My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West’s fifth studio album, drops in about one month’s time on November 22.  In anticipation of the album’s release, Kanye is giving fans a peek into his final plans.  He tweeted on Sunday, “Last day to wrap the album… I’m feeling so blessed on this day… finishing my 5th studio album in 6 years! Lining up piano sample replays.”  He then revealed, “Adding the voice samples from the VMA performance to the album version of Runaway also the whole song is 8 minutes long.”  So the single version of “Runaway” (now available on iTunes) is not the final version making it to the album.  Good to hear, since those voice samples rock.  On Twitter he also spilled that the Runaway short film (which is 35 minutes in length) to accompany the new album will premiere simultaneously on MTV, MTV2, BET, MTV.com, BET.com, and VH1.com next Saturday, October 23 at 8PM ET.

So now let’s talk about that “banned” album cover you see sitting above.  It’s a George Condo piece featuring a cartoonish (and nude) Kanye West sprawled out on a bed with a nude, winged, and polka dotted tailed, armless woman-beast on top of him.  On Twitter Kanye screamed, “Yoooo they banned my album cover!!!!!” and continued, “Banned in the USA!!! They don’t want me chilling on the couch with my phoenix!”  He went on to share his excitement about the album cover and the reaction it was getting.  “I know that cover just blew yall minds … I wish yall could see how hard I’m smiling right now!!!”  Then he started to complain about the “ban”.  “In the 70s album covers had actual nudity… It’s so funny that people forget that… Everything has been so commercialized now.”  “In all honesty … 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.”  “So Nirvana can have a naked human being on they cover but I can’t have a PAINTING of a monster with no arms and a polka dot tail and wings.”  But was the album cover acutally banned after all?  The answer, quite simply, is no.

According to the LA Times, the racy cover was not “banned” in the full sense of the word.  An anonomous source close to the matter says that Kanye’s label UMG Island Def Jam “strongly urged [Kanye] to use alternate art” but added that Kanye “was told if he wanted to do it, the label would stand behind him.”  The same source also said that the main issue at hand “was whether or not mass-market retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart would carry an album featuring venomous nudes.”  But in a statement to EW, Wal-Mart denies rejecting the album art.  Said a Wal-Mart spokesperson: “We’re excited about Kanye West’s new album and we look forward to carrying it in our stores on November 22nd.  As always, it’s our standard practice to carry the edited parental advisory version.  We did not reject the cover artwork and it was never presented to us to view.”

So there you have it.  The label did not ban the album cover and giant retailers do not have the intention to boycott it.  This appears to be a classic case of Kanye West stirring up some controversy and igniting the hype for what promises to be a hot commodity come this November.

[Via @kanyewest; EW, here & here; LATimes]