My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the fifth studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on November 22, 2010, through Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. Following a period of public and legal controversy, West retreated to a self-imposed exile in Hawaii in 2009. There, he worked on the album in a communal recording environment involving numerous contributing musicians and producers. The recording sessions featured guest appearances from: Bon Iver, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, Nicki Minaj, John Legend, and Raekwon, among others. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was recorded in sessions at Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii. Additional recording took place at Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, California, and at Electric Lady Studios and Platinum Sound Recording Studios in New York City. It was produced mainly by West, along with a variety of high-profile producers such as: Mike Dean, No I.D., Jeff Bhasker, RZA, S1, Bink, and DJ Frank E. Music journalists have noted the album features a maximalist aesthetic and opulent production quality with elements of West's previous works, including soul, baroque, electro, and symphonic styles, as well as progressive rock influences. Thematically, the content explores West's status as a celebrity, consumer culture, race, and the idealism of the American Dream. To help market My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, West released free songs through his GOOD Fridays weekly free music release series and four singles—the Billboard Hot 100 hits "Power", "Runaway", and "Monster", and the international hit "All of the Lights". The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). West also used music festival performances and a short film set to the music, Runaway, in promotion of it. Following the release, West performed headlining sets at several large festivals, including SXSW 2011, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, and Coachella 2011. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was named the best of 2010 in many publications' critics polls, including the Pazz & Jop, and was later ranked by several professionally curated lists as among the greatest albums of all time. It was an immediate and widespread critical success, with music critics directing general praise towards the maximalist sound. The album won Best Rap Album at the 54th Grammy Awards but was not nominated for Album of the Year, which was viewed as a "snub" by several outlets. The artwork, by George Condo, showing West being straddled by an armless winged female (a phoenix), has been ranked as one of the greatest album covers of all time.