It's such a special treat to follow Kanye West on Twitter. Yesterday he posted a Twitpic of the cover art for his upcoming album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, along with the words "Banned in the USA!!!" In a series of tweets that followed, West explained that the cover image, which features a naked female torso (along with angel wings, fangs and an artistic rendering of West holding a bottle), was no more controversial than album covers of the '60s and '70s. "In all honesty," he wrote, "I really don't be thinking about Wal-Mart when I make my music or album covers #Kanyeshrug! I wanna sell albums but not at the expense of my true creativity." The Los Angeles Times said West was exaggerating when he said the album cover had been banned; a source at Universal said that he was strongly urged not to use the cover so that the album could be displayed in stores such as Wal-Mart. Well, "strongly urged" sounds a lot less exciting than "banned."
Read more at the Huffington Post.
Lauren is a former Deputy Editor of The Root.