Kanye West Fans Come Together on the Anniversary of “Devil in a New Dress”

Today marks the ninth anniversary of the release of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. Instead of praising the album or the more popular songs, Kanye fans have flooded social media with memes and comments praising the Rick Ross assisted track “Devil in a New Dress”/

“Devil in a New Dress” is a soulful track that features Kanye and Rick Ross trading verses over a Smokey Robinson sample. It’s the 8th track off MBDTF but one of the album’s deeper cuts when compared to songs like “Monster”, “Runaway”, and “Power”. Instead of talking about the hits, fans bonded over their shared love of “Devil in a New Dress”.

Rick Ross recently detailed the making of the song in his new autobiography “Hurricanes”. Kanye flew Ross out to Honolulu, Hawaii where the producer/rapper had rented out all three rooms at Avex Honolulu Studios for 24 hours a day in order to finish the album.

Ross describes the recording process as one of the most intense, unique experiences he’s had in his music career. “I did know that something different was taking place here.” He wrote in Hurricanes, “Kanye had flown in a murderer’s row of emcees, producers and songwriters to work on this project. Legendary beatmakers like No I.D., Pete Rock and DJ Toomp. Young superstars in the making like Nicki Minaj, Kid Cudi and Big Sean.”

Ross says the first thing he noticed was a collection of signs on the studio walls that told him this was going to be something completely different than what he was used to.

NO TWEETING
NO HIPSTER HATS
ALL LAPTOPS ON MUTE
JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP SOMETIMES
NO TWEETING PLEASE THANK YOU
NO BLOGGING
NO NEGATIVE BLOG VIEWING
DON’T TELL ANYONE ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING WE’RE DOING!
NO RACKING FOCUS WHILE MUSIC IS BEING PLAYED OR MUSIC IS BEING MADE
TOTAL FOCUS ON THIS PROJECT IN ALL STUDIOS
NO ACOUSTIC GUITAR IN THE STUDIO
NO PICTURES

“Kanye’s creative process was a little chaotic. He’s a real theory.” Ross wrote “One minute Kanye would be with me working on “Live Fast, Die Young” and then suddenly he’d leave to see how Nicki’s verse was coming along on “Monster” in the other room.”

Rick Ross was able to record a 4 bar bridge on the song “Monster” and then a verse for “Devil in a New Dress”. Kanye ended up releasing “Devil in a New Dress” without Ross’ verse as part of his G.O.O.D. Music Fridays back in 2010. He then reworked the song with Mike Dean and invited Ross to New York City as he was finishing the album.

Ross says Kanye didn’t like the verse he recorded in Hawaii and asked him to write a new one for the album. “I know that you can do something better than that,” he said to Ross.

“In all my years no one had ever asked me to rewrite a verse before.” Ross said of the encounter, “Even when I was a nobody ghostwriting for artists way bigger than me no one had ever said something like that.” He added that he was “shocked but I wasn’t offended.” He wrote and recorded a new verse that day and the rest is history.

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Social Media Pays Homage to the Song Instead of the Album

“Devil in a New Dress” started trending on Twitter this morning and didn’t stop. Tweets poured in from Kanye and Rick Ross fans praising the song and sharing memes and memories from the song’s release.

Instead of praising the release of the album, fans took the opportunity to focus on an underrated song that usually gets eclipsed by the more popular cuts on the album.

One fan recorded a cover of the iconic guitar solo at the end of the song and another posted some art inspired by the song.

The widespread focus on the song was unexpected but appeared to connect music fans from all over who bonded over the deep cut on the album.

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