Yeah, that's right.

Rap is dying. Let’s just face it. People are too caught up in shitty mainstream rap music to see good artists, like Atmosphere, Saul Williams, and (even though he is more well known…) Lupe Fiasco. When I heard Kanye West was going back to rapping on his new album, at the time called Good Ass Job, I was waiting for something that was only entertaining because it was drowning in its own ego, like most West albums. I listened to West every now and then, but I never thought he was anything more than a decently good rapper from the shitstream of popular rap. Though, when I started hearing the rave reviews of his new album, now titled My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, I will admit, it struck me as surprising. I mean, even Pitchfork gave him a 10/10 and they only give scores like that to The Cure! Being the curious man I am, I got the album and started listening to it. What hit me was one of the biggest surprises I have ever had while listening to a rap album. I mean, in a year where mostly nothing but shit came out, the one album that is coming from the biggest douche-bag in music (right next to Axl Rose and Metallica) today is the one you would expect to be the worst, right? Well, I nominate this album for “Biggest Shock of 2010″, because My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ended up being one of the greatest albums I have heard all year.

Starting off with a monologue from Nicki Minaj, in which she explains how twisted the “scene” is, the first thing we hear musically is piano, strings, and a choir. Before you know it, the beat kicks in and right away you are tapping your foot. Kanye West was always able to make some pretty sweet beats but this album, musically, blows almost every single other rap album ever made out of the water. From the “kick back and relax” beat of “Dark Fantasy”, to the tribal-march mixed with King Diamond backing of “POWER”, to the jungle punch of “Monster”, to the Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth sampled sobfest of “Runaway”, and, what may be the most surprising of all, to the Aphex Twin (yes, that Aphex Twin) sampled ballad “Blame Game”, the music on this album shines almost as bright as West’s ego. Kanye obviously is trying to bring sampling back into rap and he did it perfectly. I mean, when you can make Aphex Twin work in a rap song, that HAS to say something about your musical ability.

Now, lyrically, this isn’t the most intelligent rap album of all time, as expected, but West is jarringly personal with his lyrics, revealing himself as human just as much as he says his presence is a present and you should kiss his ass. He is equal parts hilarious purposely, hilarious accidentally, shockingly open, and intelligent when he is rapping and it seems like he went over all his lines with a fine tooth comb over and over, just to make sure it was the best it could be. When the guest stars come in, they either completely surprise (like Nicki Minaj’s 32-bar, killer verse on “Monster”) or become completely counterproductive to the song/just approach the message wrong (like Pusha T in “Runaway”, who opens his verse on this heart-felt track with “24/7, 365, pussy stays on my mind.”), which ends up sweetening the album and, at the same time, almost completely making fun of the current state of it’s own mainstream by having the guests be so ignorantly oblivious of the human nature of the album. It almost seems like it was done on purpose, just to make Kanye seem so much better. Either way, it oddly works.

Out of everything this year, which mostly sucked ass, I never expected one of the biggest d-bags in music today to make something that I found myself going back to over and over again. Yet, I keep returning to Mr. West’s beautiful, dark, and twisted fantasy, because he has painted it so amazingly on this album that it has to be one of the most vivid rap albums of all time. Now, don’t get me wrong here, this is nowhere near the greatest rap album of all time, but with this album, Kanye is sending out two messages: The fact that everyone has a new standard to meet and that even when he takes a complete detour, Mr. West can amazingly come right back and feel like he never left. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is by no means a masterpiece, but it’s the closest thing that mainstream rap has had to one.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy gets a 4 out of 5.