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Kanye West - Donda

Posted: 8/31/2021 by Sam Bailey ( See All) Show:
(2021) If you haven’t followed Kanye news recently, strap in, grab some popcorn, and let me explain the past year before getting into this review. Kanye isn’t known for his dropping schedule to be consistent or guaranteed (Yandhi, Yeezus 2, and a plethora of scrapped albums that are too long to mention here), so when he does, it’s a big deal. This has been leading up since the announcement of the mysterious album in 2020 named after his late mother Donda West, who inspired a lot of his earlier album, 808s and Heartbreak. A few ugly political events, distasteful statements, and some bad PR later, Kanye returns to making music with a lackluster listening party in Atlanta. Don’t get me wrong, we had highlights like Jay-Z’s appearance on an early version of Jail, but listening party 1 was nothing to write home about, from the lack of a set design to the unfinished songs. Thankfully, the album was not released in that form. Instead, Kanye holed up in the stadium he performed in until listening party 2 in the exact same place, this time with a set that looked like the makeshift bedroom he had in the stadium. This listening party was a LOT more thought-out, with changes made to the album for length, quality, and general polish. Just like the first listening party, still no album release afterwards. Skip a few weeks yet again, and Kanye is building his childhood home in Chicago at Soldier Field for one more listening party. I won’t go into detail in case of spoilers, but he brought out some controversial people, set himself on fire, and staged his wedding to Kim Kardashian all over again set to the album, or at least what we thought was the album. Fast forward about 3 days after the third listening party and Donda, the long-awaited album in the 27-song, 2-hour flesh, is finally up on streaming and ready to buy on other outlets. Needless to say, Kanye is a man who thrives on backstory, hype, and continually loyal fans. Now that that’s out of the way, the album itself: this thing is a monster of an album. I find it funny that I’d be caught saying the Swans trilogy is just a bunch of long albums when Donda is right on par with this length deal, and surprisingly, there is filler. Donda’s glaring issues are not its songwriting, production, instrumentation, etc. No, the issue at hand is just how long some of these songs overstay their welcome without going anywhere, like God Breathed. Another issue I have with the album is its reliance on features, no matter how good those features are, from Playboi Carti (twice!) to Travis Scott to Five Foreign to Jay-Z to Baby Keem, and a bunch of others that could easily cost millions to get verses from in total. As said earlier, some of this is definitely filler, evident by how people on r/kanye are making their own tracklists shortened down to 10 or so songs. This is not to say the album is bad, no, this is probably all the bad I can say about the album without sounding nit-picky about production or clarity of instrumentals. That being said, the good about the album lies in everything else about it: features, experimentation, diversity of sound, and emotional gravity. First off, the features are everywhere, maybe a few too many than I personally enjoy on an album, but WOW are these good. You’ve got The Weekend on what could possibly be the biggest song Kanye’s ever released, Playboi Carti and Five Foreign on the Chicago drill-inspired Off The Grid, the Sunday Service Choir all over the album, Travis Scott in prime form on Praise God, and many more. The features really, genuinely work, just like in MBDTF’s massive guest list from Kanye’s earlier discography. In terms of experimentation on this album, Kanye isn’t really known for drill beats, now is he? Off The Grid shows that this needed to happen years ago. Experimentation through sampling on Believe What I Say? Kanye may have made the song of the Summer if Donda released earlier. Experimenting with choirs alongside beat drops? Heaven and Hell is a masterclass in the use of the human voice as an instrument, all thanks to Kanye’s background in organized religion, no matter how much bad that did at first to his discography, like with Jesus Is King. In summary, experimentation has always been Kanye’s bread and butter since Graduation came out, and he hasn’t stopped yet, doing something different every album cycle. Donda is very diverse in genres and sounds and appeals, as well. As mentioned earlier, Kanye dabbled in drill towards the beginning of the album, which is a welcome addition after the Pop Smoke track on the album and its shortcomings. Gospel music is back and better than it was before in Kanye’s discography thanks to the highlight 24, one of my personal favorite tracks behind No Child Left Behind, an organ-driven track that I wish was 10 minutes longer of Kanye saying “He’s done miracles on me.” Finally, the emotional gravity of this album is never lost, reminding the listener through both song titles and lyrics that this album is a celebration of the West family and their story, especially directed towards his late mother Donda, the album’s obvious namesake. Songs like Jesus Lord, No Child Left Behind, and Come To Life retain these themes within them, in perfectly length-edited tracks that feel like they’re the perfect runtime. Come To Life especially holds meaning to me that would take too long to explain in a review, but it reminds me so much of the emotional gravity that the second half of Kanye’s song Runaway holds to me. Come To Life’s organ melody, along with the piano melody in the latter half perfectly frames Kanye’s singing voice in the best shape it’s been in years. Full disclosure, the song and memory of seeing it happen at the third listening party live is a though that both brings tears to my eyes and is quite possibly one of my favorite moments in music in the past few years. Donda is much more than its shortcomings and bulked-up tracklist, it is a masterpiece hiding in what seems like an unorganized mess by one of the most polarizing people pop culture has known in the past few decades, proving Kanye still has it in him after all this time, somewhere, somehow. In the words of the man himself on Come To Life, “You know where to find me, they cannot define me, so they crucify me, how so fazed when I leave? Come and purify me, come and sanctify me, you the air that I breathe, the ultra-ultralight beam, brought a gift to Northie, all she want was Nikes, this is not about me, God is still alive, so I’m free, floatin' on a silver lining, floatin' on a silver lining, so when I'm free, I'm free.”

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