Kanye x Complex Mag : Project Runaway

Fresh off of the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy yesterday, Kanye lands on the cover of Complex for their December/January issue.

Inside of Complex's December/January 2011 issue you get a behind the scenes look at the creative process for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, as well as commentary from key contributors to the project. Those key contributors include Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver), Pusha T, KiD CuDi, Pete Rock, & Nicki Minaj to name a few. We have an excerpt from the Complex piece, with Q-Tip describing his trip to Hawaii.

“I’d never worked the way Kanye was working in Hawaii. Everybody’s opinions mattered and counted. You would walk in, and there’s Consequence and Pusha T and everybody is sitting in there and he’s playing music and everyone is weighing in. It was like music by committee. [Laughs.] It was fresh that everybody cared like that. I have my people that listen to my stuff—I think everybody does—but his thing is much more like, if the delivery guy comes in the studio and Kanye likes him and they strike up a conversation, he’ll go, ‘Check this out, tell me what you think.’ Which speaks volumes about who he is and how he sees and views people. Every person has a voice and an idea, so he’s sincerely looking to hear what you have to say—good, bad, or whatever.
“In art, whether it was Michelangelo or Rembrandt or all these dudes, they’ll sketch something, but their hands may not necessarily touch the paint. Damien Hirst may conceptualize it, but there’s a whole crew of people who are putting it together, like workers. His hand doesn’t have to touch the canvas, but his thought does. With Kanye, when he has his beats or his rhymes, he offers them to the committee and we’re all invited to dissect, strip, or add on to what he’s already started. By the end of the sessions, you see how he integrates and transforms everyone’s contributions, so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. He’s a real wizard at it. What he does is alchemy, really.”

KiD CuDi also reaffirms Q-tip's statement about Kanye's work in the studio.

“It’s very casual; we’re all creative people, so it’s not a stressful thing for us to create in the studio. We’re not in there pulling our hair out. We all have good ideas, and that’s why the records usually come out the way they come out - everybody adds their flavor, and it ends up being a masterpiece.”

You can read the entire article (before it hits stands) online here.

Over at NYmag there is a oral history of the making of Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Also at NYmag, is artist George Condo's explanation for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy artwork.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is in stores now.