![]() ![]() ![]() You’ve got to be one of those jerkoffs who never takes work off, and that’s not the half of it. ![]() “Monster” opens with Justin Vernon, rendered demonic by distortion, shooting the lights out and asking, “Are you willing to sacrifice your life?” Maybe he’s talking about adopting the kind of self-aggrandizing perfectionist personality it takes to become an artist of Kanye’s caliber. The aforementioned Frankenstein monster is an apt analogy for “Monster,” as the song amounts to a bunch of weird incongruous bits pieced together to form something awesome, if creepy. “Monster” also became the top hip-hop song of 2010 on Genius according to pageviews. “Monster”-which also features Rick Ross, JAY-Z, and indie rocker Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver-emerged as one of the most acclaimed tracks on an album full of bizarro triumphs. And Kanye got something out of the deal, too. Nicki went on to become one of the biggest stars of the 2010s and the highest-selling female rapper of all time. “Monster” vaulted Minaj into hip-hop’s upper echelon, a place she was almost certainly heading anyway. Fortunately, on this particular occasion, West checked his ego and let Minaj’s verse stand-a decision that would have major implications for the next decade of popular music. Kanye told Sway in 2013 that he “knew people would say was the best verse on the best hip-hop album of all time, or arguably top ten albums of all time,” and he couldn’t live with that. ![]() Ye’s impetus, naturally, was fear of being upstaged. As he put the finishing touches on “Monster,” the gloriously strange and stitched-together posse cut that served as the third single off his groundbreaking fifth album, 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, West nearly cut the final verse, a dazzling 80-second barrage of accents, personalities, and crazy-quilt rhymes from Nicki Minaj, then a promising newcomer with only a handful of mixtapes and singles to her credit. Frankenstein, Kanye West felt himself losing control of his creation. In honor of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary year, we’re looking back at the top artists, songs, albums, and producers of “The Genius Era,” 2009 to the present. ![]()
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