Kanye West's 'MBDTF' Was Reportedly Almost a Completely Different Album Called 'Donda's Boy'

Kanye West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' was almost a completely differently album.

Any day that starts with an immediately-regarded-as-classic Kanye West story is a good day. On the latest episode of ItsTheReal's A Waste of Time podcast, Rory Farrell spoke with Eric and Jeff Rosenthal about his days as a Def Jam intern during West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasyera. According to Rory, the original vision for what is widely considered West's greatest album—which Rory said was first entitled Donda's Boy—was quite different than the critically acclaimed final product.

"I was in meetings that interns were not supposed to be in," Rory recalled. Months ahead of the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, for example, West showed up at the Def Jam offices with a special request. "No one had seen him," Rory said. "He shows up out of nowhere at the Def Jam offices like Lupe and Nas trying to get their albums out, in a full suit. He has, I want to say it was Don C's son but don't quote me, a child dressed identical to him, carrying his Louis Vuitton bag. Comes in and is throwing a fit at how shitty everyone is dressed. So he says, 'I'm not doing business today until everyone is in a suit.'"

Ahead of West’s return the following day, everyone in the office was scrambling to find black suits. When West arrived, the aforementioned child opened up the Louis bag, tossed a blanket over the conference table, and poured West "either white wine or water" into a medieval wine glass. "Kanye says, 'I'm parched, we can begin now,'" Rory said. 

West then played the office My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which was then entitled Donda's Boy. "The idea was that it was going to be 10 tracks, and each track was going to be 10 minutes," Rory said. "'Runaway' was 20 minutes long. Pusha wasn't on it. Kanye was singing for 15 minutes of it at the end." The bonus track "See Me Now," Rory added, had no Beyoncé on the hook at the time. Eventual single "All of the Lights" was also featureless. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy but it was just Kanye West," Rory said. "And it was amazing."

Listen to the full podcast below. The West stories start at around the 42-minute mark.

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Shortly after multiple outlets started picking up Rory's stories, legendary producer Mike Dean appeared to question their validity on Twitter. Dean, of course, has worked closely with West since his 2007 album Graduation:

Plain Pat, who previously worked as West's manager and was integral to his early successes, also questioned the alleged alternate title. "News to me," he said, marking his first tweet in nearly six months.

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