“Naked sphinx straddling Kanye” serves as the main cover for the album. The five album covers’ artworks are dubbed, “Head with a sword”, “Ballerina”, “Naked sphinx straddling Kanye”, “A cubist style portrait of Kanye” and “Priest”, which depicts West dressed as a reverend with a similar cubist element to the artwork. In 2010, Condo told Vulture ’s Dan Kois that Kanye West’s music was “new to him” and that he was more into old school rap – yet the two artists started to work together. One can recognise Condo’s signature style – characters with protruding eyes, grotesque mouths – reminiscent of Pablo Picasso’s art and the cubist movement. MBDTF had five different album covers, all created by American contemporary artist George Condo. “It is in many ways pop’s event of the year… a stunning comeback for an artist whom many people had started to think of as more of a clown,” he wrote.įor context, West joined Twitter around the time he was working on this album – something that generated more chaos than meaningful engagement. Back in 2010, Logan Hill wrote in New York Magazine that Kanye West was a “demented genius”. Interestingly, it is also the very ability to dig into one’s personal traumas and demons and produce a musical feast that peppered the project with controversy, mainly around Kanye’s persona. The artist seemed to have tapped into the pain he had been going through and transformed it into sound, collaborating with a plethora of musicians to create a unique record that seemed at once maximalist, overwhelming and distinctive. To many, this album was West’s greatest musical achievement to date. And indeed, in 2014, Roger Cormier listed MBDTF as the 15th most expensive album in a list of “15 albums that cost a fortune to make”.
It was reported that it cost Kanye West around $3-million to make this album. In November 2016, Sidney Madden wrote on XXL that “Kanye sat in with artists from all genres for recording sessions and invited many to stay with him in the islands as his guest during the process”. This saw Kanye retreat to Hawaii, where a large part of the album was recorded.
He also launched his video ‘ The Runaway’ – with its striking colour palette, shots of ballerinas in black tutus… camera hovering over their head, and Kanye West standing at the piano, styled in a white blazer – just a month before the release of the album.Īll the buzz and build-up came after a difficult period in Kanye’s life, with the death of his mother, Donda, and his infamous stunt at the VMA’s with Taylor Swift. Of course, the opulent and innovative production, the album’s features and the striking artwork have played a huge part in creating hype around West’s MBDTF but the cleverly crafted marketing campaign West called “the G.O.O.D Friday”, where every week he dropped free releases of the album, earned its place in the pantheon of memorable musical moments.
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