the cultural impact of my beautiful dark twisted fantasy, an astrological perspective

“the watered down one, the one you know
was made up centuries ago
they made it sound all wack and corny
yes it’s awful blasted boring
twisted fictions, sick addiction
well gather 'round children
zip it, listen”

“can we get much higher?”

https://open.spotify.com/track/7yNK27ZTpHew0c55VvIJgm?si=LFr7d_N2Tmm3X1jR6JzdoA

what many consider his magnum opus, kanye west released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on november 22, 2010.

after weeks of teasing his comeback with GOOD music fridays, MBDTF released to immediate critical acclaim.

10 years later, we long for the days of kanye at his creative heights, before the days of m*g* hats and a presidential.. um “campaign.”

so let us reminisce and take a look at the cultural impact of MBDTF with astrology.

in order to talk about the impact of this album, we have to go back. MBDTF’s predecessor, 808’s & heartbreak, which was not well received by critics. I would love to take a look at this album’s chart sometime as well, because its impact is a lot more complicated and complex.

critics slammed kanye for his use of autotune. however, 808’s influence permeates into today’s top artists, many of them citing this album as a huge influence. these artists include the likes of drake, lil uzi vert, travis scott, and the late juice wrld. https://open.spotify.com/track/285pBltuF7vW8TeWk8hdRR?si=m2GTwlamTUuU2VYvJDm5fw

808’s came out on november 24th, 2008 and although it was not loved by critics, kanye had massive commercial success in the following months. this album actually sold more than MBDTF did in the first week. that success ground to a halt on september 13th, 2009.

the shot heard ‘round the world

if you’re too young to remember, this moment that was meme’d to death nearly destroyed kanye’s career.

even the president, barack obama, commented on the matter, calling kanye a “jackass.” he references this in “Power,” which would become the first single on the new album.

celebrities, the media, and the average population highly criticized him for this move. jay leno, on live tv, asked him what his mother would think.

at the advice of mos def, kanye moves to rome for a little bit and started his involvement in the fashion industry.

later he moved to hawaii where he would spend 6 months working day and night with some of the most talented people in the industry to create the album we know today as my beautiful dark twisted fantasy.

here’s everyone given vocal credit on the album

here is the release chart.

november 22, 2010
midnight
new york, new york (where the now defunct rockafella records was located)

one of my sources for this thread is an amazing video by creator, the most unruly, about the making of this album. in this video, there are clips from interviews about what it was like to be in that studio.

give it a watch:

the process was described as being incredibly focused and collaborative. all these creative minds coming into a room and adding their creative two cents.

virgo is a sign of precision. it’s focused on perfecting.

as the rising sign for the album, we see that focused and dedicated approach but also the variable nature of mercury’s influence.

usually virgo is stereotyped as seeking perfection as opposed to perfecting onto things. kanye didn’t set out to put out a perfect album.

however, all of the hours put in made sure all the details flowed together.

in the album chart, mercury is in sagittarius (where it is in detriment) conjunct mars. these two planets answer to their ruler jupiter, who is in his water domicile of pisces in the 7th house.

mercury is considered to be in detriment in sagittarius because sag opposes gemini. mercury is used to a detailed, compartmentalized environment. sagittarius is the opposite; it’s expansive and limitless. so mercury has to adapt to this open space.

in sag, mercury is adventurous and thinks bigger. with mars here, there truly are no limits to the creativity of the mind.

kanye’s approach to this album was layered, adding verses and samples as the inspiration struck. the wikipedia article describes a “maximalist aesthetic.”

out of all of his albums, MBDTF has layers and layers of sound. as chris rock said, “there’s something for everyone.” the tracks are varied and show a wide range of creativity.

this is best seen in “All of the Lights” https://open.spotify.com/track/22L7bfCiAkJo5xGSQgmiIO?si=4u84fuwxRrCt8ia-YN2afQ

all of the lights was a collaborative effort that was not often seen in the mainstream. the artists featured didn’t simply have their own verses, they provided vocals that contributed to the overall melody (something kanye has done with production his whole career).

during the creation of this album, kanye wasn’t focused on editing (surprising given the virgo rising). he prided himself in the length of these tracks, and wanted to give the features and contributions the air time they deserved (mercury in sag).

they created so much content during these 6 months that there were extra tracks showcased on GOOD fridays leading up to the release.

“power” released on july 1st of 2010. starting on august 20th, kanye released tracks for free on his website every friday leading to the release.

these tracks included the extra tracks not found on the album as well as pre-releases of some tracks that were on the album. these versions were not the finished versions that were later released. “monster” was so good that kanye released it as a paid single instead on 10/23.

both the production of the album and the method of free releases, I feel, can be seen by jupiter’s placement in the chart. the ruler of the rising answers to jupiter in pisces in the 7th, the house of collaboration and partnership.

jupiter is in the highly creative sign of pisces indicates boundless creativity. and the generosity of jupiter in pisces shows us the release method leading up to this album. mercury as the ruler and the moon in gemini on the midheaven also shows consistent variety in release.

the production of the album was an intimate experience. rza describes the team spending the entire day together brainstorming about the direction of the album. they would work for 12+ hours straight pretty much every single day.

I feel like the mercury/mars conjunction in the 4th house (in sagittarius) references the fire that was created in this intimate environment.

speaking of “monster,” I think I found astrological evidence as to why nicki minaj created the best verse, arguably of all time, but most certainly the decade. it is critically acclaimed as such and is a fan favorite. https://open.spotify.com/track/1ZHYJ2Wwgxes4m8Ba88PeK?si=byrRZurGTBCpQ4Mc3QJjRA

nicki is a sag sun, as we know, and while she doesn’t have a confirmed birth time from a reliable source, her sun degree of 16 is pretty reliable because the sun moves only about a degree a day. in the album chart, that mercury/mars conj would be right on her sun (19° & 18°)

so, was she born to kill that verse? I would say so.

in an interview, nicki mentions that they spliced together several different takes to keep all the “monster grunts” which nicki wasn’t into at first. but it’s that perfection in editing that is done so well with virgo energy, as the ascendant of the chart.

in several interviews about the album, kanye talks about being inspired by excitement, influenced by his inner child, and how he treated this project like art.

“is it rap or is it poetry? is it spoken word or is it a speech?” the moon in gemini on the midheaven seeks to be all 4

this is my first time ever working with event charts, so I don’t know if the moon is considered more important because it’s a co-significator (like in horary) but either way, this is the sect light. as the most elevated planet, the moon is un-aspected by degree to the planets

I think this represents a ~cultural reset~ if you will, and shows its critical acclaim. there is an out of sign opposition with the sun (scorpio, 3H) which I think represents the shift in how he was portrayed by the media.

the media can be represented by the 3rd house. the last degree of scorpio shows the culmination of a very scorpio-like relationship he had with them at the time (feeling exposed and outcast).

his comeback was sort of an apology tour, but he was not as apologetic as he had been before his departure from the spotlight. he was setting the record straight, that his purpose in the famed interruption stemmed from the frustration of white mediocrity in the industry.

the music industry is representative of a wider problem in society in which black people have to work twice as hard for less recognition, meanwhile their white counterparts are praised for the bare minimum.

do you remember the video she won for? you remember single ladies tho

“if you say anything, you lose everything.” - kanye west

the moon on the midheaven is the most vulnerable planet in the most public aspect of a chart. tracks like runaway, blame game, and lost in the world show this raw vulnerability. in fact, that grit and raw honesty was something kanye pushed for every track on the album.

the 5th house of creativity shows us a pluto/north node conjunction in capricorn. pluto’s presence here shows the direction kanye wanted to go. pusha t recalls kanye pushing him to be “more of an asshole” on his verse in runaway.

this north node/pluto conjunction in the 5th house also harkens back to kanye honoring his inner child through the creative process. not to be cliche but it was “transformative” for him and his career. in more modern iterations of astrology, the 5th house houses the inner child

“in everything I’m trying to bring a piece of my childhood out in every piece of music I put out.”

kid cudi was a huge contributor to this album and his influence is seen in his synastry with the album chart. cudi’s birth time has an A rating, so it might not be 100% reliable, but using what we have the pluto/NN conjunction overlays onto his natal jupiter, venus, and mars.

lastly, I want to talk about the relationship themes in the album. the album chart has venus and saturn co-present in libra (in the 2nd house) where they both have dignity. the song runaway was a huge promotion for the album.

kanye made his comeback to the stage on september 12, 2010 at the vmas. in a year after his interruption, he created a passion project putting in 10s of thousands of hours and was now sharing that with the world in a more direct way. it was iconic

https://www.reddit.com/r/Kanye/comments/azf6q0/kanye_performing_runaway_at_the_2010_vma_awards/

by the way, ballet, which is featured in the runaway film as well, is such a venus/saturn aesthetic.

many of the tracks on this album are about relationships, for example: the destruction of one (blame game) and the initiation of another (lost in the world). he speaks about his relationship with society and what is expected of him (power, for example).

most importantly, this album represents how to handle the consequences of your actions. he had to grapple with how to get back in the public’s good graces while being fair to himself and what his actions meant to him.

my beautiful dark twisted fantasy released on november 22, 2010. it sold half a million copies in the first week and is now 2x certified platinum.

10 years later it represents a feat of creative and collaborative strength in the face of adversity.