Kanye West’s long awaited album “DONDA,” finally dropped on all platforms after hosting a handful of listening parties ranging from Atlanta to Chicago. The album includes contributions from The Weeknd, Jay-Z, Jay Electronica, the Lox, Young Thug, Kid Cudi, Playboi Carti, Vory, Travis Scott, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Baby Keem, Lil Yachty, Dababy, Marilyn Manson, Don Toliver, Fivio Foreign, Ty Dolla $ign, Chris Brown, and the late Pop Smoke.
The producers include Mike Dean, Swizz Beatz, 88 Keys, Boi-1da, E.Vax of Ratatat, Wheezy, and Gesaffelstein.
The true beginning of DONDA was introduced in the Summer of 2020 with the track of the same name being previewed on Twitter by Mr. West himself. You could hear his mother reciting lyrics of the hit song “Sound Of Da Police,” over a choir-esque background.
Just a week after Kanye posted that now-deleted snippet on Twitter, he posted a track-list along with a release date, which was going to be July 24th of 2020. One of the songs on the track list, “Wash Us In The Blood,” was previously released accompanied by a feature from Travis Scott which gave fans true hope that DONDA wasn’t going to be like the now-defunct album YANDHI, which Ye teased numerous times just to be scrapped.
Just a couple days after he released the track-list(7/20/20), Kanye tweeted a completely different tracklist in which “Wash Us In The Blood,” was no longer present. It was initially 12 tracks which was around 39 minutes.
Fast forward two days later after it’s initial release date(7/25/20), Kanye tweeted and shared what was supposed to be the cover art for the album which consisted of people and the sun/moon in the sky with an infrared scheme.
A couple months later(9/26/20), Kanye previews a snippet via Twitter with the caption “BELIEVE WHAT I SAY (snippet)” which features 40 seconds of a home video on a boat with a Lauryn Hill sample.
A big surprise to many at the time is when Kanye announced his presidential campaign, but a few months after that(10/16/20), Ye released his single titled “NAH NAH NAH,” as his campaign’s theme song. This gave the impression to fans that DONDA will be yet another scrapped project indefinitely.
CyHi the Prince, a Kanye West affiliate, sat down with world-renowned platform VLADTV(3/7/21) and announced that Ye went back to working on DONDA. This came just weeks after Kim Kardashian filed for a divorce with Kanye West.
Fast forward to almost a year after DONDA was first previewed(7/17/21), Tyler, the Creator was spotted with Kanye West in the studio via Instagram. There is also a white board you can see vaguely in the background which consists of a 10 song track list.
G.O.O.D Music affiliate Pusha T announced via Instagram that there will be a listening party for DONDA(7/19/21) in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, planned for July 22nd.
The album was later teased when Kanye West made his debut on social media platform Instagram with a post(now deleted/archived) of USA track star Sha’Carri Richardson in her element getting ready for a track meet as a snippet of now-released “No Child Left Behind,” played in the background. This post was soon after the controversy with Sha’Carri Richardson and the Olympics with her being disqualified for testing positive for marijuana use.
DONDA finally released but it didn’t arrive as planned according to Kanye West via Instagram. In the post Ye says “UNIVERSAL PUT MY ALBUM OUT WITHOUT MY APPROVAL AND THEY BLOCKED JAIL 2 FROM BEING ON THE ALBUM.” For context, there were speculated rumors that Dababy’s manger didn’t clear his verse for his appearance on “Jail 2,” hence why Kanye made a statement about the track. The rumor was proven false by Dababys manager via Instagram.
The final tracklist consists of 29 tracks which totals to around an hour and 48 minutes. Will we see the album be pulled from all platforms or is it here to stay?