Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" has topped another important end-of-year albums poll after landing the honor from Spin magazine's editors. The acclaimed album was named the best of 2010 ahead of Deerhunter's "Halcyon Digest" and "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire.
LCD Soundsystem's "This is Happening" and Jamey Johnson's "The Guitar Song" round out the Spin top five, while albums from M.I.A., Kid Cudi, Janelle Monae, Grinderman and Robyn make the top 10. In related news, rap sensation Nicki Minaj has swapped Lil Wayne for Kanye West as her mentor after befriending the "Stronger" hitmaker while recording her debut album. The "Check It Out" star was given her big break by Wayne in August 2009 when he signed her to his Young Money Entertainment label, but he was unable to oversee her rise to fame when he was jailed for eight months earlier this year for a gun charge.
Minaj struck up a working relationship with West through her friendship with his ex-girlfriend, model Amber Rose, and she soon landed a spot on the rap superstar's hit collaboration "Monster", which also featured Jay-Z and Rick Ross. They went on to work on "Blazin' ", a duet for Minaj's new release "Pink Friday" - and they are now so close, she turns to West for career advice.
She tells RWD.com, "When it came to me putting my album out, I was like, 'I can't have an album without Kanye. He has to be a part of it.' He's become my mentor, he gives me advice, he hits me (with contacts), takes random pictures offline and says, 'Oh this is a good picture of you.' He's really into fashion so he's a good person to have a well-rounded conversation with."