Rap-Up.com || Review Roundup: Kanye West – ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’

After weeks of G.O.O.D. Friday giveaways and Twitter ramblings, Kanye West finally shares his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with the world. The rapper’s controversial remarks and behavior made headlines over the past year, but Mr. West lets his music do the talking on his fifth album. How did the critics respond? Unanimously.

USA Today: The audacious new My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy opens a window into an ego that is often tripping, thus exposing the insecurities and foibles that fuel West’s boundless creativity and grandiose ambitions. 4 out of 4

Entertainment Weekly: West may be obnoxious, but at least he’s interested in confronting those aspects of his identity through his music. Few stars of comparable wattage would dare do the same. A

Rolling Stone: Nobody else is making music this daring and weird, from the spooky space funk of “Gorgeous” to the King Crimson-biting “Power” to the paranoid staccato strings of “Monster.” 5 out of 5

SPIN: It’s a sinister, orchestral, hugely grandiose affair that owes as much to the artist’s self-aggrandizing ego as to the voracious id that would destroy it publicly. 9 out of 10

TIME: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, his most extravagant work, is hip-hop’s version of grand opera: a congested, constantly bustling disc stuffed with oversized drama, guest rappers, insanely eclectic samples, and backup vocals from a list of headliners that includes Alicia Keys, Elton John, and Fergie.

Chicago Tribune: What makes him so off-putting—his almost pathological allegiance to expressing his emotions, unfiltered—is also what makes him so compelling, a curious mix of bravado and vulnerability. But that same transparency makes My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a terrific album. 3.5 out of 4

Chicago Sun-Times: That he’s rapping again, after suffering such undue abuse for his “singing” on his last album, 808s and Heartbreak, is cause for celebration not just because his vocalizing isn’t always spot-on but because his mouth is on fire again, throwing out genius rhymes and typically radical claims. 4 out of 4

The Boston Globe: Love it or hate it—and that’s probably the only range of reactions it will elicit—My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy lives up to its name. More than that, though, it’s a welcome reminder that once you settle West’s scores—and they number plenty these days—he’s a visionary and not just the jerk who interrupted Taylor Swift and pouted over his recent “Today” interview with Matt Lauer.

The Washington Post: And that’s just a freckle of the petulant genius that coats every inch of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, easily the most thrilling album of 2010 and the best of West’s career. The weird, wordy title is the only thing about this opus that he’ll live to regret—the rest is pure pop bravura, with hip-hop’s biggest ego torquing self-obsession into unapologetic new shapes.

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “Dark Fantasy,” “All of the Lights,” “Monster,” “Lost in the World”

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51 Comments

ldn_boy
November 22nd, 2010 at 3:52 am
Phenomenal album! I’ve been buzzing all day. Waited so long for this and it lived up to the expectation.
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OnlyBoy
November 22nd, 2010 at 7:36 am
can’t wait to cop this after work!!!
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Roc
November 22nd, 2010 at 7:37 am
Pitchfork just gave it a 10.0/10.0!! First perfect score in 8 years!!
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M!ke
November 22nd, 2010 at 7:41 am
Kanye is getting the Best reviews im def bout to go out right now and buy this album!
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mark
November 22nd, 2010 at 7:42 am
hell yeah. if this doesnt win album of the year in 2012 i might shoot somebody. (unless the world actually ends)
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Boom
November 22nd, 2010 at 7:48 am
coming from a kanye fan.. this album was decent at best.. DEFINATELY not his best album.. these reviews are shocking
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CICIKANICKI
November 22nd, 2010 at 7:53 am
Feel so f****ng proud right now! This is amazing, MBDTF is on par with College Dropout imo. So happy for this to succeed as one of the best albums of the 21st century so far! 11-22-10, the most anticipated release date of all time. Happy for Nicki doing so well too, number 3 on iTunes US and number 12 on iTunes UK! can’t wait for the tours next year.
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flash
November 22nd, 2010 at 7:55 am
Coming from a non-kanye fan i think the album is amazing. His best yet. One of my problems with his previous albums was that they were either long and unfocused or long and filled with filler tracks. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy flows together so well and each track can stand on its own two feet. No filler.
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R.i.P.
November 22nd, 2010 at 8:18 am
Ow man
Amazing reviews!
I’m not a West’s fan, but this album is really good ;D
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sabrina
November 22nd, 2010 at 8:41 am
Amazing Reviews!!!
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missz
November 22nd, 2010 at 8:54 am
1 MILLI IN FIRST WEEK!
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K.K.
November 22nd, 2010 at 8:57 am
OMG!!! HOW ON EARTH!!!
NEVER THOUGHT KANYE’S NEW ALBUM WOULD BE THIS GREAT!
CRITICS JUST GOT IN LOVE WITH IT!
I’M GONNA GET A COPY!!!
:D
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Cassive
November 22nd, 2010 at 9:34 am
Best album of ’10, along side Recovery and Teflon Don.
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JJJUU
November 22nd, 2010 at 9:41 am
Ahahaha i’ve just bought it 10 min ago loooool
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c.webb
November 22nd, 2010 at 10:03 am
kanye is super talented.
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Zaid
November 22nd, 2010 at 10:09 am
My Favorite Tracks are same as Rap-Up’s :)
Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “Dark Fantasy,” “All of the Lights,” “Monster,” “Lost in the World”
Amazing album overall
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juan
November 22nd, 2010 at 10:19 am
where’s Nicki Minaj’s review roundup? I wanna see how many critics will admit that Pink Friday it didn’t meet expectations (from a Hip Hop head’s point of view)
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bass_man
November 22nd, 2010 at 10:53 am
My favorite tracks mirror Rap-Up’s exactly. First time lol
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isit
November 22nd, 2010 at 11:00 am
Great album. Looking forward to it
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queen beyonce
November 22nd, 2010 at 11:02 am
ONE OF MY ALBUMS OF THE YEAR!!!!! EVERY SONG IS AMAZING!!! My fave tracks dark fantasy, runaway, all of the lights, lost in the world.
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Gabe
November 22nd, 2010 at 11:13 am
Is this a joke? Its a good album but definately not his best. I guess this what happens when the industry sucks so bad that people hype up nicku minaj as a great artists smh
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NoSleept1lBKLYN
November 22nd, 2010 at 11:28 am
I Copped the album and I am definitely its one of the top of the year(next to Hunger For More!)
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d@b yeezy
November 22nd, 2010 at 11:45 am
my fave album ever
my fav song of my fav album is: THE WHOLE ALBUM FOR GOD SAKE ITS ALL ROCK
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AirIndia786
November 22nd, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Fuck all of you. Fuck the critics.
Critics don’t do shit but criticize.
They don’t know what true rap is or what rhythm, flow, or even lyricism is. Fucking retards.
I can’t believe Kanye’s album did better than Eminem’s album…
Like, seriously? EMINEM, people. He’s the greatest lyrical genius of all-fucking-time. [Some of you may say 2Pac or Biggie are better, but you have to agree that Eminem's the best current rapper, even above Jay-Z and Nas.]
Dumbass critics. Even after Eminem sobered up, they call rhymes from his ‘Recovery’ album ‘imaginative, goofy rhymes’…seriously?
Fucking assholes. And I’m not hating Kanye or his work at all. I actually really love the album…but for critics to give him 4-out-of-4′s and A’s just b/c he was using his creative ‘fantasy’ and then doing nothing but criticizing Eminem’s work [like all other Eminem's albums] is just fucking insane. But w/e, Recovery WILL BE and IS the fucking album of the year.
Fuck the critics.
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Mr. WeSt
November 22nd, 2010 at 12:38 pm
kanye’s album is being sold as a $3.99 download on amazon. if taylor swift did this, the kanye fans would be raising hell. admit it.
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Lenny
November 22nd, 2010 at 12:53 pm
@ Mr. WeSt
Taylor Swift did sell Speak Now on Amazon for $3.99 for a week or so when her album came out on October 26th. Why do you think she sold a million in a week?
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Lenny
November 22nd, 2010 at 1:19 pm
@ AirIndia786
Stop being a Eminem stan. This is the SECOND time Kanye has put out an album the same year as Eminem and Kanye got the best album. In 2004, Kanye put out The College Dropout, then months later Eminem came out with Encore. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Encore SUCKED BALLS. Kanye had a better Hip Hop album by a landslide in 2004. Even if that was around the time that Eminem started taking prescription pills, The College Dropout still got critical praise and won Grammys over Encore. So the critics still didn’t know anything back then either?
Now let’s fast forward to 2010. Eminem is off the pills, and Recovery was good but NOT great. It was inconsistent and WAY too many filler tracks. Plus the hooks on many of the songs were downright terrible. Recovery is a 7/10 AT BEST. Recovery was and still is the most overrated album of 2010. B.o.B. had a better album than Eminem. Hell, Rick Ross’ Teflon Don was a half-inch above Recovery. Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is worthy of the praise it is receiving and WAAAAYYYY more groundbreaking than Recovery. Now this makes the official 2nd time that Kanye and Eminem have released albums in the same year and Kanye has gotten the most well deserved praise. The only way Eminem is the best rapper alive is if you factor album sales into the equation, because Eminem has the most dickriding biased fans in all of music. He puts out a crap album (Encore, Relapse) and still ends up selling like crazy. But Eminem is good not great. I’m a fan of Eminem but his last REALLY great album was The Eminem Show. Far too many times he sacrifices cohesiveness and deep thought for fast rapping and multi-syllablic rhymes. Kanye wins, Eminem loses, AGAIN. Get over it.
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Noi
November 22nd, 2010 at 1:48 pm
the instrumentals are the good thing about this album they are very unique but his lyrics are shit, from time rick ross and nicki minaj are out doing kanye in lyrics…..smh
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jhuntdaprodigy
November 22nd, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Really proud to be a longtime Kanye fan right now, even people who aren’t his fan are admitting this is the album of the year. I hope Ye do 1,500,000 the first week lol! #TeamKanye
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AirIndia786
November 22nd, 2010 at 6:28 pm
@ Lenny:
Shut the fuck up faggot.
Just because I love Eminem so much doesn’t make me a Stan. I’m just a huge fan of him and I have reason to because he’s purely a lyrical genius.
Kanye’s good but he ain’t shit compared to Eminem. Put them together in a freestyle and it’s obvious Eminem would win.
But that doesn’t matter.
And Hell, I almost forgot. When Kanye said that Nicki Minaj has the potential to be the 2nd best rapper of all time, he was asked who the 1st is. What was his answer? EMINEM, bitch. Go search it up if you don’t believe me.
And what the fuck do you mean ‘second time’? My ass you faggot. First of all, the album just released. Critics, other fans who bought the CD today, and hackers who got the album beforehand are the only ones to hear it. So you can’t say it’s already above Recovery.
And wow, you’re truly a dumbass. You said it yourself. “Even if that was around the time that Eminem started taking prescription pills…etc.”
No shit, Sherlock. That’s the only reason why College Dropout won the Grammy over Encore. He was mentally fucked when doing the album so it’d obviously come out to be shit. If Kanye did an album while being on pills, he’d be worse than Waka Flocka. And Relapse is just something else. Some of Eminem’s fans are just faggots. His crazy lyrics were b/c everyone wanted the crazy Slim Shady, so that’s what Eminem put out for them. Crazy, weird ass lyrics, but catchy. But his ‘fans’ bitched out and apparently didn’t like his dark beats and horrorcore lyrics in Relapse. That’s why he had to sober up for those faggot so-called “fans” so they’d like his shit.
And 7/10? Seriously…
First of all, listen to Kanye’s entire album. If you’ll notice, his chorus’ are good too but much more terrible than the chorus’ in Recovery. And sure, B.o.B and Rick Ross’ albums were definitely better than Eminem’s…my balls. We’ll see who wins the ‘Best Rap Album’ in next year’s Grammy’s.
Plus, the ‘praise’ Kanye got was only b/c they felt bad for his ass after the whole Taylor Swift incident and his recent incident with Matt Lauer. If they gave Kanye’s album poor reviews, Kanye would’ve bitched out about it this too…
“Far too many times he sacrifices cohesiveness and deep thought for fast rapping and multi-syllablic rhymes.”
^ You’re kidding, right. Aside from Encore and Relapse, almost every fucking Eminem song is personal and deeply thought-out…and to add to that, “multi-syllablic” as well. Something’s Kanye’s ass can barely do…
I’m done. Spending too much time arguing with a blind dumbass will turn me into one.
But I’m not hating on Kanye, really.
I love his new album too, and I love his music. I’d give the album a 9.5/10…it’s just missing that 0.5 that Recovery clearly fails to miss.
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howhigh
November 22nd, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Recovery was crap seems all eminems music is depressing
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ugurekin
November 22nd, 2010 at 9:14 pm
kanye isn’t talented..he can’t do solo…
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Bob
November 22nd, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Words can’t describe the songs on the album…the album is thorough and through a sum of its parts and for this, it excels deservingly.
Phenomenal!
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Carmen
November 22nd, 2010 at 11:59 pm
That cd is filled with guest appearances. I dont kno why an eminem fan is feeling threatened by anyone though. I doubt eminem will touch em’s sales. In fact I think he’ll see a drop on this album from Graduations first week. He has been getting really good reviews but i judge for myself. Its not in my hands yet. ill be getting it soon.
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Kanye Rehearsing for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade | TattleTailzz.com
November 23rd, 2010 at 5:01 am
[...] The Roots on Thursday. Kanye’s new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasyhas been receiving rave reviews from critics across the [...]
Martha Brown
November 23rd, 2010 at 6:02 am
Seriously? Why are people bringing up Eminem. This is our time to rejoice Kanye. Are you fucking kidding me? I’m not a fan of Eminem but I will give him the credit he deserves. DON’T EVER COMPARE KANYE WEST WITH OTHER RAPPERS. Kanye is an artist. In fact, all of his albums are testaments. If you knew Kanye like I did you would understand why he does what he does. So please stfu trying to compare his carreer to simple “rappers”. There’s no other creative people out there except for Cudi. Thank you.
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Martha Brown
November 23rd, 2010 at 6:07 am
I swear I hate Ye haters. He’s an artist don’t judge dumbass!
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Martha Brown
November 23rd, 2010 at 6:10 am
Kanye’s album deserves a round of applause. If you’re not a Ye fan don’t even comment this shit. LMfao and if you think Eminem is better go back and relisten because Kanye is an artist you shouldn’t even be comparing him to simple rappers. GTFOH. : ) I love Ye!
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Sugar Rush
November 23rd, 2010 at 9:03 am
I just ordered the album, can’t wait to hear it!!
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Shady
November 23rd, 2010 at 11:43 am
@ AirIndia786 & Lenny. You acting like little kids calling names at eachother. AirIndia786 why the hell are you defending eminem on a kanye west page? I like kanye and eminem both and Im not dickriding any of them, just enjoying both of their music. Damn you all get pissed of if someone has critism on your favourite rapper.
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mantana
November 23rd, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Finally something good to listen to!!!!
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SmoothCriminal
November 23rd, 2010 at 6:39 pm
i like the album,my girl nicki is doing well too,i cap both all bums yesterday,my ipod is on fire,great Job to them both.
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Rihanna Baby
November 23rd, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Guaranteed Album of the Year! No doubt!
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*UNIQUE LADYSHIP*
November 23rd, 2010 at 11:15 pm
I like to make a toast….I said toast muthafuckahs..Kanye took his spaceship and boarded some new passengers and flew out in the universe again….Hex yes! the only time i went to sleep on the spaceship was on 808s dammit. But shit….im up again please buy the album. Kanye needs to refuel his spaceship with high,high,high octane fuel. Good work baby love you.
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NoWaaay
November 24th, 2010 at 2:55 am
wtf? he must have paid those people who reviewed his album. this album is nowhere above average. in fact i liked all his last albums even better.
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freddyphineas
November 24th, 2010 at 3:54 am
U can argue as much as yu want.
Big-Up Eminem.Big-Up Kanye.I am enjoying both albums—depending on my mood.
Excellent rhymes on recovery
Excellent production and beats on Kanye’s
As 4 rick ross’teflon don…itunes australia never released it(a big middle finger to them)
Enjoy
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king louise V
November 24th, 2010 at 6:34 am
i have had two days with the album so far and Damn son Ye has truly outdone himself from Dark fantasy to All of the lights to so appualled to blame game.yeah hate all u want but Ye will take this years best rap album hands down.
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L.A
November 24th, 2010 at 10:41 am
smh this is the album of the year by far. Im a huge Ye fan but i definitly didnt expect him to relase songs that were so abstract and different like hell of a life, blame game, and even all of the lights.
And a kanye is a rapper. but its apart of what he is. He is also a producer, singer, and fashon designer. So yall need to get your facts straight.
But even saying he is the best rapper alive doesnt serve him well.
Kanye is miles in front of eminem as a musical artist. But as far as rapping its much closer
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blissdoctor
November 30th, 2010 at 2:22 am
wow, this is a strange page, it’s for kanye, right? why why why is mr. or mrs. AIRINDIA786 going off on an artist who is not mr. west?? this is for, pro or con, the new kanye album, not 2004, not eminem, this is a true masterwork who landed his spaceship long enough to gather up a whole heaping helping of solid musical “artists”, and this shit is FIRE!! complex, creative, diverse, and bangin’ as hell!! even to regress and bring em up, he is probably the best rapper out there, that is if you never heard Rakim or KRS-one or B.I.G. or Jay-Z…I will not put YE on thta list because he is different, not just a rapper, but a musician, an artist, and other than 808′s, he kills it time and again. Em was waaaaay dope when he first came out and had Dre doing the production, but what Dre produced album is not sick, from NWA to 50, if he is behind the boards you get a banger, legendary status even…but kanye can do that himself, and does, and for other major league tip top of the food chain artists, this is one dark twisted fantasy i am very very happy to be on board for, its sick, not every track is a classic but this is head and shoulders above anything else ive heard in a long long time…thank you mr. west, but don’t let it go to your head so much this time, youre the man of the hour!!
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DJ@DJ.com
December 6th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Very nice album. If I wouldn’t have seen the reviews I would never have thought it was a 10/10 out-of-this-world defining magnum opus though.
I think it’s good though — very dark and emotional.
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Hana
December 24th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Ok. Eminem is the greatest rapper. Happy now?
But Kanye is better artist. You can hate his super big ego but as a hiphop fan, you can’t hate his music. MBDTF is masterpiece, it’s not overrated. It deserved 10/10. Go Kanye!
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