuchar un par de veces mas. tiene temazos

高校生の時に聞いたことあった気がするけど完全にどんな音だったか忘れたので再聴。ブリーピーなシンセの音像とか、大ネタ使いがそんなに好みじゃないし、曲全体もダラダラと長いだけに聞こえた。今の自分には一切刺さらなかった。

Tracks I liked: Gorgeous, Monster, blame game

3/5 THISIS the second Kanye album I’ve listened to, other than whatever is trending. As a producer he’s actually really good. I enjoyed the instrumentals and background a lot. I don’t really like his voice too much in some of these songs. It’s also incredibly difficult to look past his strange politics and presence. Overall not horrible, just not something I’ll listen to bc of that. I really liked Gorgeous tho..

My favourite part of a Kanye West song is the production. My least favourite is his raps/vocals. This record ocicillates between genuinely pretty good and genuinely garbage. Even though the production is often great, even that sometimes falls flat. Some samples are over used (such as the One Piece is real song) which can cause that samples to feel jarring. All that said, every song on this record is iconic and I understand why it's on here. I greatly dislike records with fluctuating quality, so I can't give it higher than a 6/10.

THE ONE PIECE IS REAL!!!

Estoy ODIADA que me gustó, le doy 3 estrellas porque es 4 pero es el y no le puedo dar mas de 3 que bronca. Hay que separar el arte del artista

I think this album is good, but it is also the absolute definition of a Light 6, and I can't believe people ever got mad at Fantano for that rating. There's a lot to like here, I actually think if you cut the last 5 songs it's basically a masterpiece, but there's also a lot of pretty bad stuff on this album that drags it down. Like honestly, who thought that 3 minutes of Chris Rock talking about reupholstered pussies was a good idea. There's really nothing that crazy about it, it falls pretty far down my Kanye ranking to be honest. Favorites: Dark Fantasy, Power, Runaway

First half promising—Kanye's uniquely wired mind works well in music. But second half derailed by excessive explicit sexual language (pussies, dicks throughout). Shift from creative to crude made it unbearable. Strong start undermined by gratuitous vulgarity.

Generational album for rap

Не могу я кайфануть от репа. Но некоторые семплы отсюда меня, конечно, подкупили.

Ok

Better than expected, but not my style.

спочатку подумала «еее.. Каньє Вест??... :( :/..» А оце послухала і .. it wasn't that bad навіть трішки сподобалася в деяких піснях мелодія!

I just had to figure out how to rate Eminem, and now they're giving me Kanye. Really putting things in perspective. But we're separating the art from the artist (or at least trying), so let's see. I've never listened to this album in full before. Slur count = 65. Man, I really liked Nicki Minaj 15 years ago. OK, the album is pretty good, but luckily I have no real attachment to it, so I can give it a middling 3. Some clever lines, some solid beats and backing music, some good features. But we know how things turned out. Lots of pop culture references here too. Highlights: 'Power', esp. the line "They say I was the abomination of Obama's nation / Well that's a pretty bad way to start the conversation", 'All of the Lights (Interlude)', 'Runaway', 'Lost in the World'

Hot take: aside from the crazy nazi stuff ive always found that kanyes music to be a lil overrated. I think this is one of his better albums but tbh it doesnt like blow me away or anything. 6.5/10

Хит за хитом. Прогрессивный реп. Hedonic adoration.

Politics aside, went into this fairly open-minded. Not the biggest Ye fan, but didn't dislike this. Took two goes through to fully appreciate some of the stuff. Nothing groundbreaking for me, but fairly listenable for Noughties hip-hop

Pretty good album! There's a good amount of variety in this album, which is my usual gripe with rap music. There were some raunchy lyrics I didn't care for, especially in "Blame Game," but for the most part, I was more interested in how the words flowed. I was pessimistic going into this album because Kanye West's a shitty person, but this was a solid listen.

Oh i miss this version of Kanye. His production was great and worked perfectly with his delivery. No where is this clearer than on ‘Power’ which matches Kanye’s flow with an infectious choral arrangement punctuated with a throbbing bassline and percussion, including some great handclapping. All of the lights brings real star power, which is no finer than the unmistakable piano of John Legend in the interlude version. I have to admit this album is not as strong as i remember it, although i have always preferred his first two albums. That is not to say there are not great tracks here such as the Devil in a New Dress and Runaway. Lost in the World makes great use of Bon Iver’s ‘Woods’ and adds to this by including the man himself, creating a layered soundscape for Kanye to deliver over.

Surprised myself with this. Actually didn't mind it, some good songs, still a few with too much pointless misogyny for the sake of it

This has some songs where I cannot stand the lyrics, but it also has some pretty good songs. Great guests and production throughout. I kind of enjoyed it.

I think I'm in a minority (of one?) when it comes to Kanye: rap is my favorite genre yet I never liked him, ever since hearing Through the Wire way back when. His rapping, flow, lyrics, all tiresome and weak with an occasional good beat. His production for other artists was always better. I feel that the people who *do* like him musically are not necessarily rap fans. Oh, and there is all that other stuff... Guess I was on the right side of history from the beginning, there was something off about him from the start.

It's fine

I've always felt conflicted about this record, I could never see the grand claims it gets as his best work etc. I find some of it just over indulgent and the maximalism just isn't for me. However, there are some undeniably excellent tunes here ('All Of The Lights', 'Lost In The World') when the focus is tighter and I think they will always stand up.

grew off me a lot. love the production but kanye is just kind of an ass rapper here.

This is a good album with a few incredible songs. Sometimes the features get to be too much - Monster and So Appalled would have done better off the record and the rest of the album would have benefitted from it. He hid those right in the middle, where this album is its dullest. The highs of this album are really, really good. The way Ye does it, the thing he's best at. It's really interesting and fun for the most part. Though a lot of the lyrics are just disrespectful and I don't really care for them. The instrumental is phenomenal and the performance is great. A few things drag this project down more than I can ignore though. 3.3/5

Sounds fine for 2010. He wasn't doing anything new and crazy for the year. 3 stars

Another album I enjoyed more than I thought i would

Trodde inte det skulle vara något för mig, men fanns flera bra låtar ändå, och några man kände igen.

Bom album, tem umas 2,3 musicas bem boas 3.25/5

Honestly it’s probably more like 3.5 for me. The album’s good, I love the instrumental and dynamic, but I don’t really listen to this type of music. I like some sort of aggressiveness here but some topics and techniques are not exactly in the spirit of what I would listen to. Probably won’t listen to the whole album again.

"Runaway" was amazing, everything else was also generally good, but I can't say I understood why he's considered genius. As a producer/songwriter — yes, definitely, this I can hear. The flow, however, was kinda boring for me. Nevertheless, this felt deeply personal and dramatic, there's a character in this album. It's not entirely about making great songs and success overall, because there is an attempt of being honest in the emotional narcissistic self-reflective tornado.

El hip hop no es para mí pero entiendo que es de lo mejor en los estándares de la época y que es importante

This album is Kanye at the peak of his showmanship. The album has lots of bravado (post Taylor Swift Grammy interruption) and song production to match. I liked the album mostly minus the "Yeezy taught me" section. Very weird.

Liked it.

Letras valem 0, algumas músicas valem 4 pela nostalgia

I only liked a few songs from the album. The album is nice but maybe not for me. I love kanye tho

I think for me this album would’ve been a lot better if Kanye was not such an egotistical maniac even at the time of recording this album, the over the top nature of this album encapsulates him as a person perfectly and not in a good way. There are some good songs on this album however it’s also undercut by how fragile he is as a person, he literally couldn’t go without referring the fish stick joke made about him South Park. Some of the features have also aged quite poorly with Minaj being one of those people. I think it has its moments but overall a pretty ok album

There's no denying that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was massively influential and had great songwriting that many other artists could not compare to, but it's also an album that became more difficult to listen to over the years (and it's not just because of Kanye). MBDTF was a masterpiece when it came out, and Kanye alongside a couple of the featured artists were seen as pillars that held the genre of hip-hop strong and tall, yet it all came crashing down. Personally, the words and actions committed by certain people who were involved in the creation of this album make me not want to listen to the music, but I won't forget what this album used to be. If I were rating it back when it came out it would definitely be a 5/5, but nowadays I simply rate it a 3/5.

Don’t listen to much Kayne but did find this album enjoyable.

Classic Kanye

Gorgeous All of the Lights Monster Runaway

Dark Fantasy Gorgeous Power All Of The Lights Monster Runaway

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would and definitely more than I wanted. I won't listen to it again but it's prob some of the rare rap I could mostly stand.

Lots of talk about bitches, pussy, women and other derogatory terms. The beat does make my head wobble a bit though

Kanye’s a piece of shit, but he is talented, but not as talented as people say.

3+ Stars (9/15)

Kanye - awful human being, good music. 6.6/10 (Bad guy deduction of 2.5 points)

人声听着好糊是为什么

Some bangers, some mediocers. You can tell by the lyrics and the rambling the spirling of Kanye is starting to ramp up. I understand why people think its his last good album. Not personally for me but does have some good features and good songs. Would be better if he stopped talking about his balls tho.

Solid but overly hyped? I dunno. His ego and actions since kinda ruin it

Hmmm

6/10… chicago hip hop / rap / *2010

I don't regret listening to this at all. As horrible of a man Kanye is, his music defined an era, and are undeniably iconic. I cant believe it took me this long to properly listen to his music. Absolutely deserves its place of the list as probably one of the most influential albums of all time (for better or for worse). However I can’t really see myself listening to much of this again

Horrible person, okay music. Moderately cool backing that gets boring in the course of tracks that go for too long. Up In The Woods sample is distasteful.

Top Songs: Dark Fantasy Power All Of The Lights Blame Game

Had some exceptional moments, but they were just too few and far between for me.

Продакшн у песен классный, каждая песня уникальна, но я не особый поклонник такого репа как у канье, поэтому 3/5

A few tunes on it. Feel that Kanye is seriously overrated. In terms of rap/hip hop I feel there are so many albums that could go in place of this one.

The beats are good, the lyrics are shit. Won't come back to that.

Great production and sampling, great features, but its a bad bad sign when the weakest part of a rap album is the main artist's rapping. This is not helped by the fact that a lot of Kanye's lyrics are laughable now that he's gone full mask-off. Even with that the album's still pretty good. Not good enough to justify a 10/10 Pitchfork review, and certainly not good enough to justify why we all collectively decided to put up with Kanye for however long, but still.

I haven't heard this album in years, I used to love it when I was a teenager. Now I just don't think its for me any more, I find Kanye's lyrics and delivery to just be really awkward and honestly bad a times, the production is nice of course, but I don't feel its as ground-breaking as people would have you believe. Also, I don't really understand the appeal behind Runaway, that piano loop is so boring, and there's just not really a whole lot going on in the song I feel to earn its length. I really like blame game and Gorgeous, I think all of the songs are definitely well crafted, but I just find the majority of them to be only fine.

Given the path Kanye has taken it’s difficult to assess this album in and of itself, but I’ll try... On the positive side, the instrumentals and ‘opulent’, ‘maximalist’ production (including the choices of samples) are excellent throughout. Some tracks in the second half are dragged out, however; the Chris Rock skit on ‘Blame Game’ is a particularly egregious example of this bloating. More problematic was that, common to lots of hip-hop, I also found many lyrics to be pretty off-putting. It’s so good musically, however, that I can’t give less than 3 stars. Won’t be listening to it again though.

This review is just on the album as presented and not his later boner for Adolf. It's decent, but very overrated IMO - quite a lot of clunky rhymes in there, the beats are a mixed bag. That said, I'll still never really get over using a Mike Oldfield deep cut as a sample.

Its a great album from a not so great guy

Big big album. Over produced as hell, sometimes to it's detrimental, others to it's benefit. Some incredible features. A good chunk of this album is really great, but for parts gets buried.

Listened to it spread over the weekend but had some good songs I had never heard before

Production on this is excellent, really influential and genre defining. Production alone does not really make for a great album however. There were definitely great songs on here, I really liked Lost in the World, Gorgeous and Power on here. The album gets into a bit of a lull around halfway and doesn't really get out of that. The lyrics were a bit hit or miss too, sometimes they're really powerful and other times they suck.

Ik ben niet zo een fan van rap. Kanye zijn stekte zit hem volgens mij dan ook niet daar maar bij het kiezen van de goeie samples en het gebruik van autotune. Also fuck kanye

Pretty unfamiliar with Kanye apart from the common knowledge that he's an insane person. The lyrics suggest he's a deeply insecure person (which is weird because I was under the impression he was just a narcissist). The majority of the music on this album was just ok, however, when a song is exceptional, it is truly exceptional. I just wish the lyrics were better. It seems like he should just be a producer. Even with the often bad lyrics he's got a great sense of sound for the vocals which is often funny as a result. 👍POWER, Runaway

whoever was on that electric guitar the whole album was insane. That was my fav part of this album. Also the Nicki feature was so nostalgic to hear. The production in this phenomenal.

Almost a 4. I really liked this album.

Lavish, maximalist production built from booming drums, dense synth layers, orchestral flourishes -this caught me at the start of the album-, soul samples, and stacked vocal performances—oscillating between confession and grandiosity—moves the music like wandering through an opulent palace -making this one of the best Hip Hop album I rated so far -where every room dazzles with excess, impressing through scale and craft even as the nonstop spectacle threatens to exhaust rather than invite reflection.

He’s an artist, sometime with hits sometimes with misses. This was a hit.

Features, production and samples are great but I can’t get over the cringey lyrics. If Kanye had any sense of humility or humour I might be able to understand but he doesn’t. If I wanted to listen to a ‘my beautiful dark twisted fantasy’ type album I’d listen to pusha t or Freddie gibbs album

I don’t want to give Kanye 4 stars

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be

I like less than half of the songs I listened to it like a year ago and I didn’t feel like listening to it again

Its not an album I'd usually listen to at all, and I feel that Kanye, as a person, is not a person I'd like to be around, so I tried to put that aside & listened without prejudice and just hear the music. Well, surprisingly I really enjoyed it. Overblown & all massively over-produced but some tracks really stood out for me. Power and All Of The Lights grabbed me right away Runaway is musically fantastic and sounds amazing. Many tracks I loved just for the music, arrangement and layers of production . Not really sure how it can be a Kanye West album when songs have so many vocalists and writers (20 songwriters credited on Power alone! but it wasn't half bad.

The influence this had is clear, as it weaves together various genres and styles of music. So much so that listening to it for the first time, 15 years later, what surely sounded fresh at the time doesn't hit the same way now.

I nearly didn't listen. I don't enjoy the arrogance. But I did listen and I enjoyed the samples and the backing tracks.

entiendo que es un buen album, la verdad que kanye no me genera nada kcy

Don't like Kanye but can admit it is a good album.

A pesar de que en mi opinión se nota mejor como el hilo de álbum acá , no sentí como el Groove o que tuviera canciones que destacaran, pero el álbum sigue siendo bueno

hits hard. fuck you. beats. all over.

I enjoyed this more than when it came out. I guess it sounds very different to the hip hop that was around at the time. Kanye is still a terrible person though

I know this is not a popular opinion but I’ve never felt this album is the masterpiece many people say it is. It’s very ambitious and does have some great tracks, but I still feel like his earlier work is stronger

Production. The sadder songs.

(68:34, 13 tracks, 2010, 5th album) Hip Hop Why redact the George Condo artwork? Not terrible, a lot of sound. I'll come back and add more later want to see the next album.

i miss when kanye was cool. i despise this mf now. produced well, and lots of crazy features on here. knew a few songs, but never sat down and listened to the whole thing. solid. some of the songs are way too long though. saved: POWER, all of the lights, monster, runaway, lost in the world, who will survive in america.

- I can imagine theses being written someday about the self-destruction of Kanye West. He's at best an idiotic, narcissistic clown, and at worst a dangerously manipulative and nasty Nazi sympathiser. I hope it's the former and he gets some help at some point. - That said, this was a broadly enjoyable, well produced hip-hop LP that has some great moments, - I did find the lyrics ranged from inane to downright awful and I don't feel the urge to listen to this over again or own it. I could stretch to a 4 but I just don't feel enthusiastic about it.

truly one of the best rappers of all time. such a shame he is... well, kanye. it was way too long and the lyrics didn't really speak to me but that's just me not being a huge hip hop fan (at least not from the US)

Would have rated it higher but Kanye is a terrible person

Listening to this for the first time in 2025 is quite an experience. Some of these lyrics are so bad but the songs still sound pretty good.

I never actually listened to any of Kanye's songs in the past so it was new to me Recognized some : Power & Runaway I enjoyed the album but recognized some lyrics about violence against women and I wasn't a fan, of course

The See Me Now song isn't available on Apple Music, so I went to YouTube. It was the best song of the album. Not at all my kind of music, but I guess if Rap is your thing, it's not bad. The profanity is off putting to me.

Kanye West is a gay fish.

This was around the time when I stopped enjoying Kanye as much as I did on College Dropout and Graduation. With some time, I can appreciate the album a bit more, but still not my favorite.

not gonna listen to this actually then i did with robbie and tbh it was pretty good

Pretty good considering I don't really enjoy hiphop in general

I dunno, It's produced amazingly and sounds great, something about his vocals just doesn't do it for me though, not even counting who he is now, but it is a good album. Well put together a lot of uniqueness while maintaining cohesion.

I'm not a big rap person but its pretty good

I just want some good beats and not too much unnecessary explicit language. I can appreciate why this album was received so well, but Kanye's conduct kind of undermines the themes he's highlighting here. Fav Tracks: Lost In The World > All of the Lights > Runaway Current Fav Album: Hot Fuss - The Killers (#4/1089)

When this came out, I remember listening and not understanding what everyone else was getting out of this. I felt like it had more bloat than Windows 8, just so wildly over the top maximalist that it annoyed me and surely all these brain rotted people were loving it because they had no attention spans left. Call me a hater. A lot of these sentiments I still feel. But trying to hear it anew through more objective ears has let me appreciate it more. I think what helps is to pretend Kanye is just a character, a fake persona, and this is his big bombastic ego-driven manifesto of debauchery and douche-baggery. It's a summer blockbuster of an album-- each song is a huge set piece featuring the A-list who's-who of the music industry and samples pulled from virtually every genre. In this way, it becomes exhausting to listen to for nearly 70 minutes. To me it's better to extract songs as singles, and nearly every song is a banger, than to try to listen to the album as a whole. I also just don't think Kanye's rapping is as good as the production and arrangements. He is also overshadowed so often by his guests-- Raekwon on "Gorgeous", Nicki Minaj on "Monster" (btw fuck her), Bon Iver on "Lost In the World". It's almost like I just hope for Kanye's sections to be done so we can get on with the song. It's also just so overplayed to sample Gil Scott-Heron (on "Who Will Survive in America", the final track and presumably concluding message) that it feels unoriginal and lazy. The shadow of the "Monster" he really has become also hangs heavy over this. I just don't believe anything coming out of him is authentic. It's his magnum opus, but Kanye also isn't a persona, and I pivot between anger and sadness over his mental health issues and his hatred and racism, etc. So my gut response to his voice is just wishing he would shut the fuck up and go away. This album is important but I still don't see it as perfect as what critics say.

first kanye album i've ever listened to... and oh no, i liked it!

debated even listening because 2025 Kanye is not ok. I did and I can hear how this influenced other artists a lot. It’s got a great flow. Ultimately it’s a bit repetitive and a lot of the lyrics suck. It’s not like he suddenly became a different person. He was always awful. Some of the most talented people are.

I want to hate this album because of who the artist has become but I can’t. It’s a good album. Great production. My knock on Kanye was always his voice. He comes across as whiny some times.

J'ai bien aimé en mode un peu Macklemore même si clairement en termes de personne humaine Macklemore est incomparablement au dessus. Et en terme de musique aussi d'ailleurs.

C'était ok, j'ai mieux aimé que ce que je pensais mais je reecouterai pas 3/5

Det förvånar mig hur mycket jag ändå gillade denna platta eftersom jag har svårt för rap och avskyr JayZ som person.det är verkligen begåvat i ett gränsland mellan rap, RnB och pop. Texter och melodier är stundtals fantastiska. Men det är ojämnt. Stark trea

I found this one hard to rate since Kanye is so problematic. I liked the first half of the album, but not the second half. There were a lot of great guest features.

Production-wise, an amazing album. Lots of interesting feats too. Lyrically, I don't get it that much. Lots of retribution-themed lyrics, not one of the feelings I'm fond of.

OVERALL THOUGHTS 3.5/5 This one occupies a really weird and cursed area of hip hop history. Ye was already a controversial figure at this point, the 'revolutionary' aspect of this album was how much he wore his flaws on his sleeves. In a sense, he used his villain status in the culture as a weapon against us, the listener. The production on MBDTF is gritty and slick at the same time, guest features are killer, and Ye puts all of himself into these performances, for better or worse. There are thematic elements in the lyrics that make for a great throughline in the album, despite them being riddled with fantasies of libido, power and misogyny. It all paints a very vivid and honest picture of a deeply broken man, who some say was a genius. It's hard to argue that this isn't a compelling portrait, perhaps a modern day Catcher In The Rye. I think there's a bit of a sentiment that what's become of Ye as of late tends to be partially blamed on us as a culture. He gave us this piece of art as a warning, a cry for help... but we accepted this as a masterpiece and excused his behavior, maybe not in sentiment but with our begrudging praise. It's not unlike slowing down traffic in order to get a better look at an accident. But I think that was Ye's smartest trick. This was his confession to a priest, his attempt at absolution. He put the blame and the guilt on us, and continued on a course that I now think he can't come back from. It was an incredible gambit, but it was always destined to have an expiry date. STRAY THOUGHTS - Oh boy here we go - Goddamnit I gotta give to this asshole, his production is really good - King Crimson sample goes hard ngl - Jay-Z's verse on Monster goes hard damn - So does Nicki's, hate that these rich assholes are talented sometimes - Choosing this moment to gently acknowledge the misogyny in hip hop - We really went through a phase of excusing men's toxic behavior if they were self aware about it huh - This outro for Runaway is a bit long no? - In hindsight Bon Iver isn't that surprising here but it was pretty crazy to see that at the time FAV SONGS: Dark Fantasy, Power, Monster, Runaway, Lost In The World LEAST FAV: All The Lights, Devil In A New Dress

I expected to completely hate it, but actually some of it’s more interesting than anticipated. Not my thing, and I won’t be re-playing, but maybe there is something in this.

Never gave a proper listen after Graduation. All Of The Lights is an all time banger. Runaway pretty good as well.

Didn't really click, but I'll come back to it.

There were a couple really fun tracks on here and one or two I recognized from the era of the album’s release. Few others that did nothing for me.

Kind of wild how Kanye made some of the absolute best and absolute worst rap music out there. This one lands solidly in the middle. It has some amazing songs, but it also has Runaway and Blame Game. Still probably his best produced album, if nothing else. The majority of the beats on this album are insane. I'd like this album way more if it wasn't totally full of Kanye-isms (i.e. the "I sent this bitch a picture of my dick" verse in Runaway or All of the Lights in its entirety). It's good, but so incredibly overrated.

This was much better than I anticipated but it is difficult for me to divorce the artist from the art. Also, as with a lot of rap, I find the lyrics "difficult"

"Runaway" is a great song.

I have to say, it does have some cool beats and some cool melodies. But coming in, it's quite hard to listen to without having in mind the artist... I do think it's good, but it's hard to enjoy fully

He's an unpleasant person to say the least, but I can't deny his talent. Power is a banger. (Nice King Crimson sample) I'll give it a pass but he's still a rather ghastly fellow.

Must... separate... art... from... artist... Ugh, fine, it was good.

The most expensive hip hop record ever! With an title such as this, anyone would think that it also might be one of the greatest rap albums of all time, and, well, a lot of people would agree with that , or at least that's a very popular opinion within the hip-hop circles. But personally, I disagree. What I liked about the project is how massive it sounds. The production and sampling in this record is insane and makes you understand why it costed so much to produce this album. The beats are as maximalist as they can get. 'Dark fantasy' has some wonderful choirs accompanied by beautiful strings and pianos that make for an enormous entry to the album. 'Power' also has an incredible use of female voices that helps the track feel very big. 'All of the lights' has some very loud drums, horns and voices. 'Devil In a New Dress' may have some of the best sampling ever done by Kanye West. The beat mixed with background singing is just wonderful. 'Runaway' is one if not the most iconic songs by him thanks to the sad melody brought by the piano. 'Blame Game' has very interesting usage of the track 'Avril 14th' by 'Aphex Twin'. To add to the overall grandiose sound, the attitude of the voices just elevate this thing even more. I honestly think that the singers are the truly highlights of the album. Kid Kudi, Rihanna and Bon Iver did some incredible jobs with the choruses in their respective songs ('Gorgeous', 'All of the Lights' and 'Lost In the World'). What I didn't like so much about are the overall project is the length and the lyrics. In terms of lengthiness, the whole project feels too long, with the songs 'Monster' and 'So Appalled' having way too many features, each one with their own moment, and thus, making the tracks longer; and 'Runaway' and 'Blame Game' having some unnecessary ending sections. When it comes to lyrics, Kanye West can be both very serious, goofy and funny or be an atrocious lyricist. On one hand, there is the more serious and funny side of him. 'Gorgeous' is the best example for both cases, as it is criticizes the injustices in the some great examples of funny lyrics I would say are the verses "And what's a black Beatle anyway, a fuckin' roach?" and "'Cause the same people that tried to blackball me forgot about two things, my black balls". On the other hand, there is the bad lyrics spectrum. First one that comes to mind is: why does 'Runaway', the most melodramatic sounding song, start by talking how Kanye send a picture of his dick to a girl? It ruins the immersion! If he said it while laughing or with a comedic purpose, I wouldn't mind, but because he said with a sad tone, I just can't take it seriously. Another example would be 'Hell of a Life' which I would dare to say that is a bad song. The beat is super tedious, the interpolation of 'Iron Man' by Black Sabbath in the chorus is horrible and the lyrics about wanting to marry a porn star and make nuns cums are just terrible. In the end, from my point of view, I think the bad parts of the album are detrimental enough to justify my score, regardless of how much I praised the beats and some of the singing.

Listens: 2 Standout Tracks: Monster, Blame Game I want try to separate the relatively talented rap/hip-hop artist and musician Kanye West from the piece of shit human being Kanye West, but that's proving pretty hard to do. Just some of the insane shit he's done over the past decade really negatively influences my perception of the music he produces. In the same way that people detest movies that Kevin Spacey has been in, because of what he's been accused of, or... Kid Rock *shudders* who I actually detect for basically the same reason I detest Kanye - their decision to align with a certain political affiliation... Kanye's decision to do that is especially bewildering. If this were 2007's Graduation I was reviewing, I had heard this album thoroughly before Kanye started to really go off the deep end, and I would have given that album a very favorable review. I mean, it might still be the case that Graduation is on the List. But anyways, lets talk about the album. High production value. Good featured artists. Long, for 13 songs. Catchy beats and hooks. Kanye can definitely raps well. I don't have much (any) experience with Nicki Minaj, but she sort of steals the show on Monster. And that fucking skit at the end of Blame Game: "Look at you motherfucking butt-ass naked with them motherfucking Jimmy Choo's on?" "Yeezy Taught Me" in a slightly sleazy, slightly bragging, submissive voice. Jesus Christ. There's also a weird amount of Trump references, a full 6 years before he became the president. This gets a 3. It's a well produced album, but its tough to separate the art from the artist.

7/10 je ne chercherais pas à le réécouter mais c’est plutôt bon Des chansons plutôt solides + Trop de parlage de dick pis de pussy on a compris un moment donné-

Heard before

it is obviously a very influential album and even without looking at kanye as the reason that its hard for me to fairly assess the album, it still has its flaws (ex: Monster, the last part of runaway, etc.) 7/10

Well, that was surprising. I had never listen to a whole Kanye album before and now I get all the praise. It is quite innovative the production (although some songs feel very 2014), but, overall it was an ok experience. I hated the tracks with Jay-Z, he and his gangsta rap...kinda ruined rap for me. It is a 2.5 album for me but rounding it for a 3. I just hate rap, the lyrics and vibes are a no for me)

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, MBDTF, the album which internet music critic Anthony Fantano/Theneedledrop infamously gave a 6 out of 10 to. Now I'm not saying I agree with him, this album has serveral good qualities and perhaps deserve a higher score. However, this is not the all time great album fans are hyping it up to be either. Kanye has at least three better albums. (I'm thinking The College Dropout, Graduation, Kids See Ghost). This album has the production Kanye is hailed for, foward thinking samples(such as the King Crimson sample on POWER), Nicki Minaj's best verse of her career, the emotional vulnerable track Runaway. The excellence needs no more explanation. In Kanye's own words, this was his backhanded apology for the controversy he stirred at the time. The lyrics are filled with classic braggadocious Kanye (e.g. the "blackball" line). They were hilarious when it was first released, but nowadays, seeing Kanye's downward spiral into neo Nazi politics, the egoistic lyrics are not fun to listen to anymore. Rather, they just make me question how serious those lyrics were, how much of them were Kanye saying things for shock value and how much were him just being a terrible person. It takes away a lot of the enjoyment. All things above considered, I'm giving this one a six out of ten.

Some people can separate the artist from the art. This is a great album but I just don't know how to enjoy it without thinking of the artist's misogyny and antisemitism. I guess this is proof that even millionaire creative geniuses can end up radicalised by the algorithm.

Classic Kanye before he went batshit crazy and lost his creativity. The crazy is starting to show up though, a lot of the lyrics are about feeling slighted and the ensuing egomania. Solid album though. Notable tracks include Dark Fantasy, Power, All of the Lights, So Appalled.

Album No. 0038 on my list. I briefly considered not listening to this album at all because Kanye is such a moron. I did it anyway because I was not familiar with his work and wanted so see how good of a musician he is. I found that “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” was actually a decent album. I’m not particularly much into hip hop, but I definitely see why this album is on the 1001 list. Not all songs appealed to me, but I liked the overall vibe of this album, and some songs were pretty nice (“Dark Fantasy”, “All of the Lights”, “Hell Of A Life”). Will not become an all-time favorite, but will certainly listen to some songs again. 3/5 stars.

I didn’t want to like this album because of the new Kanye, but unfortunately the old Kanye made a good album.

It's not one of my favorite Kanye's but it's still very good and predates his descent

I'll begin this with I don't like Kanye West at all as a person. That being said, I did my best to listen to this with an open mind. All of the Lights - 8.5/10 Monster was an 8/10 solely bc of Nicki. I hate how he constantly refers to himself as a prophet Runaway is a fantastic song no matter what 9.5/10 blame game was pretty good until the last two minutes. what the fuck 7.12/10 3/5

Actually enjoyed the arrangements if not all the rapping

Enjoy this album a lot more now than when it came out. Not my personal favorite Kanye output (I’ll always prefer the early stuff) but this album is just all over popular and commercial media. For me it’s an average album with some really bright spots.

This is a 3.5 by me, but I feel the need to round down just to balance out all the insane praise West's work gets. Yes, the production is very slick, and he knows how to put a pop song together. However, after that, the lyrics are atrocious and often laughable, and many of the hooks are embarrassing. So, in the hands of a better lyricist or with a different vocalist, I think the often great music, beats, and tracks could be something much much better than what ended up here.

Not as good as the college dropout, it's a good record but not as enjoyable. Plus Kanye is still a wanker

When Kanye was still ok

Kanye’s last really relevant work. Some serious hits on the front end, but not strong all the way through. What went wrong?

His best, and its aight. Probably the best moment in Nicki Minaj’s career

It's a shame Kanye lost himself. The guy who could turn around from the disappointment of 808s and Heartbreak and put out a record like this. Nothing will ever top his first three, but this one is full of bangers.

Good rhymes in the first several tracks but feel like Graduation is a better album.

yo how do you have runaway and monster on the same album😭

Kanye was innovative once before he lost his literal fucking mind. Taking the music outside of the artist, the Kanye loved puns in this album. His beats are crazy and the knowledge he has to just be able to sample the wide array he does was brilliant. RIP

Good. Liked it more than I expected to, but nothing jumped out at me. And some of the songs are entirely too long.

The title should be: My fucked up incel chud piece of shit life Kanye is just as corny as Eminem in like 80% of his shit. Actual oiled up freak lyrics throughout. Saved by the production. Get back on your meds man.

Kinda hated that I liked this

When I saw the name Kanye West, my first thought was ”oh noooo!” Listening to it, I like some of the melodic parts. Long sections of the album are complete nonsense though. Like many albums on this list, it’s too long and would’ve benefited from being 20-25 minutes shorter. It’s somewhere in the region of 2-3 stars. After much consideration, I’ll be generous and give it three. 3/5

Forgot how much he was leaning into being an insufferable gink at this point in time...and he just kept going, huh? But damn the album is strong end to end.

Just not my thing. Never has been, never will be

Noen kule låter, men ikke helt for meg

I 2010 var jeg altfor tøff for å høre på noe annet en metall så det her blir første gjennomlytt av denne for min del. Litt vanskelig å skille kildematerialet fra personen mtp. hvor psycho Kanye er blitt nå, men skal gjøre mitt beste. Det sagt så tenker jeg det er ganske ok album, selv om det ikke er helt min greie alt sammen. Føler egentlig at rapdelene til Kanye er det minst interessante. Mye av komposisjonene liker jeg godt, er en del interessante partier rundt omkring. Som mange andre ting i denne øvelsen så må jeg egentlig høre igjennom det mer enn en gang for å få gjort meg opp en skikkelig mening om alt, men det tror jeg nok ikke skjer med dette. Ligger meg på 3/5.

Last good ye

eh

I think that Anthony Fantano was onto something.

I have such a complicated relationship with this album. Like, I actually think it's really well done, the lyrics are kinda cringe from time to time. But it's really good. But it's Kanye.

Hate to admit it, but it still slaps. Just cringey to listen to now.

My note could easily spiral out of control into a 5,000 word essay, which speaks to the magnificence of the work of art at hand. I suppose the central questions when listening to this in 2025 are: is Kanye an artist wrestling with his inner demons and baring his soul for the world to see? Or is Kanye an artist with inner demons wrestling with the world for acceptance as he is? And how much do you really care if he’s trying to use his music to grow or to be seen? For me, all the evidence points to boastful self-mythologizing. I have no doubt that Kanye was tortured internally. I have severe doubts as to how self-aware he was about anything, other than feeling like he was coming apart at the seams and needed to blame someone else for it. This contributes to the incredible care he puts into every tiny detail of the music, and all the songs he left on the cutting room floor (I’m still salty “Christian Dior Denim Flow” didn’t make its way onto the final record); however, that makes it impossible to ignore the blockheaded obduracy of what he actually says throughout the record. “Runaway” is famously the least contrite self-reckoning in wax, but the emotional keystone of the album is “Blame Game,” which I cannot for the life of me hear as anything more than a maniacal sex addict pissed that he can’t both fuck other women and also be able to call up his girl at 2am whenever he’s ready for her: “Fuck arguing or harvesting the feelings // Yo, I'd rather be by my fucking self.” That the song ends with a fairly disturbing Chris Rock appearance doesn’t help. It’s a skit which might be funny on a Chris Rock record, but which is jarring when coming from Kanye — Kanye, who is so famously touchy and unfunny that on “Gorgeous” he needs to respond to the South Park episode, thereby fulfilling their entire point that he takes himself too seriously. This isn’t a “Big Brother” or a “Street Lights,” where West seems to have some contrition or melancholy; he’s committed himself to the hedonism, to locking away the demons and hoping their rattling around inside will keep him productive. And the demonic rattles do work, for some of the album. The prog rock influence continues to age well; no one else could have pulled off the King Crimson sample on “POWER” and the guitar-driven “Gorgeous” still stands out as one of my favorites (it doesn’t hurt that when it drags on 30 seconds too long, as do most songs on the album, he gets Raekwon to save it). “All of the Lights” is some of Kanye’s best storytelling, esp for a man so famously incapable of subject matter other than himself. “Monster” and “So Appalled” are inimitable posse cuts that somehow fit the flow and tone of the album, where most artists’ vision would be overwhelmed by having that many guest spots in a row. And I’ve always loved the euphoria of “Lost in the Woods.” But it’s hard to escape the fact that what Kanye seems to have done for the rest of his career is lock away any capacity for self-reckoning, and that this is the record which demonstrates it. The GSH coda is especially off-putting. Is “America” Kanye’s problem? How, after all of this soul-baring, does Kanye not realize he’s his own problem? The answer to that is why I can’t separate art from artist, and why it matters to me that he’s lost interest in human growth and just wants to be seen. The thing that drives him to be both a buffoon and a monster now is the same thing that drove him in making this record. The inescapable feeling I have of listening now, 15 years later, is of stumbling into the room of an egotistical Gregor Samsa. The closer we get to Kanye, the harder his carapace feels. I can’t help but be revulsed on nearly every track, from “swallowship” to “still get laid in the afterlife.” That he’s a sociopath was obvious at the time — I think it’s one of the reasons his more introspective label mates don’t get verses — but as the very same thing that drove him to sonic heights continues to drive him into insane depths, I can only find his hubris brittle and beetle-like. Of course, maybe I’m just being unfair because of how fucking brutally Kanye got market-corrected by Kendrick. Highs: Gorgeous, Power, Lost in the Woods Lows: Blame Game, Hell of a Life, Devil in a New Dress, Runaway

You can’t deny the influence of this album, and I did enjoy a lot of it. But it’s really ugly and crude too. That’s Kanye, I guess.

Don't like the person or the genre much, but this is maybe the best Rap album I have heard so far. 3 stars or C.

Kanye is mid and so is this album.

Not a Ye fan per se, but I found this album very listenable. I’ll have to get over my dislike of him and open up to more of his music.

I think I understand it, but it's not my cup of tea. I understand that it is a very influencial/already classic record from Kanye, a lot of bangers and recognizable bits. It did not impact me as much as it did others, especially at the time, but that is due to my taste. People rave about the production of this album, but I just don't get it. I feel other albums, in hip hop as well, have done such a better job at it, and I feel this gets that praise because it is Kanye, and an easy compliment to the guy, "he is a great producer". Yeah, he is, but I just don't feel it here. An easy listen, and a harder one if you delve into the lyrics and features, but it did not blow me away like it did to a lot of people.

IDK. Songs are chock full of sonic ideas and collaborators galore and a result they go on and on and on...and on. Is this prog rap? Wild maximalist arrangements. Overly long songs (not side long orchestral dirges but several approaching 7 minutes) full of twists and turns. Definitely indulgent. Call convoluted album title. And of course this includes a prominent sample from ground zero for actual prog rock...My Dark Twisted Tales from the Topographic Ocean.

I like Kanye's flow and he's obviously a Pro Tools wizard. However, he may have gone too far in a few places on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I dig "Monster" and "Hell of a Life."

well, i expected to like this album more than i did: on paper, a maximalist art pop / hip hop album (viewed with millennial nostalgia colored glasses) should be a slam dunk, but this wound up being a really mixed listening experience for me. i tend to like bombastic / rock opera stuff, but the big, sweeping movements on this album were disorienting because sometimes, i loved them, and sometimes, i was left sitting and twiddling my thumbs. i think they hit more than they miss, but i had multiple instances where i would favorite a song in the first minute or so, and then contemplate un-favoriting it at minute three or five. some high highs, some meh lows. a lot of the parts that i did like were the features, because of kanye's rapping... well, i like parts of it. for me, the hard-hitting features point to the genius production that, at times, i would say is immaculate. the production is the highlight of this listen for me, and i can absolutely hear the influences - from what it takes previously to what it gives going forward - that this album brings. highlights - POWER, monster, so appalled, lost in the world

Hate how much I was liking this! Not letting myself go above a 3 for any Kanye album because I'm not giving good scores to any self-proclaimed admirer of Hitler, but I totally see why people loved this one so much.

Runaway is awesome

070925 18:43 3

Love runaway, musically really good but some of the lyrics got lazy. "I'm gonna put your pussy in a sarcophagus". Prefer college dropout

Alkuun oli ihan jeppis, mut puolessa välissä jotain tapahtu ja loppu albumi oli semi tylsää kuunneltavaa. Alulle ois voinu antaa jopa 4/5 mutta loppu oli 2/5 elikkäs arvioisin kokonaisuuden 3/5.

Kaikin puolin toimiva platta siltä ajalta kun Kanye oli vielä edes jotenkin järjissään. Paljon hyviä featteja mukana ja löytyy levyltä muutama "megahitti". Tykkään tällä levyllä monen biisin rakenteesta miten biisi kasvaa alusta eteenpäin. Hyviä introja yms. Mutta ei kuitenkaan kipua omalla asteikolla ihan neljään tähteen. Vahva 3

I was a big fan of Kanye's first couple of records but this is when he started getting weird. Too many bars about balls. It makes me sad. Great features from Kid Cudi and Rihanna. Jay Z always sucks.

Tämä oli ihan jees albumi, tasapainottelee kolmen ja neljän tähden välillä. Muutama kova bängeri löytyy levyltä, mutta löytyy kyllä tylsempiäkin biisejä. Lopputulemana pienen pohdinnan jälkeen kolme tähteä tuntuu sopivalta arvosanalta.

Good poetry. Reprehensible human.

I like some songs, not really my type

Was this pre-madness? It's pretty cool

Mid 3/low 3? Chris Rock was the best part of this album. A lot of these songs just feel too long and south park really got Kanye

I like classic hip-hop, I don't like this. I can't says its bad but it feels like one of those modern remakes of a classic car where it does the things its meant to do much better but without any of the charm.

Täytyy varmaan yrittää erottaa taiteilija taiteestaan, ja olla välittämättä Kanyen mielipiteistä. Levyllä on huikean nerokkaita melodiakoukkuja ja tarttuvaa musiikkia muutenkin. Vastapainona kyllä sitten myös vähän tylsempiä biisejä. Ehkä vartin lyhyempänä olisi ollut neljän tähden levy, nyt vahva 3/5