“Fantasy” becomes reality

Neil ThomasOnline EditorMy Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is everything the title suggests — a testament to the vast wanderings of Kanye West’s creative subconscious. With Fantasy, Kanye pushes the limits of conventional hip-hop, drawing inspiration from blues, gospel, pop and electronic music.Despite the polarized reviews of 808s and Heartbreak, Kanye has made no concessions. Perhaps we can attribute this to his massive ego, or to a commitment to his own creative direction. In any case, he continues blazing his own path in the world of hip-hop, unabashed and unafraid.Fantasy continues many of the trends that Kanye was critiqued for on “Heartbreak,” including his foray into Kid Cudi-esque singing, autotune, and electronic influences. However, since “Heartbreak” West has given focus to his creativity, and what flopped on “Heartbreak” works well on Fantasy. Kanye’s singing is filtered to an aggressive rasp, and the autotune perfectly toes the line between tasteful and overdone.Kanye also conscripted indie folk artist Bon Iver to lay down some vocal samples. Ordinarily, a mix of these two drastically different artists would be unthinkable, but Kanye makes it work. On “Lost in the World” Kanye combines his traditional hip-hop style with a tribal influenced beat to present a sound we’ve never heard before. On the same track, Kanye layers a reading of Gil-Scott Heron’s poem, “Comment 1,” which closes the album with the haunting phrase, “Who will survive in America?”Although Kanye has started to cut back on the amount of rapping that he engages in, he still delivers the lyrical ingenuity we saw on “College Dropout” with choice lines such as “I’m just a Chi-town n***a with a Nas flow / and my b***h in that new Phoebe Philo / so much head I woke up in Sleepy Hollow” off of “Dark Fantasy.”Fantasy is also a testament to teamwork, as Kanye assembles the equivalent of the Justice League of music on “All of the Lights.” The track features John Legend, Alicia Keys, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Elton John and Rihanna’s powerful voice backed some triumphant horns. Jay-Z makes multiple appearances on the album, offering his lyrical expertise on “So Appalled” and “Monster,”   where he is joined by Nicki Minaj for an aggressive set of verses backed by staccato strings and a strong kick.With tracks like “Monster,” Kanye proves his ability to create a wide range of beats, from solemn and reflective to club-worthy. Fantasy cements Kanye’s place as the foremost innovator in hip-hop production. He is unforgiving with the MPC — able to innovate more in four bars than some artists can in a whole album — and a master of sampling. On Fantasy, he holds nothing back.Kanye has become the outlier of the music industry. In “Runaway,” the 30-minute music video epic created to complement the album, it starts and ends with a clip of him running — running away from his past woes and notoriety, and running towards a new era of hip-hop production. At this point, though, Kanye is only racing himself.nthomas@thesamohi.com