Kanye Finally Drops Donda

Jacob Egozi, Web & Media Manager|September 23, 2021

Legendary rapper Kanye West finally released what seemed to be one of the most anticipated albums of the year this past week and let me say it was not worth the wait. While the album included some clever lyrics and production, after listening to this project I understand why West took so long to release it. With 27 songs it is currently the longest rap album to be released this year, and I would not be complaining if the 27 songs brought 1 hour and 49 minutes of joy and musical genius, but sadly it did not.

West’s project Donda was released on 29 Aug, 2021 and was his 10th studio album. West has been spending the past few months doing multiple publicity stunts for his album such as building a replica of his old Chicago home in the Atlanta Mercedes Benz stadium while he lived there to finish the album. When this project was released to the general public, Kanye stans went insane and with 196.6 million streams in the first 2 days and 520 thousand downloads in its first full week, Kanye seemed to break the internet and even tied legendary rapper Eminem for most consecutive number 1 album debuts while simultaneously breaking the 2021 record of most streamed album and artist in one day.

Immediately following the release of Donda West took to Instagram and Twitter to let his fans know the album was released without his permission. After weeks of listening parties and undoubtedly millions of dollars in revenue, West’s label Universal supposedly released the project without his permission and even left a song off of the album. Kanye was undoubtedly mad at the situation but after breaking multiple records and most likely earning hundreds of thousands if not millions from the album, it seems worse things could have happened.

While this album is 27 songs long, a listener would expect at least 10 to 15 of these songs to be good, but in reality more than half of the album is instrumental and has no lyrics over the same 5 second loop of snares and organs. Many of the lyrics in this album seem to be thrown in there and lack the cleverness of Kanye that millions of people all know and love.

Although the album was not at all worth the hype and seemed to be a stretched out 2 hour long project, West was very clever in creating certain parts of his album. The opening song “Donda Chant” is just a 3 minute long close up of what seems like an ASMR version of a woman saying “Donda” over and over again. When I originally heard this I thought Kanye was insane but I then came to realize that the speed the woman on this song is saying “Donda” in was Kanye’s mom’s heartbeat as she died during a surgery. One quality about Kanye is no matter how random or crazy his albums and songs may be, he will always surprise the listener with at least one instance of a very well thought out and clever method to express something.

While I did not like this album at all, I can appreciate the artistic value of the songs and certain verses where Kanye showcases his talent such as on “Off the Grid.” I think Donda was not at all worth the hype and honestly if it was released by any other artist than Kanye West it would not have done nearly as well in the first week. Donda was honestly somewhat disappointing, but ride or die Kanye fans can’t seem to get enough of it.

Personal Album Rating & Enjoyment: 5.5/10

Personal Song Ranking