If you know of Ye, formally Kanye West, whatsoever, odds are you know about his 2009 record, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” The album follows Ye’s self-imposed exile as he headed to Hawaii to produce and record each song for the album. 

Before going into the review, I think it’s important to throw out that Ye needed the album to do well artistically in order for the media to not outcast him forever. With this, Ye grouped up only the best names in the music industry for this record.

Right in the very beginning of the album on “Dark Fantasy,” we see Ye’s return to excellence with his witty lyrics like “How you say broke in Spanish? Me no hablo.” Truly no performance from Ye on the album is anything less than great. 

My personal favorite tracks are “Devil In A New Dress,” “POWER” and “Lost In The World.” All three tracks include some of Ye’s best as we get each verse from him.

As for “DIAND” the mood that is set from both Ye’s verse and the production literally made me cry while relistening to the track. 

“POWER” was Ye’s first time breaking his silence ever since his situation at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Many thought he would’ve apologized in some way, but he did the complete opposite and defended himself against his critics who tried to take him down. 

As an impressive stat on the record, Ye went on to say in an interview that “POWER” took up 5,000 man-hours to complete. This kind of dedication towards music is what I personally miss nowadays, even from Ye with his newest records with both Vultures 1 and 2. 

Lastly, on “Lost In The World,” we get a verse from Ye that actually began as a poem to his now ex-wife Kim Kardashian using the lines, “You’re my devil, you’re my angel. You’re my heaven, you’re my hell,” to weirdly rope her in. As the song progresses, we get a number of pre-choruses and choruses voiced by Ye that bring the track as well as the album altogether as he sets himself free from the sins of his past.

Next up, we have the collaborating artists on the album. The feature list this time around is absolutely stacked with the likes of JAY-Z, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Rick Ross and so many more. Some key standouts on this record are Rihanna’s chorus on “All Of The Lights,” literally everyone on “Monster,” which holds Nicki Minaj’s best verse to date, Rick Ross’s beautiful addition to “Devil In A New Dress,” and finally Pusha T on the legendary track, “Runaway.” 

Rihanna brings the entire song together and matches the grand production that is heard throughout the whole track on “All Of The Lights.”

As for “Monster,” there is not a single stale moment in the seven-minute song. As stated before, Nicki raps like the rent is due and truly shows how she is a “monster” on the mic with her amazing flow and lyrics. 

Now for my favorite feature on the album, Rick Ross. After hearing the most ethereal verse from Ye, Rick Ross adds to it even more with his inclusion. In his verse, he boasts on how he has it all money-wise; however, he still finds himself lonely even if he is successful financially. His verse was so good that he even took it upon himself to release a music video for it. In all reality, I do think that the instrumental helps him a bit here, but the verse is still one of his best nonetheless.

Lastly, we have Pusha T’s inclusion on “Runaway.” This is what Pusha had to say about the making of his verse for the track as per a Clipse consigliere, “But I wrote ‘Runaway’ four times—and what he does not know to this day is that I was going through a relationship scandal in my life. So this man is asking me to write a song about a relationship and to say that I’m the biggest douchebag ever. He’s telling me, ‘Yo, you need to be more douchebag. We need more douchebag!’ I didn’t want to say to him, ‘Dog, I don’t know if I even have douchebag in me right now.’ I’ve been jammed up, and it’s hard for me to even tap into that part, because I’m remorseful.” 

With this in mind, it makes Pusha’s verse that much more impactful. With both his and Ye’s verse, we get the two removing all of the glamor from things such as money, sex, drugs and more. With this, easily one of Ye’s most powerful tracks was created. 

As no surprise, the features as a whole are near-perfect to me.

As for the production, I love each and every one of the tracks just for their production alone. Some of my favorites are “Devil In A New Dress,” “Runaway,” “Lost In The World” and “POWER.” 

As for “DIAND,” the track created the perfect sample from Smokey Robinson’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” The pitched-up vocals are looped throughout the track, creating a soft atmosphere for Ye and Rick Ross to rap over. 

“Runaway” gets its iconic loop of “look at ya’s” by being sampled by Rick James’s “Mary Jane” as well as its drum line from The Backyard Heavies and their 1971 track “Expo ‘83.” These samples paired up with a fantastic synth throughout the entire track makes the song great. 

Next, “Lost In the World” offers an incredible sample of Bon Iver’s “Woods,” which is simply the song but pitched up a couple times as well as being layered on itself. Yet again, creating an atmosphere worth listening to. On top of this, a booming drumline is added into the equation. 

Lastly, the most-streamed song on the album, “POWER.” The song offers an instrumental that’s meant to be played in stadiums. From the heavy hitting drums, to the assortment of other instruments, the song just yells out “loud.” 

While these are just my favorite instrumentals, the entire tracklist holds songs that are worth listening to simply for their production. This makes the production on the album perfect.

After all is said and done, I absolutely love this album. It was the first album from Ye I ever heard when I was first getting into the genre of hip hop. Out of all of Ye’s albums, this is my second favorite, with 2009’s “Graduation” coming out on top just barely.

“My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” gets a 9.5 out of 10.