After a year of relative quiet following his Taylor Swift fiasco, Kanye West has bludgeoned his way back into the spotlight this fall, culminating with the release of his fifth studio album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” last week.
 
While the record has received rave reviews, West’s music has always been just a small part of the Kanye West persona.
 
After all, he wasn’t named one of Barbara Walters’ most fascinating people in 2005 simply because he was a unique hip-hop artist or an innovative producer.  
It was because he called the president of the United States a racist on live television.
 
Kanye has always been intriguing because of the contradictions inherent in his stardom.
 
One moment he is rudely interrupting one of America’s beloved pop stars, and the next he is crying on late night TV apologizing to everyone including his deceased mother over it.
 
In his raps, he name-drops high fashion brands like Christian Dior and Hermes even though he is a rapper who grew up lower-middle class in Chicago.
These contradictions only continue in the wake of his latest album.
 
He was nearly booed off a float while performing at New York’s annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and was berated as a jerk and other derogatory names by festive parade attendees.
 
That same night, he performed a small secret concert at New York’s Bowery Ballroom and unleashed a 10-minute rant aimed at everyone from the media to Taylor Swift to George W. Bush.
 
“There is no leader in history that has been a villain in that way that didn’t get killed in war or commit suicide, so any man that lives through it deserves one moment of redemption,” West said about Bush. “Any man!”
 
So, in the same breath that he calls Bush a villain, West also claims he deserves redemption.
 
Kanye seems to identify with Bush since being vilified — and rightfully so — for interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs in 2009.
 
Despite identifying with Bush and believing he should have an opportunity for redemption, West still believes his own words against the man were accurate.  
“For me to be considered a racist for stating the blatant truth, an obvious truth,” he said.
 
Then, on Tuesday night, he showed up at a New York charity event unannounced and wrapped Christmas presents for children for more than an hour before leaving quietly.
 
He can be an outright jerk, but, true to his contradictory style, he shows flashes of humanity and self-deprecation that keep people confused and fascinated.
 
While Kanye’s antics may make him a larger-than-life, polarizing star, it’s doubtful he would remain relevant if he made bad music or failed to sell records.
 
Since August, West has given away free tracks every Friday on his website, labeling the project “GOOD Fridays.” — named after his own GOOD record label.
 
These GOOD Friday tracks form the backbone of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” meaning most of the album was already available for free well before last week’s release.
 
Much like Lil Wayne’s mixtape barrage prior to his chart-topping album “Tha Carter III” in 2008, the decision to build anticipation through free product paid off for West, as “Fantasy” sold 518,000 copies in its first week  — a huge number in the current sales climate.
 
True to Kanye’s ambitious nature, the album features staggering cross-genre collaborations with artists like folk-rocker Bon Iver, pop star Elton John and R&B queen Alicia Keys.
 
Despite being a hip-hop artist, West’s unique production style incorporates samples from Black Sabbath, King Crimson and Aphex Twin songs on the new record.
Even though West often uses his Twitter — which is filled with hilarious, insightful and outrageous tweets — to blast the way the media portrays him, “Fantasy” has received universal acclaim among critics, including an overall rating of 93 on ratings aggregator Metacritic, a five-star review in Rolling Stone and the first perfect 10 rating for a new album in eight years on the famously elitist indie site, Pitchfork.
 
Ironically, West’s best-received album may ultimately be his first record without a top-10 single, as every full track runs longer than five minutes and takes on some dark subject material.
 
Just another contradiction for a star all about the paradox.
 
 
 
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Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected]