Kanye’s Beautiful Dark Twisted .. Reality ?

It's safe to say when asking whether someone loves or hates Kanye West, there is no "grey area". It's one or the other. Many are torn between hating the arrogant person that is Kanye West and loving the genius musician that is Kanye West. Last year, West snatched the microphone from a young Taylor Swift at the MTV VMA's over her winning an award that Kanye West passionately felt Beyonce deserved more. That incident seemed to be the last straw and even Kanye had enough of himself and went into hiding.

Fast forward to one year later and Mr. West had a NEW attitude. He joined Twitter. He visited Facebook. He vowed to make every Friday a G.O.O.D. Friday, where he would give away a new song every Friday until Christmas. And he delivered. He had a new outlook on life and a new album to show for it. People still had their reservations about Kanye and wouldn't be convinced overnight. Of course Kanye wouldn't be Kanye unless he was his own worst enemy. About a week before his album dropped Kanye West was on the Today show with Matt Lauer and the topic of George Bush & Taylor Swift came up again sending Kanye into "no one understands me and everyone is out to get me" mode. He canceled all interviews and went on a social media tirade against the Today Show, Matt Lauer and all media who "twisted" words to make headlines.

With all the negative press Kanye still got rave reviews from Rolling Stone, Metacritic & many other music critics & pundits. Some even called the album a "modern classic" and already christened it as a surefire candidate for album of the year. But with all the negative energy surrounding Kanye West, and no promotion in the week leading up to its release, not to mention the fact that Kanye gave away half of his album through G.O.O.D. Friday releases, oh AND the questionable album artwork that is blurred out in the majority of stores, album sales would surely hurt, right ??

Wrong.

With all the above mentioned factors, Kanye's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" still managed to sell an impressive 495, 835 units in the first week of it's release. But the hype ? Now that it has been out for over a week, all the reviews ... does it still harbor the same impact ?

Absolutely.

On the topic of Kanye's album living up to the buzz MTV says

If anything, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the sort of album that rewards replays. West's lyrical tricks are pretty impressive, but it's almost certainly one of the best produced albums in the past few years. The tracks sound great both coming out of giant speakers and run through headphones, and they contain an incredible number of sonic layers. "Dark Fantasy" ebbs and flows in subtle ways, while "All of the Lights" sounds more and more like the greatest piece of hip-hop bombast since T.I.'s "Live Your Life." "Lost in the World" is one of the weirdest tracks to appear on a mainstream album in some time, and "Hell of a Life" remains a staggering combination of hip-hop, metal, sex, rage and pure pop. It's really, truly amazing. And of course, there's still "Runaway." The album version restores the live sampling that West did live at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, and the extended Auto-Tune riff at the end of the track is surprisingly lively and deep. Relive that moment and, if you haven't already, dive deep into My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. You won't be disappointed.

Love him or hate him, if he can push half a million in the first week as one of the most notorious celebrivillains, Kanye West isn't going anywhere for a long time.