With Kayne West scheduled to drop Donda 2 on February 22, 2022, it’s time to look back on arguably West’s greatest album to date, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

                      Track one, Dark Fantasy, starts out with Nicki Minaj giving an intro to the song which is an excerpt from Roald Dahl’s poem Cinderella. This track is composed of a beautiful hook sung by Teyana Taylor and Justin Vernon and Kayne putting together a fantastic performance himself. This is one of the best intros on any album ever and the energy of the song really sets the album off on the right foot. Track two, Gorgeous (feat. Kid Cudi & Raekwon), is fantastic with a classic Kid Cudi hook and a riveting guitar throughout. Kayne’s vocal effects also add an extra cool effect to the track, not to mention his performance on the track is really good. Track three, Power, was the biggest hit off the album being one of many previously released singles. This track is uplifting, iconic, and unforgettable, definitely one of Kayne’s best tracks and one of the best on the album. Track four, All of the Nights (Interlude), is a simple interlude with a beautiful violin and piano that transitions into track five All of the Lights. This track features almost fifteen artists whether it be for producing or actual vocals on the track, Rihanna and Kid Cudi have the most prominent features on the track itself. This track is loud and upbeat, the instrumentation on this song really makes it what it is and it’s another iconic track. Track six, Monster (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Pusha T), is definitely very solid with some great verses by each artist on the track. However, the person that stands out the most on this track is Nicki Minaj who put together arguably the best verse of her career. It was so good that Kayne himself debated putting the verse on the album due to the fact he felt it may be the best of the album and overshadow the rest of it, luckily it didn’t but rather only added to its greatness.  

            Track Seven, So Appalled (feat. Jay-Z, Pusha T, Prynce Cy Hi, Swizz Beats & RZA), has the darkest sounding instrumentation on the album. The lyricism fits perfectly and each artist did really well with each verse, especially Jay-Z and Pusha T. Track eight, Devil In a New Dress (feat. Rick Ross), is easily one of my favorite tracks on the album with an awesome instrumental and one of Kayne’s best performances on the album. Mike Dean also did a remarkable job with the guitars which fill up the midway point of this track, almost serving as an interlude in the middle of the song. Moreover, Rick Ross arguably put together the best verse of his career, this verse originally was different in the creation process of the song, but Kayne told Ross to redo it as it wasn’t good enough in his eyes. This turned out to be a great decision as Ross’s verse really makes this track what it is. Track nine, Runaway (feat. Pusha T), is my favorite track on the album and one of my favorite songs of all time. The song starts with a single piano note being played multiple times before another is introduced, eventually the other pieces of the instrumental come in bringing everything together. The hook on this song is golden, and each line is utterly perfect for the song. Pusha T’s verse on the song is also amazing. Another interesting tidbit is that for this track, Pusha T was told by Kayne to rap in a more mean and scumbag manner. The outro to this track is also supposed to describe Kayne’s problems with the media and them not listening to his side of things, represented through almost inaudible autotune that is actually the lyrics of the song. This track is genius and once again, I would say it is definitely my favorite on the album. Track 10 is Hell of a Life, which is a grunge and angry-sounding track instrumentally. Kayne’s lyrics on this track are fantastic like usual, but on this track, he really does his thing since it is only him on the song. The outro to this song is magnificent as well as it’s very atmospheric and really closes the track well. Track 11, Blame Game (feat. John Legend), is a really good track that I feel is overlooked by listeners. The way Kayne at some points in this track alters his vocals at what seems like the perfect time really shows how hard Kayne worked on this album and perfecting each part. Track 12, Lost In The World (feat. Bon Iver), is another fantastic track in which the vocal edits really stand out. The hook on this song might be the best one on the album, debatable and a little bit of Kayne’s. The 13th and final track on the album, Who Will Survive In America, is a sample of the poem “Comment no.1”. The only real musical piece of the track is the instrumental which is basically drums only, this closes an absolutely fantastic album on a pretty cool note.                

“My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is a fantastic album that helped save Kayne West’s career after the Taylor Swift controversy at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. This album for me is a 9/10 and Kayne’s best piece of work in my opinion. I highly recommend listening to this album if you haven’t already.