Kanye West released Donda, his most ambitious album yet, on August 29. Named after West’s late mother, Donda, the 27-track album’s listening party at Soldier Field in Chicago was so extravagant and excessive that it generated a lot of social media hype and gathered public attention. And, like most Kanye fans, I let all this publicity trick me into believing that Donda might become the biggest album of 2021.
The album’s listening party featured a replica of West’s childhood home, complete with a cross on the roof, which was precisely curated for Kanye’s performance, using the house’s front porch as his stage. The concert started with images of the late Donda West flashing across the screens as the stadium filled with a chant of her name. But the perfect conclusion to this listening party was when the rapper and his (soon-to-be-ex) wife, Kim Kardashian West, supposedly reenacted their wedding vows on stage, as the song “No Child Left Behind” played in the background, sparking rumors of KimYe’s reconciliation. Kanye certainly went above and beyond at the listening party, only to successfully create false expectations amongst his fans for the new album.
At only 52 seconds long, “Donda Chant” was the first and shortest song in the album, paying homage to his late mother. It is followed by “Jail,” which fans speculate is West talking about his marriage with Kardashian, using lyrics like “You made a choice that’s your bad, single life ain’t so bad” as their marriage hit the rocks.
Throughout the entirety of the album, West talks about Christianity and how he sought comfort in his faith after the passing of his mother. He embraces his religious side and lets his fans see him in a whole new light. This is evident in his song titles “Praise God,” “Jesus Lord,” and “Heaven and Hell,” which were all derived from biblical concepts. The rapper also highlights themes of compassion and forgiveness in his song “Jonah,” named after a Louisville artist who was shot and killed in August 2020. “Jonah” manages to explore these ideas with the use of lines like “Know how it feel to lose a brother, we got a bond still / 26 years, pops got out to see his son killed / … I see blood still” to refer to the late artist. He talks about the story of Jonah from the Bible and how he was able to receive forgiveness from God. In a nutshell, the entire album is just Kanye highlighting his own unique relationship with God, which might come across to some people as an extortion of God’s name. But I view it as a devotee’s expression of gratitude to his god, in a way that might be unfamiliar to people but is personal to them.
What the album does well is have impeccable lyric work. But what stands out the most is that it featured many notable artists that worked on the tracks along with Ye. Artists like Playboi Carti, The Weeknd, Travis Scott, and Kid Cudi were featured in the album. The fans were especially excited to see Jay-Z and Kanye join forces to work on the song “Jail.” Also featured in the album were DaBaby and Marilyn Manson, both of whom were invited to perform at the album’s listening party in Chicago, which created a lot of backlash. DaBaby has received a lot of criticism for his anti-gay comments and Manson has been in the headlines recently for sexual assault allegations.
While Donda is a satisfying mixture of hip-hop and gospel music, it ultimately failed to hit the mark. Although it was highly inspired by West’s personal life and the tracks had some very well-written lyrics, the album just felt never-ending and unnecessarily long. Almost half-way into every song I had to fight back the urge to skip to the next one.
West’s Donda felt forced, and the tempos switched drastically in many songs, almost making tracks sound like two completely different songs. Clocking in at nearly two hours, the album was very hard to pay attention to and was a true test of your patience. Unfortunately, the new album by Ye was a huge let-down to those eagerly waiting for its arrival.
