Kanye West - Donda
Hip-hop/Rap – Released August 29, 2021 – 27 songs, 1 hr 49 mins
*****ALBUM FACEOFF PICK*****
ROZ
I’m a die-hard Kanye West fan. I’ve engorged myself with every album with feature the man has ever been a part of - I’ve been along for the ride from The College Dropout to Graduation to MBDTF and so on until this moment right now. I am completely enamored by his ability to create amazing music, and I’m not shy to admit that I really do believe he is in fact a musical genius. Do I think everything he does is good? Hell no. In fact, as he slips further and further into madness, refusing to find the proper treatment and surrounding himself with toxic people (yes I’m blocking the MAGA-Ye saga from my mind for eternity), his music has definitely been slipping along with him.
The man has issues and we all know it. His marriage has crumbled, he’s alienated a lot of his friends in the industry, and a large majority of the world does not take him seriously in the slightest. I’ve been waiting forever for Donda to drop (hell I was waiting for Yhandi for years before it, I even suffered through Jesus Is King damnit!), and I made sure to get my fill before even jotting one single note down. At 27 songs and almost 2 hours in length, this album is a behemoth. Not only do I believe that this album encapsulates Ye’s entire mental state of being right now, I also believe that it is quite literally a mix of every album he’s ever made; both the good and the bad. Don’t believe me? Well here we go.
Now, if I tried to do a track by track breakdown like I’ve done in the past, we’d be here until Christmas. For brevities sake, let me trim off what I believe should have been left on the cutting board if Kanye had the ability to let go of some of his work (spoiler: he does not). Donda Chant is obviously a no-brainer, as it actually does hurt my brain. I personally am not a fan of trippie redd’s style - and maybe that just means I’m out of touch with the youth of today - but goodbye Praise God, and also farewell to 24 (too repetitive) and Ok Ok (sounds like it came off of ye and not in a good way), Remote Control (other than the very creepy Globglogabgalab meme he kept in at the end, and no I won’t tell you how I find these things), and Tell The Vision, too. Bye bye.
Now on to the good stuff, and there really is a lot. This is what I mean by Donda being a mix of everything he’s ever done: God Breathed, Heaven & Hell? That’s Yeezus. Off The Grid, Hurricane, Junya, Pure Souls? That’s Life of Pablo. Jonah sounds like it came right off of 808’s and Heartbreak. Believe What I Say and New Again are undeniably Graduation type beats, which skyrocket them up to the top of the list for me as I hold that album near and dear to my heart. Come To Life is this albums Runaway, and has MBDTF all over it; not only that, but I truly believe that it’s one of the most emotionally griping songs he’s ever made. I could keep going on but I’ll stop - Donda really is filled with all of his years of evolution and re-invention, and at this point there’s really only one more word that can sum up this entire listening experience for me.
Chaos. Complete and utter chaos. That’s why I took it upon myself to create a playlist that I’ve appropriately titled “Donda - The Roz Cut”, which takes this monstrosity and cuts it down to only 55 minutes and just 13 songs, perfectly (in my mind) encapsulating the spirit of the album while trimming off the rest. If the album was cut and arranged like this? I’d have added a full point to my overall score, easy. After all of the waiting I did before finally getting my hands on this album, ultimately I have to say that it definitely exceeded my expectations. I’ll end my review with this: Kanye is a deeply troubled guy. This entire album is dedicated to his mother who passed away. It’s raw. It’s rambling. Is it a great album front to back? No it isn’t. Is it incredibly fatiguing? Of course. But under all of this, you can’t deny the greatness that shines between the cracks. Donda isn’t a full return to form for Ye, but it is damn close.
Overall Rating: 7.7/10
Favourite Track: Hurricane
REID
After eighteen months in production, three listening parties and countless release dates, Kanye West is back with his tenth studio album dedicated to his late mother, Donda. Everything this man does is under a microscope and this highly anticipated release was no different… especially when you drag fans along for a month. TSR had this review in the queue for its original date of July 23rd and held on until it appeared on everyone’s streaming service 8am on a Sunday morning (August 29th).
First impressions? The Return of the King! I’m not talking about Ye. I’m referring to the title of the final movie of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which just so happens to have the same runtime as Donda. 104 minutes! Are you kidding me? I think I have figured it out. During the month-long listening party cycle, the internet was treated with many photos. Throw in a google search and have a look, there are more than a few beauties. He set up shop in Mercedez Benz stadium in Atlanta following the first party to tweak the album and a photo of his room emerged. It looks a lot like the dorm rooms at my camp job except for one noticeable difference. Look at the digital clock. He has the minutes covered up! Kind of like when Canada dropped the penny except you know, with time. Tough to tell but it could very well be glare from the nearby florescent light. But I don’t think it’d surprise anyone to learn Kanye is operating on an hours’ only existence. And it would explain Donda so I’m sticking to it.
Any album listener would agree it’s foolishness. There’s plenty of reasons albums average in the 40 to 60-minute window. The most obvious being quality. Not sure if Kanye was pushing for more of a cultural experience or he simply thought he could not cut any of the material. In either case, Donda drags on wayyy too long and unfortunately makes it an album I’ll never listen to again from start to finish. The rating suffered accordingly. All three part two additions, Ok Ok, Junya and Jesus Lord) are simply unnecessary and had me mumbling a few religious expletives of my own. There’s an easy way to eliminate 18 minutes right there. I could dissect further but I think I’ve made my point.
Now that the ridiculous length issue out of the way, let’s discuss the music a little. As a big fan of much of Kanye’s past work, there’s plenty of his genius sprinkled in Donda. The album’s first actual song, Jail, is sick. Now you may be sitting there thinking ‘But Steve, aren’t you the one who hates enhanced vocals?’. It’s not that I hate them. It’s everywhere in the music industry, will continue to evolve and I might as well get used to it. I just don’t like when they’re enhanced in a way that’s not enjoyable. There’s a huge difference in the sound of Kanye’s altered voice here than say, Playboi Carti’s in Off the Grid. The latter sounds like a ridiculous gangsta robot, ruining what is a pretty good song otherwise. How good is the Lauryn Hill sample (That Thing) in Believe What I Say? Mm-mm mm-mm-mm. This sentiment is shared on Moon and New Again, two other songs I’ll keep in the rotation. Hurricane is decent too, with an appearance from The Weeknd. Tame Impala is mentioned on Praise God, forcing me on my own knees praying for an eventual collaboration. Other than that, Donda has plenty of Christian worship music that I have a hard time getting through. Despite the frustrating to me and an almost automatic skip, I do appreciate how it may reach and have a positive impact on millions.
With Donda, Kanye took a ‘throw everything at the wall and see what sticks’ approach. Fortunately, it has four to five bangers that will live on for years. On the flip side, it’s an album that is basically unlistenable in its entirety.
Overall Rating – 7.0/10
Favourite Song – Believe What I Say
LUNDI
Y’all ever been mad at an album halfway through the first track? Holy f**k (censored, no curse words allowed). DONDA DONDA DONDA. Kanye West has returned with his 10th studio album.
As a producer Donda is a return to form for Kanye. His sampling is better than no other and a lot of the album reminds me of the sharpness that brought Yeezus to life. He has a unique ear for building backing tracks that are capable of acting like a catchy pop song chorus. In a way you’d return to belt out a pop stars lyrics in your car, Kanye can suck you back into a song with his beats alone.
The above is more important on Donda than any other Kanye album as Mr. West’s lyrics are mostly lackluster through the 27 tracks. From the man that once brought us the perfection of “Too many Urkel’s on your team that’s why your wins low” we now get s**t like “God my bestie, they playing soccer in my back yard think I see Messi”. Surely I’m cherry picking and Kanye definitely wrote some good hooks but old Kanye constantly made you think about his lyrics. Now all I think is what the f**k.
Donda has some awesome features (Jay Z, Travis Scott, Cudi, Jay Electronica) but instead of complimenting Kanye as is usual with his work, they’re almost always the better part of the song. As I tracked back through this feature length film for purposes of this review I became more and more impressed by the features which helped raise the overall impact of Donda. Kanye definitely has a knack for identifying talent.
Speaking of features, it sure is hard to take a gospel album serious when you credit the likes of Chris Brown, Marilyn Manson and Da Baby. Scum of the earth but nevertheless not that surprising to see Kanye do whatever the f**k he wants.
Now for the real issue. 27 tracks. 1 hour and 48 minutes. There’s good in there but boy there’s a lot of bad. I have absolutely no idea what he was thinking when he was mastering this record. I’m here to review albums as a collection and Donda averages a good song every 3 or 4 tracks. There’s money and power motives behind such a decision with the art of it all falling way behind in the priority list.
I miss the old Kanye. Straight from the ‘Go Kanye. Donda brought some of that Kanye back but not nearly enough. As I delete it from my Spotify playlist never to be listened to again, I’m left to wonder what could have been.
Overall Rating: 6.2/10
Favourite Song: Jail
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WINNER OF THE ALBUM FACE-OFF:
KANYE WEST - DONDA
REID
Kanye and Drake’s on-again off-again feud is most certainly on right now and in full gear. There’s plenty of information out there, who really knows what’s fact or fiction. One thing that seems undoubtedly true is these hip-hop juggernauts are at odds. Conspiracy theory time – maybe they are fabricating all of this, WWE-style, to garner attention. They’re both geniuses and while it wouldn’t surprise me, verses like this from Drake on 7am on Bridle Path have me putting away the tinfoil hat.
“Told you I’m aimin’ straight for the head. Now they “Amen” and “Please”.
I can give a fuck about who designing your sneakers and tees.
Had somebody put you on a guilt and you play with my seed.
Trust me, there’s some shit you really gotta come see to believe.
That’s why your people not believers, they all leavin’ ya’.
That’s why you buyin’ into the hype that the press feedin’ ya’
You know the fourth level of jealousy is called “Media.”
Isn’t that an ironic revelation? Get that address to your driver, make it your destination
‘Stead of just a post out of desperation.”
Yeeesh. He really killed it here in the version of him I appreciate most – angry Drake.
Unfortunately for Aubrey, that’s where his wins end. The nod between Certified Lover Boy and Donda goes to Mr. West for me. Both albums are painfully long. Both have their Jay-Z appearances. Both have song solid songs and some I hope to never hear again. Both make me long for the days of 90’s and early 2000’s rap where songs featured rappers like Eminem, Biggie, Dre, Method Man, Redman and Busta Rhymes that would hop on a track and kill it. From purely a rap standpoint, I think Drake has more quality rhymes and verses. But Donda has four or five singles I’d choose over anything on C.L.B. and therein lies the difference.
LUNDI
A few points might not seem like a lot but it’s a flawless victory for Kanye (6.2) as Drake’s (2.2) head lands on a spike. CLB is straight unlistenable trash while at least a few songs from Donda are enjoyable. Someone else can break streaming records for them though, I’m going back to listening to good music.
ROZ
For me, this is an easy choice. While Donda isn’t perfect, it’s leaps and bounds ahead both lyrically and artistically. Going into the face-off I always knew that unless Kanye really went off the deep end and made Jesus Is King on crack or a shittier version of Ye, he’d win this one handedly. Not only is this the case, but Donda exceeded all of my expectations - yeah it’s messy, yeah it’s bloated, but there’s actual emotion behind it. You can feel the pain in his voice, his sadness, his happiness. That’s music. Meanwhile, Drake rapped about being a lesbian (albeit over some fire beats, so style points there at least). Let’s face it: even when all of the beef is squashed between these two artists, people will be listening to tracks from Donda for years to come while Certified Lover Boy will be long forgotten.
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