Rejected cover for the album

Part 1: The Beginning

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released in 2010 and is regarded by many as Kanye West’s magnum opus. It is my favourite album of all time, but for years people, myself included, have overlooked the true meaning of the album. It is not the meditation on fame that many believe it to be, instead it is the story of one man’s enlightenment, his abandonment of neoliberal economics, and his baptism into socialism.

Track #1 — Dark Fantasy

The album opens in a way most unusual for rap albums, with Nicki Minaj performing a dark nursery rhyme. She tells us that we’ve been told a lie, and that while we believe we have ‘peeped the scene’ this is in fact a watered down version and we will be shown the real, darker reality. This is referring to how Kanye originally believed that he knew about capitalism having lived in a neoliberal society, however over the course of the album he comes to learn how dark the truth of neoliberalism really is.

The very first thing Kanye says on the album is, ‘I fantasised about this back in Chicago’, while the less enlightened amongst you might assume this to be a reference to Kanye’s home city, it is actually a reference to the Chicago school of economics which was famously the home of neoliberal thinkers such as Milton Friedman (Wolford, 2011).

Kanye then explains the nature of this fantasy, saying ‘mercy mercy me, that murcielago’. In this retrospective of his life Kanye reflects on how the luxury car he coveted pushed him into sin and evil, hence why he is asking for mercy.

Kanye then asks how you say broke in Spanish, and then says he doesn’t speak Spanish. While this may seem like an offhand joke, Kanye is a master of subtle points. The choice of Spanish is no coincidence, it is an allusion to neoliberal economists claiming to care for poor South American countries but then revealing that they actually aim to exploit their wealth (Harvey, 2001).

Kanye then explains the world view he had at the time of the story, he says ‘too many Urkel’s on your team, that’s why your wins low.’ While this may seem like a reference to Family Matters lead family, Kanye is actually referring to the fact that Jaleel White portrayed both Urkel and Sonic the Hedgehog (a famously anti-capitalist hero). Kanye explains that he believed students of the revolution like Sonic the Hedgehog were ineffective and didn’t win.

Kanye with this the song ends and Kanye has finished setting the stage, we then journey back in time and meet the young neoliberal Kanye as he enters the world. And so begins track 2, Gorgeous.

Tracks #2/3 - Gorgeous and POWER

The song Gorgeous shows us how Kanye’s neoliberal thinking is reinforced by his racial identity. One of the most insidious ways that neoliberalism became dominant was through claiming that capitalist economics (a driving force of racism) was the way to end racism (Grisham, J. 1993).

In the first verse Kanye falls in line with neoliberals like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, acknowledging racism in America but pedalling capitalism as the route out of it. This is best demonstrated when Kanye says he won’t be satisfied until all his friends get it. There is an emphasis on ‘his’ because it shows that Kanye’s concern for others is (at this stage) focused entirely on people within ‘his’ group. This is of course a vision of the world presented by neoliberal identity politics, as demonstrated by Clinton suggesting that ‘breaking up the banks’ was unimportant because ‘it wouldn’t end racism’ (Biederman, F. Menaker, W. Christman, M. 2016)

Kanye explains in the next two verses that he had initially believed himself to be a revolutionary in the vein of Malcolm X. This idea that succeeding in an unjust system is in some way ‘revolutionary’ is one of neoliberalism’s most successful lies (Noidman, P. 2001). Kanye explains that in his mind, reaching the pinnacle of wealth and success as a black man was empowerment.

Kanye then uses his last verses to explain that he became successful and gained wealth beyond his wildest dreams, indulging in causal sex with beautiful women (who’s desire for a better life he is explicitly exploiting), drinking heavily, and being worshipped.

This leads directly into POWER. In POWER we see Kanye at the very height of his love for neoliberal thinking, but we see his creeping realisation that it is very wrong. If Gorgeous represents the climb to the top, Power is Kanye balancing on the peak, and as we will see shortly the rest of the album shows his descent.

While I could go in depth about how the name ‘POWER’ is a commentary on Gramscian hegemony, or how the ‘Diamond Encrusted Piece’ represents the glitzed up colonialism that neoliberalism is fuelled by, this is simply Kanye showing off his vast knowledge of marxist theory (West, K. 2012). For our purposes we need focus only on the distinct dichotomy of Kanye’s braggadocios verses and the sobering cries that ‘No one man should have all that power’.

The chorus shows us the burgeoning class consciousness in Kanye’s mind. In addition to his realisation that the level of wealth he possesses is unethical for just one man to hold, he also notes that “The clock’s ticking I just count the hours.” Given that this song was released just two years after the financial crash of 2008, I see no plausible explanation for this line other than Kanye realising that the era of neoliberal dominance is coming to an end and that this model cannot sustain itself in light of the inequality he has just highlighted.

The song ends with Kanye repeating that it will be a beautiful death, before being asked if he has the power to let power go. Kanye is being presented with a choice, embrace the hedonistic pleasure of being at the top of a neoliberal system, knowing that it can’t last, or to abandon this power in order to forge a better world. We are left to ponder this dilemma as a symphony begins, and the prelude to the album comes to an end.

Next time: We watch as Kanye makes his decision and see how devastating neoliberalism can be to a man.