{"product_id":"kanye-wests-my-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy-9781623565428","title":"Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the first decade of the twenty-first century, Kanye West created the most compelling body of pop music by an American artist during the period. Having risen from obscurity as a precocious producer through the ranks of Jay Z's Roc-A-Fella records, by the time he released \u003ci\u003eMy Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (MBDTF)\u003c\/i\u003e in late 2010, West had evolved into a master collagist, an alchemist capable of transfiguring semi-obscure soul samples and indelible beats into a brash and vulnerable new art form. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A look at the arc of his career, from the heady chipmunk soul exuberance of \u003ci\u003eThe College Dropout\u003c\/i\u003e (2004) to the operatic narcissism of \u003ci\u003eMBDTF\u003c\/i\u003e, tells us about the march of pop music into the digital age and, by extension, the contradictions that define our cultural epoch. In a cloud-based and on-demand culture - a place of increasing virtualization, loneliness, and hyper-connectivity - West straddles this critical moment as what David Samuels of \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic \u003c\/i\u003ecalls the first true genius of the iPhone era, the Mozart of contemporary American music. In the land of taking a selfie, honing a personal brand, and publicly melting down online, Kanye West is the undisputed king. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Swallowing the chaos wrought by his public persona and digesting it as a grandiose allegory of self-redemption, Kanye sublimates his narcissism to paint masterstroke after masterstroke on \u003ci\u003eMBDTF\u003c\/i\u003e, a 69-minute hymn to egotistical excess. Sampling and ventriloquizing the pop music past to tell the story of its future - very much a tale of our culture's wish for unfettered digital ubiquity - \u003ci\u003eMBDTF\u003c\/i\u003e is the album of its era, an aesthetic self-acquittal and spiritual autobiography of our era's most dynamic artist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bloomsbury Academic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/19\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781623565428\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 152\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 6.50h x 4.70w x 0.60d","brand":"Kirk Walker Graves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36662742515868,"sku":"9781623565428","price":12.71,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_b8d12c92-a101-4776-92c1-3a00f8f5e0b6.jpg?v=1603902593","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/kanye-wests-my-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy-9781623565428","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}