My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the fifth
studio album by American
hip hop recording artist
Kanye West, released on November 22, 2010, through
Roc-A-Fella Records. Following a period of legal and public image controversy, West took a short hiatus from his music career. During a "self-imposed exile" to
Hawaii, he conceived the project; West subsequently worked on it through a communal development that involved him and other musicians and producers contributing collectively to its music between 2009 and 2010. Production was handled by West and several other record producers, including
Jeff Bhasker,
RZA,
No I.D., and
Mike Dean, among others. The album's original cover art was designed by
George Condo and rejected by some retail outlets; it features a presumably naked West being straddled by a nude winged female, with a spotted tail protruding from her buttocks.