There’s been a lot of noise about the above image, which serves as the album cover for Kanye West’s forthcoming LP, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The word on the street is that some big box retailers are refusing to stock the album with that image attached, Kanye has said the cover was banned, and others just think it’s weird. Kanye thinks it is awesome, and if there is one thing I picked up from last night’s Chicago premiere of “Runaway”, that is all that matters at this point in the artistic career of Kanye West. He mentioned repeatedly that he wants to create art from the standpoint of a 5 year old, a kid that does what he believes to be creatively great before outside messages, social norms, detractors tell him what is or is not “creatively great.” Kanye talked about the album artwork with MTV, with his statements mirroring what he said in Chicago last night.
“I told [Condo] I wanted a phoenix, and that’s what he came up with,” said West. “And what I love about it is, both me and George express ourselves with our truest vision, not based on what society or culture feels is right, but what’s truly in our heart, and I just know if George was in my class back when I was in kindergarten, and he came up with something like that, I would’ve been envious, like, ‘Man, how did you come up with that character with no arms and the wings, man? That’s cool!’ … And it’s simply like that. I just really love the colors. I thought the colors were just amazing, and the imagery was amazing. I thought it was a cool, awesome cover.”
He also told MTV that the album will have 5 covers. So, if the above doesn’t do it for you, maybe you’ll get luck with option 3 or 5… See the clip from MTV below and look for my write-up of last night’s screening coming soon.