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Today we continue our serialized examination of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West with the album’s seventh track “So Appalled“. “So Appalled” features Jay-Z, Pusha T, CyHi The Prynce, Swizz Beats, and The RZA. In many ways, the track represents the “art by committee” approach to Twisted Fantasy, and we open today’s episode detailing the work environment during the album’s creation. We’ll also briefly explore the history of the “posse cut” in hip-hop before diving into our extensive analysis of “So Appalled,” a track that sees each guest MC expounding about the ridiculousness of the successful life they live. This

We continue our serialized analysis of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West with the album’s next track “Monster”. “Monster” is an exemplary model of musical cohesion. Everything about the track contributes to its monstrous theme. The production rumbles and shakes with a persistent, driving low end and minimal treble. There’s use of multiple sound effects, including literal monster roars, screams, and detuned voices. Kanye also selects guest artists and coaxes them to staying on theme: Justin Vernon’s distorted, sinster introduction, Rick Ross’s grisly, monstrous voice, Jay-Z’s clever wordplay, and of course, Nicki Minaj’s alter-ego invested verse, which many argue to be the best verse of the entire decade.

This is a story about empathy disguised as a story about Kanye West. Last year around this time, Kanye took stage at the Golden One Center in Sacramento, CA. After three songs and a fifteen-minute rant, Kanye dropped the mic and canceled the show. Shortly after, he canceled the remainder of his Saint Pablo tour dates and was checked into a hospital for psychiatric evaluation. I attended the now infamous Kanye Sacramento concert. In lieu of a new episode today, I’m sharing with you a piece I wrote a few days after this experience. I believe its message still rings true today, perhaps even more so. If you’d like to support Dissect, visit patreon.com/dissect Photo: Solace

We continue our serialized examination of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West with the album’s fifth track “All of the Lights.” “All of the Lights” and it’s fourteen high-profile guest vocalists is the kind of decadence that borders on excessive indulgence like the terrible feeling you get after eating too much cake. This kind of problematic indulgence is an inherent quality of celebrity, and “All of the Lights” is calculated overstimulation, a sensory overload aimed to express the strung-outed-ness of a life lived beneath a perpetual spotlight. Structurally, “All of the Lights” acts as a bridge into another world. While there’s been moments of fantasy in the album’s first three songs, on “All of the Lights” we hear for the first time an elaborate fantasy world created th

Our serialized examination of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West continues with the album’s third song “Power.” From its meticulous, heterogeneous production to its tightly wound lyricism and complex, metaphoric thematic content, “Power” is a detailed, intricately chiseled marble statue approach to songwriting. Kanye simultaneously explores power both as a concept in and of itself, as well as its personal affects on his life and mind. It’s something Kanye clearly struggles with. He’s smart enough to recognize power’s ability to deteriorate his spirit, but also recognizes his own inability to let it go. Listen to “Power” by Kanye West on Apple Music. If you en

We continue our serialized examination of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West with the album’s second track “Gorgeous.” “Gorgeous” is undoubtedly one of Kanye’s strongest displays as lyricist and rapper. There’s nary a wasted word on “Gorgeous” as Kanye seamlessly weaves cheeky pop culture references with poignant racial anecdotes and self-empowering affirmations. It’s a blueprint to atonement, to overcoming uncontrollable forces with sheer grit, determination, and self-assurance. Kanye seems less concerned with how to end racism and more concerned with how to overcome it, how to do great things in spite of it. Layers of emotional and psychological complexity are added when we consider the song’s hook, an observation on Kanye’s psyche after the VMA backlash. It subtly reveals that

We begin our serialized examination of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with the album’s opening track “Dark Fantasy.” From its opening moments, “Dark Fantasy” establishes the sound, themes, and narrative that will be explored throughout My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Sonically, it consolidates Kanye’s entire musical palate and creative powers developed over his first four solo albums. It’s a beautiful amalgamation of soul, hip-hop, RnB, classical, and gospel, at once seamless and juxtaposed, and utterly grandiose. Lyrically, we find Kanye at perhaps his most economical. Woven within just two compact verses and a brief bridge, Kanye establishes a complex character who appears confident and living a luxurious life of fame and fortune. But veiled beneath the surface is a strugg

We continue our serialized examination of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with third and final installment of our introductory episodes. Our job today is frankly impossible. We’re going to cover the four masterful albums by Kanye West in just under forty minutes, a borderline audacious premise for a show about in-depth analysis. But we must remember the larger goal: to provide context, to get a basic understanding of the trajectory of Kanye’s musical output and success. We’ll cherry-pick a song or two from each album that’s representative of Kanye’s production and lyrical subject matter at that particular time, gaining a broad sense of the evolution of Kanye’s art leading up to our main course, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Listen to Kanye’s discography on Apple Music. If you enjoy Dissect, consider dropping a review on

Our serialized analysis of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy continues with part two of our three part introductory preface. On our last episode, we followed the artistically gifted and confident young Kanye West as he ascended up hip-hop’s totem pole through his uncanny work ethic, unmatched determination, and unique production style. On October 23rd, 2002, just two weeks after his deal with Roc-A-Fella Records was announced, Kanye fell asleep at the wheel and collided headfirst with an oncoming car, breaking his jaw in three places. Just two weeks after his accident, and with his mouth still wired shut, Kanye would record “Through the Wire,” the song that would ultimately launch his rap career. On today’s episode, we dissect “Through the Wire” as an example of Kanye’s early pro

Dissect is back! Season 2 of Dissect is dedicated entirely to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is an aural pageantry of West’s uncanny talents as producer and rapper, a sonic amalgamation of the four solo albums that precede it. It’s thirteen tracks are ambitiously scaled, a musical maximalism as yet unheard in the world of hip-hop. Within this sonic coliseum, Kanye bares the confliction between his ego and insecurity, between the purity of his creative gifts and his incessant need for adoration. The album’s loose narrative outlines Kanye’s rise and fall from public grace, a kaleidoscopic meandering into the deep recesses of his mind, his fantasies. One moment he’s brash and confident, the next he’s vulnerable and lost. Our first three episodes this season will serve as a preface to Tw

Maybe it’s time we pray for Kendrick Lamar. On his 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick undergoes a metamorphosis from self-loathing Compton rapper to self-loving global icon, a transformation he likens to caterpillar turned butterfly. It seemed to function as a blueprint for salvation, aimed especially at the African-American community navigating the racially charged strains of modern America. But rather than end Butterfly on the euphoria of the song “i,” Kendrick instead concludes with the epilogue “Mortal Man.” After spending the majority of the album questioning himself and the world around him, “Mortal Man” asks us, his listeners, to question ourselves, specifically the build-them-up watch-them-fall relationship we have with our leaders. He reminds us that however large his mythos has become, he’s human and he’ll need our loyalty when “shit hits the fan.” “Mortal Man” is a foreboding provocation, an insightful premonition about his future after th

Our season long examination of To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar concludes with our final thoughts on the album. After a broad overview of the album and breakdown of the concluding poem, we’ll dissect the central “contrasting duality” theme, the album title and cover art. We’ll then hand the mic over to you, the listeners, in an audio montage compiled from the submission you sent sharing your biggest takeaway from the album. If you want to keep in touch over the season break, sign-up for our newsletter at dissectpodcast.com.   If you’ve enjoyed Dissect this season, please rate and review Dissect on iTunes.

We continue our serialized examination of To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar with Part 2 of the album’s final song “Mortal Man.” On our last episode, we heard how the song “Mortal Man” questioned Kendrick’s new leadership role and loyalty of his fanbase. At the end of the song, the narrative poem returns and is finally read in full. It’s revealed that the poem was being read to none other than deceased rapper Tupac Shakur. What follows is a metaphysical conversation between the two as Kendrick asks Pac for advice on both his own personal situation and the state of our nation. On today’s episode, we dive deep into Pac’s conflicted legacy and his eerie conversation with Kendrick. If like what you hear, consider subscribing and rating Dissect on iTunes. It really helps.

We continue our serialized examination of To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar with album’s final song “Mortal Man.” Kendrick reached the narrative conclusion of To Pimp a Butterfly with the live performance of the song “i” in his hometown of Compton. In a full circle moment, Kendrick embodied the leadership role he was so reluctant to embrace. Through the power of music, the spoken word, and a message of self-love and acceptance, Kendrick ended a fight in the crowd, a metaphor for black-on-black violence and gang conflicts in inner cities like Compton. Thus far on To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick has held a mirror to himself, analyzing his new place in the world of celebrity and success outside the streets of Compton, the only life he knew for twenty plus years. Now, having shared his story, Kendrick will turn that mirror around on us, the listeners. Mortal Man is the epilogue of To Pimp a Butterfly. An epilogue is a section or speech at the end of a

We continue our serialized analysis of To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar with Part 2 of the album’s fifteenth track, “i.” “i” is the narrative conclusion of To Pimp a Butterfly, the apex of Kendrick’s teachings on self-love and self-acceptance. While the studio single version of “I” we examined in our last episode could’ve easily acted as the album’s narrative climax, Kendrick chose instead to use a staged “live performance” on the album. For those of us that were familiar with the studio single, hearing of the live version was at first a somewhat jarring experience. Of course, Kendrick knew this would happen. His using a live version is a strategic, self-referential appropriation, the reasons for which become clear when the performance comes to a halt after a fight breaks out in the crowd, and Kendrick recites a spoken word piece that puts an end to the scuffle. The statement “Kendrick Lamar, by far, the realest negus alive” at the end of the spoken word piece is