“DONDA” is finally here.
Kanye West’s highly anticipated 10th studio album “DONDA” arrived early Sunday morning to many fans surprise. The 27-track album did not have a finalized release date. Kanye said that Universal released the album without his knowledge although his manger posted a screenshot of it on apple music promoting the project. Prior to the release Kanye had hosted three listening parties giving different progress states of the album. His final listening party was in Chicago on the 27th of August.
Compared to the first listening party where Kanye stood in the middle of the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA in a red outfit with a brown full face covering and let the album play to how he rebuilt his childhood home and brought out dancers, cars, and Kim Kardashian-West in a white wedding dress.
This album has been in the works since 2007 after the untimely passing of Kanye’s mother, Donda West. With the original title being “Donda’s Boy”, it has gone through a thorough crafting progress over the last 14 years. Many fans and critiques have blamed his behavior and outlashes in these past years on his mother not being here anymore after it became common knowledge that Kanye paid for the surgeries that ultimately caused his mother’s passing. Although, it was not his fault but the doctors many believe that Kanye holds the blame to himself as well.
The album has a large list of features including Jay-Z, Lil Baby, the Weekend, Baby Keem, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, and many others. With the project being a dedication to his mother it covers topics of triumph, strength, grieving, religion, and dedication with a heavy gospel influence. The opening track titled “Donda Chant” is a 52 second track of the late Donda West saying her name in different inflictions and goes straight into “Jail” featuring Jay Z. The album has two versions of this track, one with Dababy, after receiving heavy criticism when fans heard DaBaby’s verse replace Jay Z at the last listening party.
“Moon” featuring Don Toliver and Kid Cudi had gained a big traction after initially being heard at the first listening party. The song opens with Toliver pleading for one to not leave soon and that he is trying to travel to the moon and follows with the smooth humming of Cudi singing of how he is trying to deal with the idea that a loved one is not here. Kanye does not have a verse, but you hear background vocals of him throughout. Through the track even though Kanye’s presence is not big you feel how he almost either wants to bring his mother back or follow her.
What has not been talked about a lot is what is going to happen since “DONDA” has dropped. Kanye is known to take immense amounts of time on projects and since this one is very near to him how will he react to it being out now. At every listening party, the project gained a bigger visual presence and the order of the songs changed creating a different emotion every show. When one puts as much time and effort into a project for that long it is only right to assume that it takes something from them. It seems as if Kanye was trying to use this as a source to heal, so what happens when it does the opposite?
Listen to “DONDA” on all streaming platforms.