My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the fifth studio album by American musician Kanye West. Released on November 22, 2010, by Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records, the album followed a turbulent period of public controversy for West, prompting a "self-imposed exile" in Hawaii. There, he created the album in a collaborative, communal recording environment with numerous contributing musicians and producers.

Guest vocalists on the album include Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Bon Iver, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Elton John, and Raekwon.

Production was primarily handled by West, with additional input from acclaimed producers such as Mike Dean, No I.D., Jeff Bhasker, RZA, S1, Bink, and DJ Frank E. Critically lauded for its maximalist aesthetic and opulent production, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy integrates elements from West’s previous styles, including soul, baroque, electro, and symphonic music. The album explores themes of excess, celebrity, consumer culture, race, and the American Dream’s idealism.

To promote the album, West released free tracks via his G.O.O.D. Fridays series, and four singles: the Billboard hits POWER, Monster, Runaway, and the international hit All Of The Lights. West also directed a short film titled "Runaway," serving as a visual companion to the album.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 496,000 copies in its first week. This blocked Nicki Minaj's debut album Pink Friday (375,000 copies) from the top spot and marked the first time in two years that two albums debuted with over 300,000 copies sold. It was West’s fourth consecutive US number-one album and featured the fourth-best sales week of 2010. Digital sales accounted for 224,000 copies (45% of the total), making it the second-best digital sales week for a rap album at that time.

In its second week, the album dropped to number seven on the Billboard 200 with 108,000 copies sold—a 78% decline, but still outselling Pink Friday. It remained on the Billboard 200 for 115 weeks. By July 2013, it had sold 1.3 million copies in the US, and by June 2011, digital sales reached 483,000, making it the second-best-selling digital rap album ever. On November 23, 2020, it was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for over 3 million certified units.

According to Billboard, as of 2022, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ranks among the 15 best-performing 21st-century albums without any singles reaching number one on the Hot 100.

Internationally, the album topped the Canadian Albums Chart, West’s fourth number-one there. It reached number four in Denmark, where it was certified double platinum by IFPI Danmark in March 2021 for shipments of 40,000. It peaked at number six on Australia’s ARIA Albums chart and was certified double platinum by ARIA in September 2021 for over 140,000 copies shipped. The album also charted in the top 10 in Norway, South Korea, New Zealand, and Switzerland. By 2018, it had been streamed over one billion times on Spotify.

Widely regarded as West’s magnum opus, the album was met with immediate and widespread critical acclaim. It was the first new release since Wilco's 2002 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to receive a perfect 10 rating from Pitchfork. It topped the Village Voice’s annual Pazz and Jop critics’ poll, appeared as the best album in many year-end and decade-end lists from Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, Stereogum, and The A.V. Club, and has been featured in numerous all-time greatest album lists—including Rolling Stone’s 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and NME’s 2013 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.