My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Thread

[MvP]

LR and CD are pretty much even to me but I always felt that LR was the more complete album listening experience.

 

[kyhadley]

Found some guy's theory on reddit that Kanye was doing a "mock Greek tragedy" with MBDTF. Pretty interesting stuff, I like the thematic analysis.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/14zytx/reddit_what_albums_can_you_listen_to_from_the/c7i2ksa

Perhaps. But I think he is a smart enough guy to do it. And if he is smart enough to do it, he's certainly smart enough to do it and then just let it be there for fans to appreciate. Let me try to make the case.
Opening track is Dark Fantasy. There's a choral emphasis (think chorus in Greek tragedy). Opening lyrics (skipping a couple lines):

The watered down one, the one you know
Was made up centuries ago
It may just sound all whack and corny
Yes, it's awful, blasted boring
Twisted fiction, sick addiction
Well, gather 'round, children, zip it, listen

From this, we get a little background. We're going to hear a story, a story that's very old. This is also a direct appeal to the stories audience: take your seat, grab some popcorn, and watch the show. Kind of analogous to muse invocation. From here we get chorus:

Can we get much higher? So high

Our story is about someone at their peak (or very near a peak to be achieved sometime during the story's telling). The rest of the song is Kanye giving us a little pseudo-autobiographical stuff, to set the stage. But there is this line:

Hey, teacher, teacher, tell me how do you respond to students
And refresh the page and restart the memory?
Respark the soul and rebuild the energy?

This hints at future transformation, a renewal as it were. Our character is at his peak (not really sure how to define that, but I suppose it is an artistic peak), but something is missing. The story is about finding that missing bit.
This is already very long and I'm bad at formatting. I'll split this up into separate posts. Tackling up through All of the Lights next.


Hokay, so next up is Gorgeous. This is my least favorite song on the album, which is to say I still listen to it an inordinate amount. This, along with Power, form the "Look at my Big, Swinging Balls" portion of the album. In the last track, it's fleshed out a little that Kanye's character (I'll call him Fantasy, since he really should be distinct from Kanye the person) is someone at their peak. These songs really hammer that home. I don't want to spend to much time on Gorgeous, since he really is spending the whole album explaining why he's the best (being the top dog in hip hop at a time when hip hop is king). One bit that really deserves attention:

But this pimp is at the top of Mount Olympus
Ready for the world's games, this is my Olympics
We make 'em say "oh" 'cause the world so pimpish
Choke a "South Park" writer with a fish dick

He's placed himself on Mount Olympus. A bit telling, no? Plus, Fantasy recognizes the fame is reaching absurdity, with the acknowledgment of South Park's (pretty amazing) parody episode. But while recognizing, he dismisses. That's the thing that needs to change in our story.
There's a slight racial subtext with this bit:

And what's black beatle anyway? A fuckin' roach

Not quite sure what to make of it. Maybe just commenting on how race may play a role in his ascent compared to other pop stars (i.e. The Beatles).
I know I said I'd get to All of the Lights, but this is long. Next Post.


Power is more "Look at my Big, Swinging Balls". Really important song, the arrogance comes across hard here. Note there's a really heavy choral emphasis again, lot's of bragging, but bragging that's backed up. He really is the best there is (I'm speaking of both Kanye and Fantasy). Not much to say, as the song's pretty straightforward, and everyone's seen the Lebron clip when the Heat won. It's a song about dominance.
Things get interesting at the end, with this bit:

This'll be a beautiful death
I'm jumpin' out the window
I'm lettin' everything go
I'm lettin' everything go

That's a pretty big thematic break. Suggests problems. Same problems that'll get hashed out later.
All of the Lights (Interlude) and All of the Lights are crucial. In the interlude, you really need to pay attention to the melody. It shows up again repeatedly throughout the rest of the album. My idea is simple: we're supposed to associate the melody with a person, the person in the album analogous to the Phoenix in the music video. It's the catalyst that leads to Fantasy's reevaluation, and I suppose descent.
All of the Lights (Proper), is essentially a love song. It's a weird love song, insomuch as it involves Fantasy recounting all the problems bubbling under the surface he presents, and the only explicit overture to another individual is a willingness to have sex with the lights on. Trust me, though. Fantasy admitting he has problems to someone else, and having sex with the lights on, is true nakedness. He is completely exposing himself to another person, and he's doing it because he cares about them in a new way. Not going to go through the lyrics here, but if you read I think it confirms what I wrote.


So here's the fun bit: what is the song that follows Fantasy's complete exposure to another human being? If you guessed "Whole Lotta Issues", you were close. Correct answer is "Monster." You know, that song all your friends drunkenly danced to a couple of years back? It's really the most disturbing track, because it's about what Phoenix (the love interest) saw of Fantasy, and Fantasy recognizing it in himself. What does he see:

Bitch I’m a monster no good blood sucker
fat motherfucker now look who’s in trouble
as you run through my jungle all you hear is rumbles

No self-esteem here. He's owning it, but not in a particularly healthy way. He becomes aggressive, something that comes across strong in the change from heavy Choral (did I mention Elton John was in the All of the Lights choral bits? The Disney Love Song Guy) to this heavy, harsh beat. There's still a sexual element, but it's not particularly intimate:

The best living or dead hands down huh?
less talk more head right now huh?

and

have you ever had sex with a pharaoh
I put the pussy in a sarcophagus

That's a pretty big attitude change. Not going to go over Nikki or Jay, but they pretty much just reiterate the theme. Everyone know Fantasy a motherfucking monster, to adopt the songs method.


Almost more fun than the All of the Lights->Monster transition is the Monster->So Appalled transition. However, I'm listening while I write, so I missed an important bit on Monster. Song ends with these lines, delivered by the always introspective Bon Iver:

I-I crossed the line-line
and I’ll-I’ll let God decide-cide
I-I wouldn’t last these shows
so I-I am headed home

This comes across as almost contrite. Fantasy sees the monster, and is trying to come to terms. What is the reaction? Dare I say, Fantasy is "So Appalled"? One of my favorite tracks, in no small part because Jay-Z's verse here is miles ahead of his verse in Monster. The most important bit here is the chorus (not really a Greek-chorus emphasis in this one, unfortunately):

Champagne wishes, thirty white bitches
I mean this shit is fucking ridiculous
Five star dishes, different exotic fishes
Man this shit is fucking ridiculous

So now we have an open acknowledgement of the absurdity that is Fantasy's life, and one that is not so dismissive as earlier (think South Park). It's a self-examination that, unlike Monster (which embraced), seeks to rectify the problems Fantasy discovers. It's not met without resistance, as we see in Jay's verse which is double-plus great and posted in full because of how important it becomes:

How should I begin this? I'm just so offended
How am I even mentioned by all these fucking beginners?
I'm so appalled, I might buy the mall
Just to show niggas how much more I have in store
I'm fresher than you all, so I don't have to pause
All of y'all can suck my balls through my drawers
Dark Knight feeling, die and be a hero
Or live long enough to see yourself become a villain
I went from the favorite to the most hated
But would you rather be underpaid or overrated?
Moral victories is for minor league coaches
And 'Ye already told you we major, you cockroaches
Show me where the boats is, Ferrari Testarossas
And Hammer went broke so you know I'm more focused
I lost 30 mil, so I spent another 30
Cause unlike Hammer, thirty million can't hurt me
Fucking insane, the fuck am I saying?
Not only am I fly, I'm fucking not playing
All these little bitches too big for they britches
Burning they little bridges, fucking ridiculous

Jay spends the whole verse bragging, and rejecting the moral objections to his (and implied Fantasy's) life. I mean, hell, he even adopts the Batman "live long enough to see yourself become the villain" mantra. Also, "Moral victories is for minor league coaches" should be the name of every album he makes for the rest of his life. But he ends recognizing the absurdity!!! This is key. He says "Fucking insane, the fuck am I saying?", before finishing on the absurdity of smaller rappers being like him. But everything before is now rendered gibberish, stuff he just says because he can, not because it has any real meaning. This is no way for Fantasy to live. It's the change that needs to happen.


These are getting long, so I skipped a lot of So Appalled, but I think needless to say much more can be written. Devil in a New Dress is the next track and it should really be listened to in the context of All of the Lights. Song opens with hook:

Put your hands to the constellations
The way you look should be a sin, you my sensation
I know I’m preaching to the congregation
We love Jesus but you done learned a lot from Satan
I mean a nigga did a lot of waiting
We ain't married but tonight I need some consummation

So sex under the stars, one of many potential lights. The song is incredibly intimate, whatever the vulgarity that I know detracts from the experience for some. This is difficult to interpret though. I initially thought it was reconciliation with Phoenix, which it could be. But I almost suspect it's Fantasy doing what hurt and confused people do: returning to someone familiar, who he's been with before. Like I said, not sure, but it helps explain the next couple tracks where he is more actively seeking reconciliation. And lines such as:

You see I always loved that sense of humor
But tonight you should have seen how quiet the room was

which implies he is familiar with this person (whereas the melody in interlude made me suspect Phoenix was someone new). Of course, this muddies everything. I'm not sure if stuff like:

Text message break ups, the casualty of tour
How she gon' wake up and not love me no more?
I thought I was the asshole, I guess it’s rubbing off

refers to Phoenix or our new character, although I suspect the later. In either event, it's a reconciliation. Fantasy is reaching out to someone, to deal with something he's discovered. My money is on someone in his past, but it could be Phoenix. Another alternative, the whole song is reminiscing about a past relationship, that marked a time where Fantasy was more stable. This is definitely the most difficult song to work through. Probably should be left to someone smarter than I.


Runaway, is the best song on the album, hands down. It's also the best segment in the half-hour video. Kanye West makes rap and ballet work. I don't know how, but he can. See here:

This is the song I drive to at night. It's perfect. It's also the closest Fantasy gets to an apology thus far. See:

And I always find, yeah, I always find somethin' wrong
You been puttin' up wit' my shit just way too long
I'm so gifted at findin' what I don't like the most
So I think it's time for us to have a toast
Let's have a toast for the douchebags,
Let's have a toast for the assholes,
Let's have a toast for the scumbags,
Every one of them that I know
Let's have a toast to the jerkoffs
That'll never take work off
Baby, I got a plan
Run away fast as you can

He knows he's terrible now. He is the problem, and no one else. The toast he offers, it's to himself. He is every one of the things that's wrong, and he can't escape it anymore.
So he does what monsters do. He hurts people. He can't control it. All he can do is tell them to get away from him. He has no one to love because he chases them away, and he chases them away because he knows he will always be the worst thing in their life.
This summarizes:

Never was much of a romantic,
I could never take the intimacy.
And I know I did damage,
'cause the look in your eyes is killing me,

I can't write anything more about this song that'll help you understand. Just listen to it. The most important part is after the lyrics. That's what it sounds like to hurt people over and over again against your will, without understanding why you do it or how to stop. It's a special pain.


Hell of a Life is a glimpse into old Fantasy. Ball-Swinging fantasy. It's almost a relapse. Throwing himself at the world, watching as the world around him throws back. Not much here for me personally, but could be read as a memory or a relapse. This bit is fun though:

La Renta, they wouldn’t rent her they couldn’t take the shame
Snatched the dress off her back and told her, “Get away”
How could you say they live they life wrong?
When you never fuck with the lights on

This line is what lead me to read so much into All of the Lights. In the logic of the album, fucking with the lights on is an act of intimacy, a literal and complete exposure of the self to all externalities. When he berates someone for not doing so, he's really berating them for being fake. So we should look at All of the Lights with new meaning.
I lean towards a relapse personally, because from here, we go to Blame Game.


Running out of steam, but Blame Game is the real apology. It's an apology with caveats, and internal struggle, but it's definitely an apology. Take this:

On a bathroom wall I wrote
I'd rather argue with you than to be with someone else
I took a piss and dismiss it, like fuck it
And I went and found somebody else
Fuck arguing or harvesting the feelings
Yo, I'd rather be by my fucking self
'TIl about two am and I call back and I hang up
And I start to blame myself, somebody help

Fantasy found someone in Phoenix, and they fell out. He realizes he was the problem (in part). He's trying to explain what happened, and in so doing ask forgiveness. The most interesting bit is the internal dialogue Fantasy has, which Kanye simulates with a voice modulator between two sides of his personality:

And you ain't fixin' to see a mogul get emotional
Every time I hear about other nigga's stroking you
Lie and say I hit you, he sitting there consoling you
Running my name through the mud, who's provoking you?
You should be grateful a nigga like me ever noticed you
Now you noticeable and can't nobody get control of you
1 a.m. and can't nobody get a hold of you
I'm calling your brother's phone, like what was I supposed to do?

There's some real anger, and struggle here. It's not clear if the anger is justified, although I guess some of it is. But what is certainly clear, is that whatever was there is gone. As Fantasy says:

Disguising ourselves as secret lovers
We've become public enemies
We walk away like strangers in the street
Gone for eternity, we erased one another

Chris Rock's bit at the end serves only to emphasize that this is a story of love lost.


Lost in the World/Who Will Survive in America is our postscript. The world goes on. Fantasy's around, but humbled. He saw who he is, he saw what he could have had with Phoenix, and he's irrevocably lost it. That's the tragedy. He lives with that now, and he can't go back. Lost in the World lets us know this, but that the story continues even as the album ends. He still lives and learns and hopefully gets better. Not gonna reference this one, just listen to the song.
After reading, Greek tragedy explicitly is probably a stretch. But a clear tragic arc is there, and there is definitely an interesting interplay between choral and pure instrumental, of exposition and introspection. It helps that Lost in the World is completely choral, and that Who will Survive in America abandons Fantasy's voice completely for our narrator, who tells us the world is as it always was. And it's a damn good ending.
That's it, probably more to add when I ever get the time. Give it a listen. At the very least, watch the music video. There's a guy walking around wearing a giant paper-mache Michael Jackson head.

 

[KNUBB]

I wrote an analytical paper on the full 30 minute music video for an English class. Got an A.

 

[Pitty]

Come on now guys, no on knows who Kanye West is.