While that article seems quaint now (it even refers to the online releases as “free of charge”), the strategy West and Island Def Jam deployed was unusual – and regarded as risky - at the time.Īlthough the Billboard article notes that Swizz Beatz, Timbaland and RZA were quick to follow in ‘Ye’s footsteps (and that West himself enjoyed “enormous publicity” from the G.O.O.D. Music Fridays in the fall of 2010, West made six of the 13 MBDTF tracks available for streaming on his website ahead of the album’s release, which Billboard referred to as an “unorthodox strategy” in the Dec. The album’s association with that incident has faded a bit from collective memory, though it’s a testament to the towering reputation and ongoing impact of MBDTF that it successfully shook off the stink of one of the defining WTF pop culture moments of the 21st century.Īside from pushing forward nearly every musical genre of the 2010s with its hypnotic blur of styles, MBDTF was also an early influencer in a release strategy that would become increasingly common in the early 2010s. 12 peak for “Runaway.” At the time, that single was widely interpreted as West’s tacit acknowledgment of being kinda-sorta a jerk for his infamous interruption of Taylor Swift’s 2009 VMAs acceptance speech, which was followed by a months-long media hiatus during which West finalized this bleak, frenzied masterpiece.įew reviews of the album were complete without a reference to the VMAs - heck, it was the lede of ours. 11, 2010 and producing four top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 - the highest of those being a No.

It was a commercial hit, too, debuting atop the Billboard 200 on Dec.

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