Redford Stephens - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Initial Argument: MBDTF is the magnum opus of Kanye's career at it's release. It was made during his self-imposed exile to Hawaii after his bad press encounters, relationship troubles, and cancelled tours. One can imagine the amount of stress and internal thinking that man was going through. And from those dark thoughts came the magnificent brain-child of Kanye West MBDTF. Every track is a thematic and ingeniously produced masterpiece. MBDTF is truly a work of art AND it embodies the essence of hip-hop as a music genre. Hip-Hop, or at least to me, is all about unity, coming together through music. And with 11 featured producers, 46 musicians in all, and 13 features, MBDTF does not disappoint. The album has Mr. West's own takes on songs too! like Bon Iver's “Woods” (“Lost in the World”) As Far as Production goes, MBDTF is the Holy Grail of diversity and production prowess. Kanye incorporates the genres of electro (like in 808's and Heartbreaks) in tracks like “Lost in the World” and “Hell of a Life.” Choir heavy tracks (Like College Dropout) such as “Power” and “Devil in a New Dress.” Symphonic, grandiose tracks (Like Late Registration) such as “All of the Lights,” and “Runaway.” Edgy, soulful, and Baroque tracks (as in *College Dropout and Graduation" like “Gorgeous,” “So Appalled,” and “Blame Game.” AS YOU CAN SEE, MBDTF is a beautiful and seamless composition of all the components of West's previous works. The Production was handled mainly by Kanye, RZA, No I.D., and Mike Dean, but as you recall earlier there were 7 other feature producers such as Madlib, Q-Tip, and DJ Premier who all contributed KANYE IS NOT NORMALLY HAILED AS A LYRICAL MASTERMIND, but he has his moments on this album: On a bathroom wall I wrote “I'd rather argue with you than to be with someone else… I took a piss and dismissed like f** it and went out and found somebody else Arguing harvesting the feelings, I'd rather be by my f**ing self Till about 2am and I call back and I hang up and start to blame myself Somebody help - Blame Game The plan was, drink until the pain's over…but what's worse…the pain or the hangover - Dark Fantasy And several others that I will not include for the sake of space. Each song is it's own beautiful and deeply woven story. Some incredibly poignant ones are: The depressing and edgy tone of “So Appalled” which exploits the not-so-glamorous-ness of celebrity life The heart-wrenching and profane emotional struggle of a tough breakup on “Blame Game” The hard-hitting exposition of Kanye's inner struggle with infamy on “Power” And so many more COMMERCIALLY, MBDTF did as well as it deserved to. It peaked the US billboard rap, hip hop r&b, and top 200 at #1, it sold 1,351,000 copies by July, 2013 when it was certified platinum CRITICALLY, MBDTF was acclaimed by virtually all: Diverse themes in lyricism: excess and celebrity, s**, romance, self-doubt, “boldy introspective - A.V. Club Received 5/5 from Rolling Stone, The Independent, Slant magazine, 10/10 Pitchfork, “A” in Entertainment Weekly Average score of 94 out of 100 reviews (Metacritic) Won grammy for ROATY (Rap Album of the Year), BRSOTY (Best Rap Song of the Year: “Power”), BRCOTY (Best Rap Collaboration of the Year: All of the Lights) MBDTF is still being praised and bumped today. It is hailed as a cla**ic, which is incredibly rare seeing as it was released in 2010. MBDTF also has a short film Runaway, based off of the track “Runaway,” that Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker, called A carefully modulated art-film made by a man on a mission", noting the usage of dominant colors as well as the imagery in the film. Jozen Cummings of The Wall Street Journal described the video as A cross between an epic music video and a charming indie-house flick.“ stating that the greatest achievement of the video was how it "brought West's music to life” In every category, topic, media, production, thematic, aspect of criteria, MBDTF excels with flying colors Reubttal: Jalf - The Infamous Initial Argument: Though it opens with “The Start Of Your Ending”, Mobb Deep's second album The Infamous certainly began a whole lot more than that. Released in 1995, Prodigy and Havoc's cla**ic has a genius production to it and gritty realism and an*lysis to its lyrics that still makes it worthy of comparison to the cla**ics after and certainly influenced all of them. In terms of cla**ics beforehand, Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation… (working together to be bothered to read this album title) I've been drawn against must certainly seen as a leading light of 80s music- but decidedly lacks the same influence and universal appeal that the dateless Infamous holds As mentioned, The Infamous holds a gritty realism of mob life to it while also holding up a mirror to this lifestyle with interesting an*lysis. The rife anger of “The Infamous” prelude shows this, while lyrics on “Trife Life” with lyrics like “Every angle of the car was smoked out and tinted / So we couldn't tell if the enemy was in it” both giving a vivid image of gang paranoia and explaining why (too much MJ) with “smoked out and tinted”. This compelling and fearless self-an*lysis literally reaches boiling point with the conceptual track of “Temperature Rises”. The song is narrated by someone holding back information about a fugitive from the police- and its general feeling gives that kind of action to explanation paranoia- and could even be seen as a metaphor for how Hectic and Prodigy feel about honestly informing, so to speak, on their lifestyles in completely honesty and an*lysis. This is honesty and an*lysis comprises achievement that was almost unique at the time- as many rappers simply spat about their gangster lifestyles without really considering it, such as Easy E or most of Biggie Smalls discography. Public Enemy in It Takes A Million do fantastically to deliver a very strong, but perhaps vague, message of uprising and revolution- however there is little sophistication or self-an*lysis to this message that is held by The Infamous. Indeed it has inspired many to do the same since, with perhaps only Eminem achieving the same kind of introspection and complete honesty, while even more recently rappers like 50 Cent with his hard, too many attractive lifestyle and Kendrick Lamar with his incisive an*lysis fail to achieve this same compelling combination In terms of sonic concept The Infamous also has strong and compelling arc which is very arguably superior to that of It Takes A Nation. Produced solely between Havoc (making probably one of the most suitably named and successful rapper-producers in history- up there with Kanye) and the legend Q-Tip, The Infamous makes a use of acoustic and universal instruments that is way ahead of its time. This can be seen from the soft double ba** and the raw violin sample on “Right Back At You”, the piano in “The Start of Your Ending” or penetrating snare in “Temperature Rising”. This eclectic and universal use of instruments gave hip hop a appealing sound to almost every ear- and was taken up gladly in 2Pac's later albums for example, and the career of Eminem when rap turned into a worldwide sensation- essentially dominating the charts in the 10 years that followed The Infamous' release. Public Enemy's default employment of a their G-funky squeal throughout most of their tracks, while charming, pales in comparison in terms of longevity and influence. Reverb is also used to a liberal and progressive extent from the very “Infamous Prelude” of the the album as the studio's voices ghostly echo away. This echoing reverb is used throughout the album to give it that haunted, profound feeling “Up North” or at the very end of “Party Over”. Along with this (also launched in the “Infamous Prelude”) is the theme that we're literally in the studio with Prodigy and Hectic as they make the cla**ic. The frequent acapella intermissions and prelude contribute to this feeling, of the duo talking away from the mic, into the mic- so to speak. This gives a sense of honesty and realism that makes the hardcore subjects Mobb Deep rap about even impacting. It Takes A Nation on the other hand, while delivering well to start with “In Countdown To Armageddon” the opposite idea of them playing to a concert hall, arguably then forgets this theme- rushing in another canned crowd sound with “Caught, Can We Get a Witness?”, and then largely forgetting about it. The Infamous has cohesiveness and ambitiousness with its sound that escapes the dated impression one gets from listening to It Takes A Nation On its initial release The Infamous got full or a half of full stars in every review except that of the Rolling Stone- who then ate their words later on in 2005 when retrospect they gave it 5/5. Indeed even this initial success has since been overshadowed as The Infamous has come to be recognise almost universally as cla**ic in 90s hip hop and in my opinion all time as you can still see its influence particularly in the use of live production and reverb that defined Dr Dre's later aftermath particularly in the Eminem Show for example.Furthermore more than simply being a highly influential album- it is regarded by many as the cornerstone of hardcore (such as Steve Huey from AllMusic, to mention but one). The gritty realism and pure hardness shown in The Infamous has been the holy grail for rappers ever since- to be truly considered real. Though It Takes A Million is lapped up by the world New Yorker readers NME rankings- the world rap has historically and should sonically choose The Infamous over it every time, especially when comparing the albums in relation to the modern day Rebu*tal: