My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the fifth studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on November 22, 2010, by Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. It follows a period of public and legal controversy for West, who retreated to a self-imposed exile in Hawaii in 2009 and recorded at Honolulu's Avex Recording Studio in a communal environment involving numerous contributing musicians and producers. Additional recording sessions took place at Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, California, and at Electric Lady Studios and Platinum Sound Recording Studios in New York City.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Original artwork. The central image is pixelated on censored versions of the cover.[1]
Studio album by Kanye West
Released	November 22, 2010
Recorded	2009–2010
Studio	Avex (Honolulu) Electric Lady Platinum Sound (New York) Glenwood Place (Burbank)
Genre	Hip hop prog-rap pop art pop rap opera
Length	68:36
Label	Def Jam Roc-A-Fella
Producer	Bink DJ Frank E Kanye West Mike Dean No I.D. RZA S1
Kanye West chronology
VH1 Storytellers (2010) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) Watch the Throne (2011)
Alternate cover
Physical release sold in retail stores
Singles from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
"Power" Released: July 1, 2010 "Runaway" Released: October 4, 2010 "Monster" Released: October 23, 2010 "All of the Lights" Released: January 18, 2011

The album was produced primarily by West, along with a variety of high-profile producers such as Mike Dean, No I.D., Jeff Bhasker, RZA, S1, Bink, and DJ Frank E. Music journalists have noted the album features a maximalist aesthetic and opulent production quality with elements of West's previous works, including soul, baroque, electro, and symphonic styles, as well as progressive rock influences. Thematically, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy explores West's status as a celebrity, consumer culture, race, and the idealism of the American Dream. Guest vocalists on the album include Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Bon Iver, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Elton John and Raekwon.

To help market the album, West released free songs through his weekly GOOD Fridays series and four singles – "Power", "Runaway", "Monster", and "All of the Lights" – all of which were top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. West also released a musical short film, Runaway (2010), set to music from the album. In its first week of release, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and sold 496,000 copies, eventually reaching three million for a triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was an immediate and widespread critical success, and was named the best album of 2010 in many publications' year-end lists, including the annual Pazz & Jop poll of American critics nationwide. The album also won Best Rap Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards but was not nominated for Album of the Year, which was viewed as a "snub" by several media outlets. The album's hit single "All of the Lights" won Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Widely considered West's best album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has ranked in several professionally curated lists as the best album of the 2010s and among the greatest of all time according to NME and Rolling Stone. George Condo's accompanying artwork – illustrating West straddled by an armless winged female (a phoenix) – has been ranked among the greatest album covers.

Background

The album was conceived during West's self-imposed exile in Oahu, Hawaii, at Avex Honolulu Studio following a period of legal and public image controversy.[2] He said later that fatigue from overworking led to his controversial outburst after Taylor Swift was awarded Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. He was disgusted with the ensuing media response, which led to a hiatus from recording.[2] Amid the widespread negative response to his behavior,[3] his scheduled tour with recording artist Lady Gaga to promote his previous album, 808s & Heartbreak, was cancelled on October 1, 2009, without explanation.[4]

Recording and production

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was recorded in sessions at Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii. Additional recording took place at Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, California, and at Electric Lady Studios and Platinum Sound Recording Studios in New York City.[5] It was reported that West spent over $3 million provided by his record label Def Jam to record the album,[6] making it one of the most expensive albums ever made.[7][8] He later explained the initial recording process to Noah Callahan-Bever, Complex editor-in-chief and West's then-confidant, who said "he'd holed up in Hawaii and was importing his favorite producers and artists to work on and inspire his recording. Rap Camp!"[2] Artists who were reported to have participated in the sessions for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy included: Raekwon, RZA, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Charlie Wilson, Big Sean, Cyhi the Prynce, Swizz Beatz,[9] Dwele, Nicki Minaj,[10] T.I.,[11][12] Drake, Common, Jay-Z,[13] John Legend, Fergie, Rihanna, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Elton John,[14] M.I.A.,[15] Justin Vernon, Seal, Beyoncé,[16] Kid Cudi, Mos Def, Santigold, Alicia Keys and Elly Jackson.[17] Record producers who participated in the sessions with West included: Q-Tip, RZA, DJ Premier,[18] Madlib,[19] Statik Selektah,[20] and Pete Rock.[21][22] Madlib said he made five beats for the album,[19] while DJ Premier said his beats were ultimately discarded.[22]

Control room (top) and tracking room (bottom) of Avex in Honolulu, where the album was recorded

West, who had previously recorded 808s & Heartbreak at Avex, block-booked the studio's three session rooms simultaneously for 24 hours a day to work on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.[2] According to Callahan-Bever, who visited West during the recording sessions, "when he hits a creative wall ... he heads to another studio room to make progress on another song".[2] West never slept a full night at the "glass-enclosed mansion" he had rented, opting instead to take power naps in a studio chair or couch 90 minutes at a time. Engineers worked around the clock, as West bounced from room to room. This assiduous work ethic led to him employing two private chefs, one for hot and one for cold food.[23] Before recording in the afternoon, West and most of his crew played games of 21 against locals at the Honolulu YMCA for leisure.[2] Kid Cudi smoked marijuana in preparation and worked out on a treadmill, while RZA worked out in the weight room.[2][24] West held breakfast each morning at his Diamond Head residence for his crew.[2]

Throughout the album's development, West solicited other producers and musicians to weigh in on its music with conversations and contributions at the studio.[2] Observing discussions among them during his visit, Callahan-Bever noted: "Despite the heavyweights assembled, the egos rarely clash; talks are sprawling, enlightening, and productive ... we are here to contribute, challenge, and inspire".[2] In an interview with Callahan-Bever, Q-Tip described the process as "music by committee" and elaborated on its significance to the sessions and West's work ethic:

He'll go, 'Check this out, tell me what you think.' Which speaks volumes about who he is and how he sees and views people. Every person has a voice and an idea, so he's sincerely looking to hear what you have to say—good, bad, or whatever ... When he has his beats or his rhymes, he offers them to the committee and we're all invited to dissect, strip, or add on to what he's already started. By the end of the sessions, you see how he integrates and transforms everyone's contributions, so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. He's a real wizard at it. What he does is alchemy, really.[2]

Pete Rock said of his studio experience with West, "He's definitely hip-hop, his roots, I was testing him on joints ... He takes it to another level which is dope. He had these musicians and this song, they played around my little raggedy beat and made it real. I love the way he works – he goes from one room, writing rhymes then goes to another beat and goes to another room and does something else – I love what he's done".[25] Rapper Pusha T characterized the album as "a collage of sounds" and found West's recording methods unorthodox, saying that: "We could easily be working on one song, thinking we're in a mode, and he'll hear a sound from someone like [producer] Jeff Bhasker and immediately turn his whole attention to that sound and go through his mental Rolodex to where that sound belongs on his album, and then it goes straight to that song, immediately".[2] DJ Premier said of the production in comparison to West's previous work, "Well, first of all, if you look at all of Kanye West's output, he actually did a lot to bring back sampling and make it cool again, even though he's more of a mainstream artist ... but his new album is strictly hard beats and rhyme. He's totally done with electro. You're gonna be surprised what you hear".[26]

To prevent any of the material leaking onto the Internet, West made the album's recording as secretive as he could; he instituted a "No tweeting, no talking, no e-mailing" rule for others at the sessions.[2] Pusha T recalled West's attitude in an interview for Rolling Stone, saying that "then there happened to be a leak, and I remember Kanye ranting and raving, like, 'Fuck this! We're not going to ever work there again! We're going to work in hotel rooms!'"[27] West subsequently recorded in hotel rooms for Watch the Throne, his 2011 album with Jay-Z.[28]

Musical style

The music is described as maximalist by Jon Caramanica, who also notes East Coast hip hop elements,[29] and Rob Sheffield, who observes "hip-hop epics, R&B ballads, alien electronics, prog-rock samples".[30] Various writers also observe elements from West's previous four albums.[31][32][33] Entertainment Weekly's Simon Vozick-Levinson believes these elements "recur at various points", and include "the luxurious soul of 2004's The College Dropout, the symphonic pomp of Late Registration, the gloss of 2007's Graduation, and the emotionally exhausted electro of 2008's 808s & Heartbreak".[32] Sean Fennessey of The Village Voice writes that West had learned "the gifts of his handpicked collaborators" from previous studio albums and utilizes them here, sometimes to a heightened degree, "arranging orchestral majesty" (cf. Jon Brion on Late Registration) and "adapt[ing] DJ Toomp's oozing menace" (from Graduation) while "Cudi's moaning melodies became elemental" (cf. 808s & Heartbreak).[34]

The album is viewed as a culmination of West's past albums. Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork says, "Musically, [the album] largely continues where 2007's Graduation left off in its maximalist hip-hop bent, with flashes of The College Dropout's comfort-food sampling and Late Registration's baroque instrumentation weaved in seamlessly".[33] Andy Kellman echoes this sentiment, but adds that "it does not merely draw characteristics from each one of them. The 13 tracks ... sometimes fuse them together simultaneously. Consequently, the sonic and emotional layers are often difficult to pry apart and enumerate".[31] Kellman feels "All of the Lights" denotes the album's "contrasting elements and maniacal extravagance".[31] Conversely, Robert Christgau comments that the music abandons the "grace" of The College Dropout and Late Registration in favor of "grandiosity" and "sonic luxuries".[35]

The album is also described by music journalists as a work of prog-rap music, with Carl Williott of Idolator musing if it was "the world's first".[36] HotNewHipHop writer Samuel Allan regarded it as "a massive, paradigm-exploding piece of pop maximalism and prog-rap",[37] and Rolling Stone's Christopher R. Weingarten called it "a Pink Floyd–sized, King Crimson–sampling 68-minute prog-rap behemoth in the age of shrinking budgets".[38] Eric Sundermann of Noisey also referenced the album as prog rap,[39] and fellow contributor Phil Witmer regarded the album as "an unprecedented retreat by a hip-hop artist into the weird world" of 1970s progressive rock.[40] Al Horner from NME called it a rap opera.[41]

Lyrics and themes

[West is] the pop star for our morally implicated times; an instinctive consumer with a mouthful of diamonds and furtive bad conscience, a performer who lives the American Dream to its fullest with a creeping sense of the spiritual void at its heart. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy captures that essence in full. It's an utterly dazzling portrait of a 21st-century schizoid man that is by turns sickeningly egocentric, contrite, wise, stupid and self-mocking.

—Alex Denney (NME, 2010)[42]

Throughout the album, West's lyrics explore themes of excess, celebrity,[33][43][44] decadence, grandiosity, escapism, sex, wealth, romance, self-aggrandizement, and self-doubt.[33][35][45][46][47][48] Andrew Martin of Prefix Magazine notes the album's ethos as "more is more", describing it as "a meditation on fame" where West decries the burden that it entails.[43] My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy also features more open references to drinking and drug use than on West's previous albums.[34] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club describes it as "darkly funny, boldly introspective, and characteristically fame-obsessed", noting "manic highs and depressive lows emotionally" on the album.[49] Christgau finds the album's themes of insecurity and uncertainty to be West's "heart, his message, the reason he's so major", noting the tracks "Hell of a Life" and "Runaway" as examples.[35] Greg Kot, writing in the Chicago Tribune, said West displays a transparency and "almost pathological allegiance to expressing his emotions, unfiltered".[50]

In the opinion of Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is "a hedonistic exploration into a rich and famous American id".[33] Chris Martins of Spin says it is an alternately grandiose and eloquent production that "owed as much to the artist's self-aggrandizing ego as to the voracious id that would destroy it publicly".[48] Music writer Ann Powers interprets the predominant theme on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to be "the crisis of the jet-lagged cosmopolitan ... the exhausted cry of one who's always new in town, chasing whatever goal or girl is in the room, fueled by consumer culture's relentless buzz, but finally left unsatisfied".[45] Powers views the songs work "as pornographic boasts, romantic disaster stories, devil-haunted dark nights of the soul" and perceives West's "uncertainty about his own place in the world" to be connected to the subject of race, stating: "The rootlessness West celebrates and despairs of on Fantasy belongs to someone who feels unwelcome everywhere. This isn't just a personal problem. It's the curse of what the author Michael Eric Dyson has called 'the exceptional black man', embraced for his talents but singled out for the color of his skin".[45] According to Sheffield, "it's also a rock-star manifesto for a downsizing world."[30]

Songs

The album begins with "Dark Fantasy", opened by Nicki Minaj narrating in an English accent a retelling of Roald Dahl's poem Cinderella.[45] The song introduces themes of decadence and hedonism,[50] with West musing how "the plan was to drink until the pain was over / But what's worse, the pain or the hangover?".[42] The track's lyrics contain musical and popular culture references, including: the song "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)", the Lamborghini Murciélago sports car, rapper Nas, fashion designer Phoebe Philo, the short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", the song "Sex on Fire", singer Leona Lewis, and television character Steve Urkel.[51] "All of the Lights" incorporates drum 'n' bass breaks and brass fanfare.[42][52] West's lyrics contain a reference to the death of Michael Jackson in the opening lines and present the narrative of a character who abuses his lover, does prison time, scuffles with her new boyfriend, and subsequently mourns his absence from his child's life.[52] West enlisted 11 guest vocalists, including Alicia Keys, John Legend, Elton John, Tony Williams, Elly Jackson for the song; Rihanna sings the song's hook.[53] In an interview with MTV, Jackson said of the song's vocal layering, "He got me to layer up all these vocals with other people, and he just basically wanted to use his favorite vocalists from around the world to create this really unique vocal texture on his record, but it's not the kind of thing where you can pick it out".[54]

"Devil in a New Dress" is built on a sample of Smokey Robinson's "Will You Love Me Tomorrow".[47] Its lyrics are about lust and heartache,[47] with sexual and religious imagery described by one critic as "part bedroom allure, part angelic prayer".[55] It is the only track without production by West[5] but features his characteristic style of manipulating the pitch and tempo of classic soul samples.[47][56] "Runaway" features a piano-based motif comprising a series of sustained descending half and whole notes,[57] with a coda that incorporates light strings and vocoder-singing by West.[47] The narrator's self-critical lyrics reflect on his personality and character flaws.[58][59] Sean Fennessey cites the song as the point in the album where "self-laceration overtakes chest-beating", noting West's sung-line: "I'm so gifted at finding what I don't like the most".[34] Inspired by his two-year relationship with model Amber Rose, "Hell of a Life" contains a psychedelic rock sample and a narrative about marrying a porn star.[33][34] According to critic Ryan Dombal, the song "attempts to bend its central credo—'no more drugs for me, pussy and religion is all I need'—into a noble pursuit ... The song blurs the line between fantasy and reality, sex and romance, love and religion, until no lines exist at all. It's a zonked nirvana with demons underneath; a fragile state that can't help but break apart on the very next song".[33] "Blame Game" is a low-key track about a painful domestic dispute.[60] It features a sample of the piano composition "Avril 14th" by Richard D. James,[61] additional vocals by John Legend,[5] and a profane skit by comedian Chris Rock.[62]

"Lost in the World" features tribal drums and samples Bon Iver's "Woods",[63] a song originally written about alienation, applied by West "as the centerpiece of a catchy, communal reverie."[47] It features several musical changes, beginning with Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon's faint vocals, followed by 4/4 drums, gospel-styled chorus,[64] and increased tempo, and a final measured tempo.[65] "Lost in the World" transitions into the closing track "Who Will Survive in America".[46] It serves as the album's coda and is built on a sample of Gil Scott-Heron's "Comment No. 1",[42] a blunt, surrealist piece delivered by Scott-Heron in spoken word about the African-American experience and the fated idealism of the American dream.[45][48][57] Scott-Heron's original speech, which criticized the 1960s Revolutionary Youth Movement for failing to recognize the more basic needs of the African-American community, is edited to a reduced version on the track that, according to music writer Greg Kot, "retains its essence, that of an African-American male who feels cut off from his country and culture".[50] By contrast, Sean Fennessey interprets it as "a too-serious denouement for an album that is more about the self's little nightmares than some aching societal rejection".[34]

Title and packaging

Visual artist George Condo, who designed the album's artwork

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was formerly known as Good Ass Job and then tentatively titled Dark Twisted Fantasy.[66][67][68] GOOD Music artist Big Sean was the second person to announce the album's title was Good Ass Job.[69] On July 24, 2010, a banner appeared on West's blog that read "My Dark Twisted Fantasy Trailer". On July 28, 2010, West announced on his new official Twitter account that: "The album is no longer called 'Good Ass Job' I'm bouncing a couple of titles around now."[70] The official title, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was announced on October 5, 2010;[71] the title Good Ass Job will be used for West's upcoming collaborative album with Chance the Rapper.[72]

The artwork, designed by George Condo, shows West being straddled on a bed by an armless winged female (a phoenix)[73] with fearsome features and a long, spotted tail. Both are nude, and one of the phoenix's nipples and her buttocks are visible.[74] The artwork was done at the painter's New York studio, after West visited for several hours and they listened to tapes of the rapper's music. Over the next few days, Condo made eight or nine paintings for the album. Two of them were portraits of West, one in extreme closeup, with mismatched eyes and four sets of teeth. Another showed his head, crowned and decapitated, placed sideways on a white slab, impaled by a sword. There was also a painting of a dyspeptic ballerina in a black tutu, a painting of the crown and the sword by themselves in a grassy landscape.[74] Condo made five covers, all which were included with the album's purchase.[73] A second cover, with a painting of a ballerina, was posted on the Amazon.com pre-order page.[75] It was originally intended to be the artwork for "Runaway"'s single release, but West used a photograph of a ballerina instead.[75] Another painting, The Priest, was completed for the album by Condo, who described it as an attempt to bring depictions of religious figures into the modern world.[76]

According to Condo, West requested the original cover image be provocative enough to be banned by retailers, as a publicity stunt. In October 2010, a month before the album's release, West tweeted: "Yoooo they banned my album cover!!!!! Banned in the USA!!! They don't want me chilling on the couch with my Phoenix!" He also suggested Walmart had rejected the cover and cited the case of Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind, which featured a photo of a naked baby. "So Nirvana can have a naked human being on their cover, but I can't have a PAINTING of a monster with no arms and a polka dot tail and wings," he said. In response, Walmart denied West's suggestion in a statement that read, "We're excited about Kanye West's new album and we look forward to carrying it in our stores … We did not reject the cover artwork and it was not presented to us."[77] Some retailers would not carry the album with its original cover, in which case Condo's ballerina artwork was used as a substitute.[78]

In 2011, it was named one of the 50 greatest album covers of all time by MusicRadar.[79] In 2015, Billboard named the phoenix artwork as the 30th best album cover of all time.[80] In 2017, NME listed it as the seventh best album artwork of the 21st century so far.[81]

Marketing

West performing at the SWU Music & Arts Festival in Brazil, 2011

Before the album's release, West initiated the free music program GOOD Fridays through his website on August 20, 2010, offering a free download of previously unreleased songs each Friday; some were included on the album.[82][83] Titled after his imprint label GOOD Music, the program generated considerable publicity in the months leading up to the album's release.[82] Online marketing coordinator Karen Civil said of the program in retrospect, "It's a genius idea. He did something no one had ever done before, and at a point when he was the most hated person in music, he brought excitement back with his Friday releases".[82] G.O.O.D. Fridays was originally intended to continue through December, but West extended it through January 2011.[84]

On September 12, 2010, West premiered "Runaway" in live performance at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.[85] Three weeks later, on October 2, he performed the song on Saturday Night Live, along with "Power".[86] Two days later, the album's release date was announced for November 22.[71][87] My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released for digital download on Amazon at a list price of $3.99.[88] This coincided with the site's $3 discount promotional offer on MP3 purchases made valid through the release week.[89][90] Four singles were released from the album and became top 40 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 – "Power" (released July 1, 2010,[91] charted No. 22),[92] "Runaway" (released October 4,[71][93] charted No. 12),[92] "Monster" (released October 23,[94] charted No. 18),[92] and "All of the Lights" (released January 18, 2011,[95] charted No. 18).[96]

A 35-minute film – Runaway, featuring the titular song's official music video – was directed by West and released on October 23, 2010.[97] Filmed in Prague over a period of four days during Summer 2010,[98] the film stars West and model Selita Ebanks and features a script written by Hype Williams with the story written by West.[99] West described the video as an "overall representation of what [he dreams]" and a parallel to his music career,[98][100] in that, "It's the story of a phoenix fallen to Earth, and I make her my girlfriend, and people discriminate against her and eventually she has to burn herself alive and go back to her world. I've been feeling the idea of the phoenix. It's been in my heart for a while. It's maybe parallel to my career. I threw a Molotov cocktail on my career last year, in a way, and I had to come back as a better person.[101] At one of his screenings in Paris, the film seemed to represent a lot emotionally for him as he broke down in tears. Later after another screening, West said his music and "art" and how it affects people is the reason he continues to create music.[102]

Following the release of the album, West performed headlining sets at several large festivals, including SXSW 2011, Lollapalooza,[103] Austin City Limits,[104] and Coachella 2011; the latter was described by The Hollywood Reporter as "one of the great hip-hop sets of all time."[105] To further promote the album, West performed at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.[106][107]

Sales

In its first week of release, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and sold 496,000 copies in the United States.[108] The entry blocked Nicki Minaj's debut studio album Pink Friday from the top spot with 375,000 sales, with the week marking the first time in two years that the Billboard 200 has seen two albums bow with more than 300,000 units.[108] This gave West his fourth consecutive US number-one album and was higher than the 450,000 first-week sales of his previous album 808s & Heartbreak, with the debut week becoming the fourth-best sales week of 2010.[108] The album's first-week digital sales of 224,000 units marked the fourth-highest sales week for a digitally-downloaded album.[109] The album was also a chart topper in Canada, standing as West's fourth number one album on the Canadian Albums Chart.[110] It sold at a smaller rate in Denmark, reaching number four on the Danish Albums chart.[111] Similarly, the album opened at number six on the ARIA Albums chart.[112]

In its second week on the Billboard 200, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy descended six places to number seven, while remaining above Pink Friday by one place, and sold 108,000 copies, marking a 78% sales decline.[113] The album ultimately spent 115 weeks on the Billboard 200,[114] and by July 2013, it had sold 1,351,000 copies in the US, as reported by Nielsen SoundScan.[115] By June 2011, the album was the second best-selling digital rap album ever, selling 483,000 digital copies.[116] On November 23, 2020, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was certified triple platinum by the RIAA for three million shipments in the US.[117] That same year, it was reported that the album had been played one billion times on the streaming service Spotify.[118]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.8/10[119]
Metacritic	94/100[120]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[31]
Entertainment Weekly	A[32]
The Guardian	[121]
The Independent	[122]
MSN Music (Expert Witness)	A[35]
NME	9/10[42]
Pitchfork	10/10[33]
Rolling Stone	[30]
Spin	9/10[48]
USA Today	[123]

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 94, based on 45 reviews.[120] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.8 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[119]

Reviewing in November 2010, Andy Gill of The Independent hailed the album as "one of pop's gaudiest, most grandiose efforts of recent years, a no-holds-barred musical extravaganza in which any notion of good taste is abandoned at the door".[122] Ann Powers, writing for the Los Angeles Times, found the music "Picasso-like, fulfilling the Cubist mandate of rearranging form, texture, color and space to suggest new ways of viewing things".[45] It was also called West's most lavish record in a review by Time magazine's David Browne, who said it proved again that few other artists shared his ability to adeptly combine diverse elements.[124] Dan Vidal of URB highlighted the rapper's ability to bring the best out of his collaborators, finding it comparable to the work of Miles Davis.[125] In Rolling Stone, Sheffield called the album West's best and most wildly inspired record to date, claiming that no other artist was recording music as dark or uncanny, and adding that West had transgressed the very conventions he established for rap and pop music of the past five years.[30] Sputnikmusic critic Channing Freeman regarded it as "the first album in which he's truly lived up to his potential in every way – as a rapper, as a lyricist, as a songwriter".[126] The Village Voice's Sean Fennessey found it overwhelming and skillfully produced because of the way each song transitions over "like some long night out into the hazy morning after".[34] Robert Christgau, in MSN Music, hailed it as a "world-beating return to form" for West.[35] Pitchfork awarded the album a 10/10, the first perfect score it had given to a new release since Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in 2001.[127]

Some reviewers were more qualified in their praise. For The Guardian, Kitty Empire was critical of West's lyrics calling women "ruthless money-grabbers" on what she deemed a "herculean" and "flawed near-masterpiece".[121] Andy Kellman, reviewing in AllMusic, found West's rapping inconsistent on what was nonetheless "a deeply fascinating accomplishment" in West's catalogue: "As fatiguing as it is invigorating, as cold-blooded as it is heart-rending, as haphazardly splattered as it is meticulously sculpted, [the album] is an extraordinarily complex 70-minute set of songs ... As the ego and ambition swells, so does the appeal, the repulsiveness, and – most importantly – the ingenuity".[31]

Rankings

At the end of 2010, numerous critics and publications included My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on their year-end top albums lists.[128] Many named it the best album of 2010,[128] including Billboard,[129] Time,[130] Slant Magazine,[131] Pitchfork,[132] Rolling Stone,[133] and Spin.[134] My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was voted best album in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 2010,[135] winning by the largest margin in the poll's history.[136] The singles "Power", "Runaway", and "Monster" were voted in the top-10 of the Pazz & Jop's singles list.[136] Metacritic, which collates reviews of music albums, named it the best-reviewed album of 2010[137] and the sixth best of original albums from the 2010s to have at least 15 professional reviews.[138]

Review aggregate site Metacritic called My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy "the runaway consensus pick of music critics for the best album of 2010".[137]

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy later appeared on decade-end and all-time lists of the best albums.[139] In 2012, Complex included it on their list of 25 Rap Albums From the Past Decade That Deserve Classic Status.[140] In October 2013, Complex named it the best hip hop album of the last five years.[141] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[142] In August 2014, Pitchfork named it the best album of the 2010s decade so far, and an accompanying essay said, "West broke the ground upon which the new decade's most brilliant architects built their masterworks; Bon Iver, Take Care, Channel Orange, and Good Kid, M.A.A.D City don't exist without the blueprint of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The list ends here because it's where the decade truly begins."[143] Christgau later ranked it as the decade's eighth-best album, saying it remains "perversely superb".[144]

Based on such rankings, Acclaimed Music lists My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as the 26th most critically acclaimed album in history,[139] the third-highest ranking for any hip hop album.[145] According to Chris Lambert of Forbes in 2019, the album "has maintained a consistency of recognition" as West's greatest work and one of the top albums from the 2010s, if not the decade's best album.[118] In 2020, Marc Hogan from Pitchfork considered it among the great art pop albums of the last 20 years to "have filled the void of full-length statements with both artistic seriousness and mass appeal that was formerly largely occupied by [rock] guitar bands".[146]

Accolades for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Publication	Country	List	Year	Rank	Ref.
Joe	Ireland	The 20 Best Albums of the Decade (2010–2019)	2019	7	[147]
Mondo Sonoro	Spain	Best National and International Albums of the Year	2010	18	[148]
Clash	United Kingdom	The Top 100 Albums of Clash's Lifetime (2004–2014)	2015	1	[149]
Crack Magazine		The Top 100 Albums of the Decade (2010–2019)	2019	23	[150]
Fact		The 40 Best Albums of 2010	2010	2	[151]
The Guardian		The 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century	2019	3	[152]
NME		50 Best Albums of 2010	2010	34	[153]
		The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time	2013	21	[154]
		25 Best Albums of the Decade (So Far)	2014	2	[155]
The Quietus		The Top 100 Albums of the Quietus' Existence (2008–2018)	2018	12	[156]
The A.V. Club	United States	The Best Music of 2010	2010	1	[157]
		50 Favorite Albums of the 2010s	2019	1	[158]
Beats Per Minute		The Top 50 Albums of 2010	2011	1	[159]
		The Top 130 Albums	2013	1	[160]
Billboard		Top 10 Albums of 2010	2010	1	[129]
		The 25 Best Albums of 2010	2010	1	[161]
		100 Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	1	[162]
Cleveland.com		100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s	2019	1	[163]
Complex		The 100 Best Albums of the Complex Decade (2002–2012)	2012	7	[164]
		Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	1	[165]
Consequence of Sound		The Top 100 Albums of 2010	2010	2	[166]
		Top 100 Albums of the 2010s	2019	3	[167]
Entertainment Weekly		10 Best Albums of 2010	2010	2	[168]
		Greatest Albums of all Time	2016	8	[169]
Esquire		The Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	10	[170]
Genius		100 Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	1	[171]
GQ		The 21 Albums from the 21st Century Every Man Should Hear	2014	1	[172]
Insider		The 15 Best albums of the Decade (2010–2019)	2019	6	[173]
The Mercury News		50 Best Albums of the Decade (2010–2019)	2019	2	[174]
Metacritic		The Best Albums of 2010	2011	1	[137]
		The Best Albums of the Decade (2010–2019)	2019	6	[175]
New York Post		Best Albums of the Decade (2010–2019)	2019	1	[176]
Noisey		The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	20	[177]
Odyssey		30 Best Albums of the Decade (So Far)	2016	1	[178]
Paste		The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	4	[179]
Pigeons & Planes		The Best Albums in Pigeons & Planes History	2013	1	[180]
Pitchfork		The Top 50 Albums of 2010	2010	1	[132]
		The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far (2010–2014)	2014	1	[181]
		The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	2	[182]
Rolling Stone		Best Albums of 2010	2010	1	[133]
		500 Greatest Albums of All Time	2012	353	[183]
		100 Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	1	[184]
		500 Greatest Albums of All Time	2020	17	[185]
Slant Magazine		The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	1	[186]
Spin		The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985–2014)	2015	8	[187]
Stereogum		Top 50 Albums of 2010	2010	1	[188]
		The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	4	[189]
Time		The Top 10 Everything of 2010	2010	1	[130]
Uproxx		The Best Albums of the 2010s	2019	2	[190]
Vibe		The Greatest 50 Albums Since '93	2013	6	[191]
The Village Voice		Pazz & Jop critics' poll of 2010	2010	1	[192]

Industry awards

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy won awards for both Album of the Year and Reader's Choice: Best Album at the 2010 HipHopDX Awards.[193] For the 2011 NAACP Image Awards, the album was nominated for Outstanding Album,[194] and at the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards, it was awarded CD of the Year.[195] The album earned a nomination for Top Rap Album, presented at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, where it ultimately lost to Eminem's 2010 album Recovery.[196]

For the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was nominated in the category of Best Rap Album, which it won.[197] "All of the Lights" was also nominated for Song of the Year, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, winning in the latter two categories.[197] However, The Recording Academy's decision not to nominate My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy for Album of the Year was viewed by many media outlets as a snub, along with the rejection of Watch the Throne – West's collaborative album with Jay-Z – for that category.[198][199][200][201][202] Writing for Time in December 2011, music journalist Touré deemed West's nominations in minor Grammy categories "booby prizes", and stated, "MBDTF is by far the best reviewed album in many years: the critical community flipped out over it like nothing since Radiohead’s zenith. And it sold well, over 1.2 million so far. So what happened? How is it Grammy overlooked Kanye's magnum opus and gave noms to four sonic widgets and Adele's 21?"[203] He explored possible reasons for the Academy to snub West, including split votes between My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Watch the Throne, concerns over West's past controversies, and more commercially appealing nominees, but ultimately stated:

What I think may be going on is a lack of respect for hip hop and its complexity from people who care about music but don't know much about hip hop ... Predictably, Grammy tends toward pop-friendly hip hop that's easily understood by those who don't understand hip hop. Pop in this regard is not meant as an insult, it's merely music palatable to non-aficionados of the genre ... But now that he's released his most mature work, [West is] being ignored.[203]

In the Los Angeles Times, Randall Roberts was critical of the nominations for the 54th Grammy Awards, particularly for the Album of the Year category, noting the exclusion of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – "the most critically acclaimed album of the year, a career-defining record" – as a snub in favor of nominating less substantial albums.[204] West, who was vocal in his displeasure with past award snubs,[200] responded onstage during a concert on the Watch the Throne Tour, saying: "That's my fault for dropping Watch the Throne and Dark Fantasy the same year. I should've just spaced it out, just a little bit more."[201]

Track listing

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Dark Fantasy"	Kanye West Robert Diggs Ernest Wilson Jeff Bhasker Mike Dean Malik Jones Justin Vernon Onika Maraj Jon Anderson Mike Oldfield	RZA West No I.D. Bhasker^[b] M. Dean^[b]	4:40
2.	"Gorgeous" (featuring Kid Cudi and Raekwon)	West Wilson M. Dean Jones Che Smith Corey Woods Scott Mescudi Gene Clark Roger McGuinn	West No I.D. M. Dean	5:57
3.	"Power"	West Larry Griffin, Jr. M. Dean Bhasker Andwele Gardner Ken Lewis Francois Bernheim Jean-Pierre Lang Boris Bergman Robert Fripp Michael Giles Greg Lake Ian McDonald Peter Sinfield	S1 West Bhasker^[b] M. Dean^[b] Andrew Dawson^[b]	4:52
4.	"All of the Lights (Interlude)"	West M. Dean	West M. Dean	1:02
5.	"All of the Lights"	West Bhasker Mescudi Jones Warren Trotter Stacy Ferguson	West Bhasker^[a]	4:59
6.	"Monster" (featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver)	West Shawn Carter Patrick Reynolds M. Dean William Roberts II Maraj Vernon Jones Ben Bronfman Daniel Lynas Harley Wertheimer	West M. Dean^[b] Plain Pat^[b]	6:18
7.	"So Appalled" (featuring Swizz Beatz, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Cyhi the Prynce and RZA)	West Wilson M. Dean Carter Terrence Thornton Cydel Young Kasseem Dean Diggs Manfred Mann	West No I.D. M. Dean^[a]	6:38
8.	"Devil in a New Dress" (featuring Rick Ross)	West Roosevelt Harrell M. Dean Roberts II Jones Carole King Gerry Goffin	Bink M. Dean^[b]	5:52
9.	"Runaway" (featuring Pusha T)	West Emile Haynie Thornton Bhasker M. Dean Jones Peter Phillips John Branch	West Emile^[a] Bhasker^[a] M. Dean^[a]	9:08
10.	"Hell of a Life"	West Mike Caren Wilson M. Dean Sylvester Stewart Tony Joe White Terence Butler Anthony Iommi John Osbourne William Ward	West Caren^[a] No I.D.^[a] M. Dean^[a]	5:27
11.	"Blame Game" (featuring John Legend)	West Justin Franks Chloe Mitchell M. Dean John Stephens Richard James	West DJ Frank E M. Dean^[b]	7:49
12.	"Lost in the World" (featuring Bon Iver)	West Bhasker Manu Dibango James Brown Vernon Gil Scott-Heron Edwin Bocage Alfred Scramuzza	West Bhasker^[a]	4:16
13.	"Who Will Survive in America"	West Bhasker Scott-Heron Bocage Scramuzza	West Bhasker^[a]	1:38
Total length:				1:08:36

iTunes Store bonus track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
14.	"See Me Now" (featuring Beyoncé, Charlie Wilson and Big Sean)	West Sean Anderson Beyoncé Knowles Charles Wilson	West No I.D. Lex Luger	6:03
Total length:				1:14:39

Deluxe edition bonus DVD

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Director(s)	Length
1.	"Runaway" (short film)	Hype Williams	West	35:00

Track notes

• ^{^a} signifies a co-producer
• ^{^b} signifies an additional producer
• "Dark Fantasy" features background vocals by Nicki Minaj and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and additional vocals by Teyana Taylor and Amber Rose
• "Gorgeous" features background vocals by Tony Williams
• "Power" is stylized in uppercase letters and features additional vocals by Dwele
• "All of the Lights" features additional vocals by Rihanna, Kid Cudi, Tony Williams, The-Dream, Charlie Wilson, John Legend, Elly Jackson of La Roux, Alicia Keys, Elton John, Fergie, Ryan Leslie, Drake, Alvin Fields and Ken Lewis
• "Runaway" features background vocals by Tony Williams and additional vocals by The-Dream
• "Hell of a Life" features additional vocals by Teyana Taylor and The-Dream
• "Blame Game" features additional vocals by Chris Rock and Salma Kenas
• "Lost in the World" and "Who Will Survive in America" feature additional vocals by Charlie Wilson, Kaye Fox, Tony Williams, Alicia Keys and Elly Jackson of La Roux

Sample credits

• "Dark Fantasy" contains samples of "In High Places", written by Mike Oldfield and Jon Anderson, and performed by Anderson.
• "Gorgeous" contains portions and elements of the composition "You Showed Me", written by Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn, and performed by The Turtles.
• "Power" contains elements from "It's Your Thing", performed by Cold Grits; elements of "Afromerica", written by Francois Bernheim, Jean-Pierre Lang, and Boris Bergman, and performed by Continent Number 6; and material sampled from "21st Century Schizoid Man", composed by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald, and Peter Sinfield, and performed by King Crimson.
• "So Appalled" contains samples of "You Are – I Am", written by Manfred Mann, and performed by Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
• "Devil in a New Dress" contains samples of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and performed by Smokey Robinson.
• "Runaway" contains a sample of "Expo 83", written by J. Branch, and performed by Backyard Heavies; and excerpts from Rick James Live at Long Beach, CA, 1981.
• "Hell of a Life" contains samples of "She's My Baby", written by Sylvester Stewart, and performed by The Mojo Men; samples of "Stud-Spider" by Tony Joe White; and portions of "Iron Man", written by Terence Butler, Anthony Iommi, John Osbourne, and William Ward, and performed by Black Sabbath.
• "Blame Game" contains elements of "Avril 14th", written by Richard James, and performed by Aphex Twin.
• "Lost in the World" contains portions of "Soul Makossa", written by Manu Dibango; a sample of "Think (About It)", written by James Brown, and performed by Lyn Collins; samples of "Woods", written by Justin Vernon, and performed by Bon Iver; and samples of "Comment No. 1", written and performed by Gil Scott-Heron.
• "Who Will Survive in America" contains samples of "Comment No. 1" performed by Gil Scott-Heron.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[5]

Musicians Jeff Bhasker – keyboards (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13), piano (track 6), cello arrangement (track 1) Mike Dean – keyboards (tracks 3, 5, 7, 10), piano (tracks 1, 8, 11), bass (tracks 3, 8, 11), guitars (tracks 3, 8), guitar solo (track 2), cello arrangement (tracks 1, 5, 7) Ken Lewis – guitars (track 2), bass (track 2), organ (track 2), brass and woodwinds (track 5), tribal drum programming (track 12, 13), horn arrangement (track 5), chant vocals (tracks 3, 12, 13) Brent Kolatalo – keyboards (track 2), drum programming (track 2) Elton John – piano (track 5) Anthony Kilhoffer – additional drum programming (tracks 10, 12, 13) Danny Flam – brass and woodwinds (track 5) Tony Gorruso – brass and woodwinds (track 5) Rosie Danvers – orchestral arrangement and conducting (track 5), cello (track 5) Chris "Hitchcock" Chorney – cello (tracks 1–3, 5, 7, 9, 11), cello arrangement (track 11) Mike Lovatt – trumpet (tracks 4, 5) Simon Finch – trumpet (tracks 4, 5) Andy Gathercole – trumpet (track 5) Tim Anderson – French horn (track 5) Tom Rumsby – French horn (track 5) Richard Ashton – French horn (track 5) Mark Frost – trombone (track 5) Philip Judge – trombone (track 5) Chloe Vincent – flute (track 5) Kotono Sato – violin (track 5) Jenny Sacha – violin (track 5) Rachel Robson – viola (track 5) Chloe Mitchell – poem (track 11) Alvin Fields – chant vocals (tracks 3, 12, 13) Ian Allen – handclaps (track 3) Wilson Christopher – handclaps (track 3) Uri Djemal – handclaps (track 3) Chris Soper – handclaps (track 3)

Production Andrew Dawson – recording (tracks 1–3, 5–13), mixing (tracks 1, 10, 11) Anthony Kilhoffer – recording (tracks 1–3, 5–10, 12, 13), mixing (tracks 2, 5, 9–13) Mike Dean – recording (tracks 1–3, 5–10, 12, 13), mixing (tracks 1, 4, 6–8, 10, 11) Noah Goldstein – recording (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10–13) Phil Joly – recording (tracks 2, 4), engineering assistance (tracks 1, 2, 5, 11) Christian Mochizuki – recording (track 2), engineering assistance (tracks 1, 2, 5–10, 12, 13) Pete Bischoff – recording (track 7), engineering assistance (tracks 2, 5–8, 10, 12, 13) Ryan Gilligan – recording (track 11) Marcos Tovar – recording (Rihanna vocals; track 5) Manny Marroquin – mixing (track 3) Gaylord Holomalia – engineering assistance (tracks 1, 6–8, 10) Alex Graupera – engineering assistance (tracks 12, 13) Christian Plata – mix engineering assistance (track 3) Erik Madrid – mix engineering assistance (track 3) Cary Clark – mix engineering assistance (track 9) Ken Lewis – chant vocals engineering (track 3) Brent Kolatalo – chant vocals engineering (tracks 3, 12, 13), horn engineering (track 5) Tommy D – orchestra production (track 5) Vlado Meller – mastering Design Kanye West – art direction Virgil Abloh – art direction George Condo – paintings M/M (Paris) – handwritten titles and illustrations, package design Fabien Montique – Kanye West photograph

Charts

Weekly charts 2010–2012 chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2010–2012) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA)[205] 6 Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[206] 2 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[207] 21 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[208] 43 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[110] 1 Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)[209] 30 Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[111] 4 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[210] 17 Europe (European Top 100 Albums)[211] 19 Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[212] 42 French Albums (SNEP)[213] 28 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[214] 19 Greek Albums (IFPI)[215] 39 Irish Albums (IRMA)[216] 18 Japanese Albums (Oricon)[217] 29 Mexican Albums (AMPROFON)[218] 87 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[219] 10 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[220] 7 Scottish Albums (OCC)[221] 24 South Korean International Albums (Gaon)[222] 9 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[223] 97 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[224] 19 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[225] 10 UK Albums (OCC)[226] 16 US Billboard 200[227] 1 US Top Catalog Albums (Billboard)[228] 26 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[229] 1 US Vinyl Albums (Billboard)[230] 1 2019 chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2019) Peak position Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[231] 23 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[232] 114 US Billboard 200[233] 136

Year-end charts 2010 year-end chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2010) Position Australian Albums (ARIA)[234] 67 2011 year-end chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2011) Position Australian Albums (ARIA)[235] 49 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[236] 21 US Billboard 200[237] 11 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[238] 4 2012 year-end chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2012) Position Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[239] 45 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[240] 81 2015 year-end chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2015) Position Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[241] 60 2016 year-end chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2016) Position Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[242] 57 US Billboard 200[243] 186 2017 year-end chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2017) Position Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[244] 56 2018 year-end chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2018) Position Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[245] 48 2019 year-end chart performance for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Chart (2019) Position Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[246] 37

Certifications

Certifications for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[247]	Platinum	70,000^^
Denmark (IFPI Denmark)[248]	Platinum	20,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[249]	Platinum	300,000^^
United States (RIAA)[117]	3× Platinum	1,351,000[115]
^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Release dates and formats for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Region	Date	Label	Format(s)	Ref.
Various	November 22, 2010	Def Jam Roc A Fella	CD digital download	[88]
	December 28, 2010		Vinyl	[250]

See also

• 2010 in hip hop music
• GOOD Fridays
• List of hip hop albums considered to be influential
• List of number-one albums of 2010 (Canada)
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2010
• List of number-one rap albums of 2010 (U.S.)
• List of Billboard number-one R&B albums of 2010
• Runaway (2010 film)

References

1. Sayles, Justin; Holmes, Charles (November 23, 2020). "The Rosewood Ranking: An Obsessive Rundown of Every 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' and G.O.O.D. Friday Kanye Song, Plus a Few Extras". The Ringer. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
2. Callahan-Bever, Noah (November 2010). Kanye West: Project Runaway Archived December 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Complex. Retrieved on November 30, 2010.
3. Columnist (October 3, 2010). Kanye West Hiding Out in Milan! Archived March 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Posh24. Retrieved on November 30, 2010.
4. "Kanye West and Lady Gaga "Fame Kills" Tour Canceled". Rolling Stone. October 1, 2009. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved February 23, 2011.
5. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Media notes). Kanye West. Roc-A-Fella Records. 2010.CS1 maint: others (link)
6. Jacobs, Allen (September 17, 2010). Def Jam Records Has Reportedly Spent $3 Million On Kanye West's New Album Archived September 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. HipHopDX. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
7. Wilson, Brian. "10 Most Expensive Albums of All Time". WhatCulture. Archived from the original on April 19, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
8. Anbar, Elyadeen. "11 Most Expensive Albums Ever Produced". Hypebot. Archived from the original on August 23, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
9. Paine, Jake (September 30, 2010). Kanye West Calls Off This Week's G.O.O.D Friday Archived October 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. HipHopDX. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
10. "Exclusive: Kanye West Enlists Nicki Minaj for New Album". Rap-Up. June 30, 2010. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
11. Staff (July 27, 2010). DJ Toomp Praises Kanye’s New Album x T.I. Confirmed As Guest Archived August 1, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. DDotOmen.com. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
12. Big Homie (August 5, 2010). T.I. Recorded Six Tracks With Kanye Archived August 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Rap Radar. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
13. Denise (October 11, 2010). Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Album Download, Hip Hop Collabs Archived November 4, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. HipHop RX. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
14. Staff (October 18, 2010). Kanye West’s Biggest Collaboration Yet Archived October 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Rap-Up. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
15. Jacobs, Allen (September 20, 2010). M.I.A. The Latest Artist To Go Into The Studio With Kanye West Archived September 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. HipHopDX. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
16. Staff (September 21, 2010). MIA announces collaboration for Kanye West album 'Dark Twisted Fantasy' Archived September 24, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. NME. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
17. Kaufman, Gil (October 7, 2010). Kanye West Adds M.I.A., La Roux And Alicia Keys To Album Archived October 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. MTV News. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
18. Kuperstein, Slava (April 8, 2010). Kanye West's Next Album To Drop In June Archived October 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. HipHopDX. Retrieved on April 8, 2010.
19. Harling, Danielle (June 25, 2010). Madlib Says Kanye West Requested Beats For "Good Ass Job" Archived January 26, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. HipHopDX. Retrieved on July 14, 2010.
20. Markman, Rob. "Kanye West Told Statik Selektah 'Jazz Was Dead,' So He Went And Made A Jazz Album". MTV News. Archived from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
21. Langhorne, Cyrus (April 8, 2010). "Pete Rock Calls Kanye West "Hip-Hop", Confirms Working W/ Him in Hawaii". SOHH. Archived from the original on April 3, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
22. KNOBBZXL (October 17, 2010). Kanye West – Take One for the Team (ft. Pusha T, CyHi Da Prynce, Keri Hilson) Archived October 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Metal Lungies. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
23. Cormier, Roger. "15 Albums That Cost a Fortune to Make". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on July 9, 2014. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
24. Paine, Jake (November 22, 2010). Kanye West's Studio Arrangement Analyzed In Complex Cover Story Archived October 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. HipHopDX. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
25. Langhorne, Cyrus (April 8, 2010). Pete Rock Calls Kanye West "Hip-Hop", Confirms Working W/ Him In Hawaii Archived April 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. SOHH. Retrieved on November 28, 2010.
26. Langhorne, Cyrus (April 10, 2010). DJ Premier Calls Kanye West's New Album "Hard Beats & Rhyme" Archived August 20, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. SOHH. Retrieved on December 2, 2010.
27. "Pusha T Reveals What He Can't Reveal About Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music Project". Rolling Stone. August 7, 2012. Archived from the original on August 10, 2012. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
28. Meadows-Ingram, Benjamin (August 7, 2011). "'Watch The Throne': Inside Jay-Z's Private Listening Session". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 29, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
29. Caramanica, Jon (November 17, 2010). Kanye West, Still Unfiltered, on Eve of Fifth Album Archived September 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. The New York Times. Retrieved on November 17, 2010.
30. Sheffield, Rob (November 9, 2010). "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 18, 2010. Retrieved November 9, 2010.
31. Kellman, Andy. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West". AllMusic. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
32. Vozick-Levinson, Simon (November 12, 2010). "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on November 20, 2010. Retrieved November 12, 2010.
33. Dombal, Ryan (November 21, 2010). "Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on November 23, 2010. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
34. Fennessey, Sean (November 17, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived October 21, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. The Village Voice. Retrieved on November 17, 2010.
35. Christgau, Robert (November 30, 2010). "The Roots/Kanye West". MSN Music. Archived from the original on December 8, 2010. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
36. Williott, Carl (June 13, 2013). "Kanye West's Pop Report Card: We Grade His Six Albums". Idolator. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
37. Allan, Samuel (May 22, 2019). "What's the Best Kanye West Era?". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
38. Weingarten, Christopher R. (February 2, 2016). "Will 'Waves' Be Kanye West's First Disappointing Album?". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 11, 2019. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
39. Sundermann, Eric (November 6, 2015). "Welcome to Noisey G.O.O.D. Fridays". Noisey. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
40. Witmer, Phil (November 14, 2015). "21st Century Schizoid Man: How Kanye Changed Rap by Making a 70s Prog Album in 2010". Noisey. Archived from the original on September 2, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
41. Horner, Al (January 20, 2014). "Kanye West's Interview With '12 Years A Slave' Director Steve McQueen - 10 Key Quotes". NME. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
42. Denney, Alex (November 19, 2010). "Kanye West – 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' review". NME. Archived from the original on November 24, 2010. Retrieved November 22, 2010.
43. Martin, Andrew (November 24, 2010). Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (New Album) Archived July 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Prefix Magazine. Retrieved on April 30, 2011.
44. Grischow, Chad (November 23, 2010). Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Review – Music Review at IGN Archived April 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. IGN. Retrieved on April 30, 2011.
45. Powers, Ann (November 23, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 23, 2010. Retrieved on July 23, 2019.
46. Amidon, David (November 22, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived August 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. PopMatters. Retrieved on November 22, 2010.
47. Cole, Matthew (November 20, 2010). "Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
48. Martins, Chris (November 11, 2010). "Kanye West, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' (Roc-A-Fella)". Spin. Archived from the original on November 14, 2010. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
49. Rabin, Nathan (November 23, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived November 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. The A.V. Club. Retrieved on November 23, 2010.
50. Kot, Greg (November 17, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived April 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved on November 17, 2010.
51. Anderson, Kyle (November 15, 2010). Inside Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: 'Dark Fantasy' Archived September 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. MTV News. Retrieved on December 11, 2017.
52. Weiner, Jonah (November 22, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived April 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Slate. Retrieved on January 29, 2011.
53. Anderson, Kyle (November 4, 2010). Kanye West's Massive Posse Track 'All Of The Lights' Leaks Archived November 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. MTV. Retrieved on November 26, 2010.
54. Roberts, Steven (November 22, 2010). Kanye's 'All Of The Lights': A Vocal Breakdown Archived February 9, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. MTV. Retrieved on November 26, 2010.
55. Conner, Thomas (November 21, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived October 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved on November 21, 2010.
56. Burrell, Ian (September 22, 2007). Kanye West: King of rap Archived July 4, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. The Independent. Retrieved on January 29, 2011.
57. Frere-Jones, Sasha (December 6, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived October 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. The New Yorker. Retrieved on November 30, 2010.
58. Greene Jr., James (November 30, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived December 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Crawdaddy. Retrieved on November 30, 2010.
59. Wete, Brad (September 12, 2010). Kanye West admits he's a douchebag, debuts 'Runaway' to close VMAs: Watch here Archived January 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on November 30, 2010.
60. Bain, Becky (November 9, 2010). "Kanye West Gets Caught in The "Blame Game" With John Legend And Chris Rock". Idolator. Archived from the original on July 11, 2012. Retrieved April 27, 2012.
61. Michaels, Sean (August 26, 2014). "Aphex Twin: Kanye tried to get away with not paying for Avril 14th sample". The Guardian. United Kingdom. Archived from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
62. Caramanica, Jon (March 3, 2011). "Chris Rock in Stephen Adly Guirgis's Play on Broadway". The New York Times. New York. Archived from the original on January 24, 2012. Retrieved April 27, 2012.
63. JNJ (September 29, 2010). New Music: Kanye West Samples Bon Iver, Gil Scott-Heron On “Lost In The World” Archived July 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Neon Limelight. Retrieved on November 13, 2010.
64. Hermes, Will (October 25, 2010). Lost in the World by Kanye West feat. Bon Iver and Gil Scott-Heron | Rolling Stone Music Archived June 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on May 2, 2011.
65. Rodriguez, Jayson (September 29, 2010). New Kanye West Track, 'Lost In The World,' Leaks Online Archived September 25, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. MTV News. Retrieved on May 2, 2011.
66. Phillips, Rashad (October 4, 2010). Kanye West Set To Release New Album On Monday, November 22. HipHopDX. Retrieved on 2010-11-27. Archived December 1, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
67. "Kanye adds M.I.A. to the mix on latest album". The Independent. September 23, 2010. Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
68. Concepcion, Mariel (September 21, 2010). "M.I.A. To Collaborate With Kanye?". Billboard. Archived from the original on August 31, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
69. "Big Sean Workin' On Kanye's "Good Ass Job"". Rap Radar. February 14, 2010. Archived from the original on March 27, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
70. West, Kanye (July 28, 2010). "The album is no longer called "Good Ass Job"". Twitter. Archived from the original on July 31, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
71. Lipshutz, Jason (October 5, 2010). "Kanye West Announces 'Dark Twisted Fantasy' Title and Details". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
72. Shifferaw, Abel (September 17, 2018). "Kanye Announces Collab Album With Chance the Rapper Will Be Titled 'Good Ass Job'". Complex. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
73. Montgomery, James; Warner, Kara (October 19, 2010). "Kanye West Says Twisted Fantasy Will Have Five Different Covers". MTV News. Archived from the original on October 22, 2010. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
74. Gary, Kevin (January 10, 2011). "Kanye wanted his cover art to be banned". HipHopDX. Archived from the original on January 14, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
75. Daniel Kreps (October 22, 2010). "Kanye West's Latest 'Dark Twisted Fantasy' Cover Revealed". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 24, 2010. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
76. Brown, Lane (November 19, 2010). See New Artwork for Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived November 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. New York. Retrieved on November 23, 2010.
77. Michaels, Sean (January 11, 2011). "Kanye West wanted album cover to be banned, says artist". The Guardian. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
78. Edwards, Gavin (August 28, 2019). "Banned in the U.S.A.: 20 Wildest Censored Album Covers". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
79. Robinson, Matt (May 15, 2011). "The 50 greatest album covers of all time". Music Radar. Archived from the original on April 16, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
80. "The 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time". Billboard. Archived from the original on November 13, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2015.
81. Milton, Jamie. "The best album artwork of the 21st Century so far". NME. Archived from the original on March 19, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
82. Concepcion, Mariel (November 30, 2010). Kanye West's 'G.O.O.D. Music Fridays' Inspires Other Artists Archived December 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Billboard. Retrieved on November 30, 2010.
83. Kaufman, Gil (August 23, 2010). Kanye West Promises New Song Every Week Through Christmas Archived December 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. MTV News. Retrieved on November 30, 2010.
84. Young, Alex (November 5, 2010). Kanye extends G.O.O.D. Friday until end of January Archived November 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Consequence of Sound. Retrieved on November 30, 2010.
85. Kyle Anderson (September 16, 2010). "Is Kanye West's 'Runaway' His Best Single Ever?". MTV. Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
86. Young, Alex (October 3, 2010). "Watch: Kanye West powers through Saturday Night Live". Consequence of Sound. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
87. Rodriguez, Jayson (October 5, 2010). "Kanye West's Album To Be My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". MTV News. Archived from the original on October 7, 2010. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
88. Baron, Zach (November 22, 2010). The Reason Why Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Is $3.99 on Amazon Right Now Archived November 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. The Village Voice. Retrieved on November 24, 2010.
89. Use Code GET3MP3S and Get $3 in MP3 Downloads. Amazon.com. Retrieved on November 24, 2010.
90. Burr, Mike (November 23, 2010). Amazon Black Friday Deal Prices New Kanye Under A Dollar Archived November 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Prefix Magazine. Retrieved on November 24, 2010.
91. Paine, Jake (July 1, 2010). "Kanye West's "Power" Released As Single, Cover Art Revealed". HipHopDX. Archived from the original on May 24, 2017. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
92. Kanye West Album & Song Chart History – Hot 100. Billboard. Retrieved on November 30, 2010.
93. "Single Cover: Kanye West – 'Runaway'". Rap-Up. Archived from the original on September 24, 2010. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
94. "Monster – Single by Kanye West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver". iTunes Store. Archived from the original on October 26, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
95. "Top 40/M Future Releases". All Access Music Group. Archived from the original on January 10, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
96. All of the Lights – Kanye West | Billboard.com. Billboard. Retrieved on May 5, 2011.
97. DiChiara, Tom (October 23, 2010). "Kane West's Movie 'Runaway' To Debut on MTV, MTV 2 And MTV.com Saturday Night". MTV. Archived from the original on October 25, 2010. Retrieved October 23, 2010.
98. Concepcion, Mariel (October 7, 2010). "Kanye West Premieres 35-Minute-Long 'Runaway' Video in London". Billboard. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
99. Kaufman, Gil (October 7, 2010). "Kanye West Screens 'Runaway' In London". MTV. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
100. Ziegbe, Mawuse; Calloway, Sway (October 23, 2010). "Kanye West Calls 'Runaway' A Reflection of His Entire Life". MTV News. Archived from the original on October 25, 2010. Retrieved October 23, 2010.
101. "Kanye West Puts His Ego in Check at Rodarte". New York. September 14, 2010. Archived from the original on September 18, 2010. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
102. Scaggs, Austin. "Kanye West Gets Ready to Unveil His'Fantasy'". Rolling Stone.
103. Staff (April 4, 2011). "Photos: Lollapalooza Chile 2011". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
104. Perpetua, Matthew (May 17, 2011). "Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Kanye Headline Austin City Limits". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 17, 2017. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
105. Jeff Miller (April 18, 2011). "Kanye West Delivers One of Greatest Hip-Hop Sets of All Time at Coachella". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 27, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
106. Rodriguez, Jayson (October 22, 2010). "Kanye West Calls Bon Iver Track 'Crescendo' For 'Runaway' Film". MTV. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
107. "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Stars Kanye West, Kung Fu Panda". Billboard. Archived from the original on September 22, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
108. Caulfield, Keith (December 1, 2010). Kanye West, Nicki Minaj Score Big Debuts on Billboard 200 Archived May 28, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Billboard. Retrieved on December 1, 2010.
109. Grein, Paul (December 1, 2010). Week Ending Nov. 28, 2010: The King And Queen Of Hip-Hop – Chart Watch Archived October 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Yahoo! Music. Retrieved on March 5, 2011.
110. "Kanye West Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
111. "Danishcharts.dk – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
112. "X-Factor winner makes ARIA chart debut". The Daily Telegraph. November 30, 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
113. Caulfield, Keith (December 8, 2010). "Susan Boyle's Back At No. 1". Billboard. Archived from the original on December 13, 2010. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
114. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West. Billboard. Retrieved on July 15, 2011.
115. Cibola, Marco (June 14, 2013). "Kanye West: How the Rapper Grew From 'Dropout' to 'Yeezus'". Billboard. Archived from the original on June 17, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
116. Grein, Paul (July 6, 2011). "Chart Watch Extra: Eminem Makes Digital History". Yahoo! Music. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
117. "American album certifications – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved November 25, 2020. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 
118. Lambert, Chris. "Kanye West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' Is A Narrative Album: Part 2". Forbes. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
119. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
120. "Reviews for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West". Metacritic. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
121. Empire, Kitty (November 19, 2010). "Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam) – review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 1, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2010.
122. Gill, Andy (November 19, 2010). "Album: Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Def Jam)". The Independent. Archived from the original on November 22, 2010. Retrieved November 19, 2010.
123. Jones, Steve (November 23, 2010). "Kanye West's 'Twisted Fantasy' contains a beautiful reality". USA Today. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2016.
124. Browne, David (November 17, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived November 20, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Time. Retrieved on November 18, 2010.
125. Vidal, Dan (November 23, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived March 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. URB. Retrieved on December 8, 2010.
126. Freeman, Channing (November 11, 2010). Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived September 12, 2012, at Archive.today. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved on November 12, 2010.
127. Harvilla, Rob (May 11, 2020). "Pitch Perfect: The History and Influence of the Pitchfork 10.0". The Ringer. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
128. Dietz, Jason (December 6, 2010). 2010 Music Critic Top Ten Lists [Updated Dec. 30]. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2010-12-30.
129. Staff (December 14, 2010). Critics' Picks: Billboard's Top 10 Albums of 2010 Archived February 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Billboard. Retrieved on December 16, 2010.
130. Staff (December 9, 2010). Kanye West, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' - The Top 10 Everything of 2010 Archived December 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Time. Retrieved on December 9, 2010.
131. Staff (December 14, 2010). Best of 2010: Albums Archived December 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Slant Magazine. Retrieved on December 16, 2010.
132. Staff (December 16, 2010). Staff Lists: The Top 50 Albums of 2010 Archived June 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Pitchfork. Retrieved on December 18, 2010.
133. Staff (December 7, 2010). Rolling Stone's Best Albums of 2010 Archived December 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on December 7, 2010.
134. Staff (December 6, 2010). The 40 Best Albums of 2010 Archived December 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Spin. Retrieved on December 6, 2010.
135. Pazz & Jop 2010: Albums – All Votes. The Village Voice. Archived from the original on February 18, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
136. Baron, Zach (January 19, 2011). Kanye West Wins One for the Douchebags Archived January 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. The Village Voice. Retrieved on February 18, 2011.
137. Clem Rusty (January 2, 2012). "Kanye West has the best-reviewed album of 2010". Metacritic. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
138. Dietz, Jason (November 5, 2019). "The Best Albums of the Decade (2010–19), According to Music Critics". Metacritic. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
139. "Kanye West". Acclaimed Music. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
140. Martin, Andrew (December 6, 2012). "Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) – 25 Rap Albums From the Past Decade That Deserve Classic Status". Complex. New York. Archived from the original on December 9, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
141. "Kanye West,My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) – The 10 Best Rap Albums of The Last 5 Years – Complex". Complex. October 7, 2013. Archived from the original on October 10, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
142. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (2014). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
143. Cohen, Ian (August 19, 2014). The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far (2010–14) Archived October 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Pitchfork. Retrieved on August 19, 2014.
144. Christgau, Robert (December 20, 2019). "Dean's List: The 2010s". And It Don't Stop. Substack. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
145. "Top Hip Hop Albums". Acclaimed Music. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
146. Hogan, Marc. "Exit Music: How Radiohead's OK Computer Destroyed the Art-Pop Album in Order to Save It". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
147. "The 20 Best Albums of the Decade". Joe. December 2019. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
148. "Los mejores discos de 2010". Mondo Sonoro (in Spanish). December 29, 2010. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
149. "The Top 100 Albums of Clash's Lifetime". Clash. January 13, 2015. Archived from the original on June 5, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
150. "The top 100 albums of the decade". Crack Magazine. 2019. Archived from the original on November 12, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
151. "The 40 Best Albums of 2010". Fact. November 30, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
152. "The 100 best albums of the 21st century". The Guardian. September 13, 2019. Archived from the original on September 13, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
153. "50 Best Albums Of 2010". NME. December 1, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
154. Emily Barker (October 25, 2013). "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". NME. Archived from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
155. Emily Barker (December 8, 2014). "25 Best Albums of the Decade So Far". NME. Archived from the original on July 4, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
156. Patrick Clarke (October 3, 2018). "The Top 100 Albums of the Quietus' Existence, As Picked By tQ's Writers". The Quietus. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
157. "The best music of 2010". The A.V. Club. December 8, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
158. "The A.V. Club's 50 favorite albums of the 2010s". The A.V. Club. November 20, 2019. Archived from the original on November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
159. "The Top 50 Albums of 2010". Beats Per Minute. January 6, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
160. "BPM 5: The Top 130 Albums". Beats Per Minute. October 15, 2013. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
161. "The 25 Best Albums Of 2010". Billboard. December 15, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
162. Billboard Staff (November 19, 2019). "100 Best Albums of the 2010s: Staff Picks". Billboard. Archived from the original on November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
163. Smith, Troy L. "100 greatest albums of the 2010s". Cleveland.com. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
164. "The 100 Best Albums of the Complex Decade". Complex. April 2, 2012. Archived from the original on June 25, 2012. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
165. Scott, Damien (November 22, 2019). "Kanye West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy': Best Album of the Decade". Complex. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
166. "CoS Year-End Report: The Top 100 Albums of 2010". Consequence of Sound. December 17, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
167. "Top 100 Albums of the 2010s: A decade passes in an instant, as do sounds and trends". Consequence of Sound. November 4, 2019. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
168. "10 Best Albums of 2010". Entertainment Weekly. December 20, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
169. "Music: Greatest Albums of All Time". Entertainment Weekly. May 16, 2016. Archived from the original on June 24, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
170. The Esquire Editors (November 26, 2019). "The Best Albums of the 2010s – Top Music of the Decade to Stream". Esquire. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
171. Genius Staff (November 8, 2019). "The Genius Community's 100 Best Albums of the 2010s". Genius. Archived from the original on August 24, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
172. "The 21 Albums from the 21st Century Every Man Should Hear". GQ. August 5, 2014. Archived from the original on April 29, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
173. Larocca, Courteney (December 30, 2019). "The 15 best albums of the decade, ranked". Insider. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
174. Harrington, Jim (December 20, 2019). "50 Best albums of the Decade: Lorde, Lana, Kanye, Kendrick and more". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
175. Dietz, Jason (November 5, 2019). "The Best Albums of the Decade (2010-19)". Metacritic. Archived from the original on November 15, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
176. Arnold, Chuck (December 27, 2019). "Best albums of the decade: Kanye West, Beyoncé top the list". New York Post. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
177. "The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s". Noisey. November 6, 2019. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
178. Andres Delgado (July 3, 2016). "30 Best Albums of the Decade So Far". Odyssey. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
179. "The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s". Paste. October 9, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
180. "The Best Albums in Pigeons & Planes History". Pigeons & Planes. September 30, 2013. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
181. "The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far". Pitchfork. August 19, 2014. Archived from the original on June 22, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
182. "The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s". Pitchfork. October 8, 2019. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
183. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. May 31, 2012. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
184. "100 Best Albums of the 2010s, Ranked by Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. December 3, 2019. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
185. "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 22, 2020. Archived from the original on September 22, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
186. "The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s". Slant Magazine. December 20, 2015. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
187. "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985–2014)". Spin. May 11, 2015. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
188. "Stereogum's Top 50 Albums Of 2010". Stereogum. December 8, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
189. "The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s". Stereogum. November 4, 2019. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
190. "The Best Albums of the 2010s, Ranked". Uproxx. October 7, 2019. Archived from the original on October 11, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
191. "The Greatest 50 Albums Since '93". Vibe. April 18, 2013. Archived from the original on June 24, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
192. "Pazz & Jop 2010: Albums – All Votes". The Village Voice. December 17, 2010. Archived from the original on December 17, 2010. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
193. "The 2010 HipHopDX Year End Awards". HipHopDX. December 13, 2010. Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
194. "2011 NAACP Image Award Nominees". Essence. January 12, 2011. Archived from the original on December 17, 2017. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
195. Cristin Maher (October 11, 2011). "2011 BET Hip-Hop Award Winners". PopCrush. Archived from the original on October 16, 2017. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
196. "2011 Billboard Music Awards Winners List". Billboard. April 25, 2011. Archived from the original on May 28, 2017. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
197. "Nominees and Winners". Grammy. Archived from the original on December 27, 2003. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
198. Abebe, Nitsuh (December 1, 2011). "Explaining the Kanye Snub, and Other Thoughts on the Grammy Nominations". New York. Archived from the original on January 22, 2012. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
199. Hyden, Steven (November 30, 2011). "Grammy nominations: Kanye West honored and snubbed; Bon Iver primed to become Arcade Fire 2.0". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
200. Morris, Christopher (November 30, 2011). "Rappers, rockers drive Grammy nominations". Variety. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
201. Markman, Rob (December 2, 2011). "Kanye West Blames Himself For Album of the Year Snub". MTV News. Archived from the original on February 1, 2012. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
202. Barshad, Amos (December 1, 2011). "The Grammy Nominations: Sympathy for Kanye". Grantland. Archived from the original on April 21, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
203. Touré (December 2, 2011). "Touré: Why The Grammys Snubbed Kanye West's Twisted Fantasy". Time. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
204. Roberts, Randall (November 30, 2011). "Critic's Notebook: Grammy Awards? Your granny's awards". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
205. "Australiancharts.com – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
206. "Top 40 Urban Albums & Singles Chart". Australian Recording Industry Association. May 8, 2011. Archived from the original on May 18, 2011. Retrieved May 14, 2011.
207. "Ultratop.be – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
208. "Ultratop.be – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
209. "Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 201106 on the field besides the word "Zobrazit", and then click over the word to retrieve the correct chart data. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
210. "Dutchcharts.nl – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
211. European Albums – Week of December 11, 2010 Archived January 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Billboard. Retrieved on March 26, 2011.
212. "Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
213. "Lescharts.com – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
214. "Offiziellecharts.de – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
215. greekcharts.com – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived March 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Hung Medien. Retrieved on February 5, 2011.
216. "Irish-charts.com – Discography Kanye West". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
217. マイ・ビューティフル・ダーク・ツイステッド・ファンタジー | カニエ・ウェスト [My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy | Kanye West] (in Japanese). Oricon. Archived from the original on May 28, 2020. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
218. mexicancharts.com – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Archived April 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Hung Medien. Retrieved on February 5, 2011.
219. "Charts.nz – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
220. "Norwegiancharts.com – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
221. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
222. "Gaon Albums Chart: Week 49, 2010" (in Korean). Gaon Album Chart. Archived from the original on July 4, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
223. "Spanishcharts.com – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 23, 2017.
224. "Swedishcharts.com – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
225. "Swisscharts.com – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
226. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
227. "Kanye West Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
228. "Kanye West Chart History (Top Catalog Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
229. "Kanye West Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
230. "Kanye West Chart History (Vinyl Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
231. "ARIA Australian Top 40 Urban Albums" (PDF). ARIA. November 4, 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 2, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
232. "Jesus Is King On This Week's Albums Chart". FYIMusicNews. November 3, 2019. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
233. McIntyre, Hugh (November 7, 2019). "BTS, Jackson Wang, Kanye West And Future: 5 Noteworthy Moves On This Week's Billboard 200". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
234. "2010 ARIA Albums Chart". ARIA Charts. Archived from the original on October 24, 2019. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
235. "Adele's "21" crowned ARIA's highest selling album of 2011 LMFAO takes single honours with "Party Rock Anthem"" (PDF). ARIA. January 1, 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 8, 2012. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
236. "Top Canadian Albums Year-End 2011". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
237. "Billboard 200 Year-End 2011". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 1, 2018. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
238. "Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Year-End 2011". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 1, 2018. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
239. "Top 50 Urban Albums 2012". ARIA. Archived from the original on April 9, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
240. "Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Year-End 2012". Billboard. Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
241. "Top 100 Urban Albums 2015". ARIA Charts. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
242. "Top 100 Urban Albums 2016". ARIA Charts. Archived from the original on April 9, 2019. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
243. "Billboard 200 Year-End 2016". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 14, 2019. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
244. "Top 100 Urban Albums 2017". ARIA Charts. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
245. "Top 100 Urban Albums 2018". ARIA Charts. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
246. "Top 100 Urban Albums 2019". ARIA Charts. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
247. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2011 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
248. "Danish album certifications – Kanye West – My beautyful dark twisted fantasy". IFPI Denmark. Retrieved October 18, 2019. Scroll through the page-list below until year 2018 to obtain certification.
249. "British album certifications – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved January 30, 2021. Select albums in the Format field. Select Platinum in the Certification field. Type My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
250. "Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy [3 LP]". Amazon. Retrieved August 9, 2020.

External links

• Official website
• My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at Discogs (list of releases)