Kanye West has influenced an entire new generation of rappers, including Los Angeles’ Tre Capital. The independent rapper explained on an episode of Best Albums why his favorite album is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, West‘s follow-up to the genre-bending 808s & Heartbreak.
There was a lot of anticipation for the Chicago powerhouse’s next project and Tre Capital recalls following the story line from West breaking up with his girlfriend Amber Rose to his feud with Taylor Swift.
“He never sticks on the same sound, every album,” he explains. “So coming off 808s, he was like lacing it up in Japan, he was broken up with Amber, so everybody’s like, ‘Ah man is he gonna be singing again? What is he gonna do?’ Me, as a fan, I knew he was gonna be going ham, ’cause I was like, me and my nerdy self, I’m doing all the background research before the album comes out. Who’s on it? Who’s possibly doing beats? Where’s the pictures at? All of that. So I see No I.D. I see like everyone going to Hawaii. Rick Ross is like, ‘I’m out here boy.’ I knew it was gonna really be kinda next level. I felt like he was gonna get back on the rapping tip, especially just because there’s so much craziness going on around his name, the Taylor Swift stuff. I feel like he’s gotta reprove himself again. I knew he kinda had a chip on his shoulder.”
One of the standout tracks on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy for Tre Capital is “So Appalled,” which was the first song he heard. Yeezy debuted the single at a performance with Kid Cudi.
“He did a cappella. He did the ‘I sold my soul to the devil, that’s a crappy deal.’ Everybody’s like ‘Oh my God, what?'” Tre recalls. “Then, after that, he just dropped the beat and at that time, I kinda knew, I was like, ok first off, I’m a huge producer too. So at first, I’m like ‘Who did this beat? Who did “So Appalled?” That beat is disgusting.’ Then that was the very first song I heard and I was like oh man, that’s gonna be wild.”
“Runaway” was soon to follow. The cut was accompanied by a 34-minute short film filled with ballerinas, a stark contrast to many motifs in rap. For Tre Capital, this furthered the evidence for Kanye’s genius.
“He’s always a big person on presentation,” he says. “I’m so in depth when it comes to album covers, tracklist, all of that. So when I saw the ‘Runaway’ presentation, he’s still incorporating rap into his whole persona, but I think he’s taking the extra milestone steps to kinda separate himself.”
And “Monster” was another example of Kanye doing things that only Kanye could do. The song became a smash hit with Jay Z and Rick Ross and was widely considered a breakout moment for Nicki Minaj.
“It was so simple, the minimalism was very key and essential,” Tre says of the song’s production. “For not a lot of songs, there’s songs where he went up and down. But then when it came to ‘Monster,’ I liked how simple it was. He was kinda emphasizing, ‘I’m a raw, talented artist. I got Nicki and Hov on this.’ I think he was just going for trying to solidify ‘I’m the only one who can do this. You can’t even get Hov on a song, matter of fact two records, matter of fact on a song with Nicki, let her shine.’ I think he was really setting the standard.”
Sonically, Capital applauds West for bringing in people like RZA, Talib Kweli and Q-Tip to help give a classic hip-hop feel to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The entire project was a collaborative effort, which Tre knew he could expect well before the LP hit the streets.
“I know with GOOD, they’re always going to try to incorporate large amounts of just having mad people in the same room,” he shares. “I kinda got that vibe from GOOD Fridays, when he was just dropping the loosies. I kinda thought, ok, this is probably what the direction of the album’s gonna be. If he’s focusing on his whole, ‘I’m on my fashion tip. I’m the Louis Vuitton don. I’m really kinda, I got all these people on here. I got seven, eight artists on the same song.’ So I kinda feel like the songwriting, the punchlines, him punching in, he really wanted every line to really matter. So he was cramming in. And I like when albums are built like that, especially knowing the amount of resources and just sounds and kits that he can have access to, it’s like he can pretty much make his own world full on.”
Tre concludes that this album was a special moment in Kanye’s illustrious career. After the mark on the industry that was 808s, he shares that artistically, West put himself in his own lane with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
“Kanye was here to stay for sure,” he says of the statement of the album. “I think he knew at this time, ‘This was the point where a lot of people are gonna support my music no matter what, but then a lot of people are going to be divided by what I want to do.’ So I think it’s a battle for him trying to cater to both audiences and be like ‘I know my core group is gonna support anything I do, but there’s still a lot of people who doubt me.’ So I think him coming off of 808s, he’s like ‘Ok, I really gotta step it up.'”