According to Brooklyn Vegan, rapper Kanye West has finally released his highly-anticipated album titled Donda. After several delays, West dropped the album on August 29. The project features appearances by Jay-Z, The Weeknd and Travis Scott, among others.
West initially announced that he would be having a listening party for the album at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA on July 22. Rumors soon followed that the rapper would release Donda the following day. However, West would hold two more listening parties at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on August 5 and at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL on August 26.
American singer-songwriter Marilyn Manson and rapper DaBaby joined West during the listening session in Chicago which lead to controversy due to the sexual assault allegations against Manson and backlash against DaBaby’s recent homophobic remarks during his Rolling Loud performance. Additionally, the two musical acts would be featured on the track “Jail pt 2.” It was originally unavailable during the release of the album due to DaBaby’s team allegedly failing to clear the rapper’s verse.
The title track features American singer Stalone providing background vocals and samples a recording from a speech given by West’s mother, the namesake of the song and the album, in October 2007. The song itself blends West’s traditional use of reverb as he sings the intro and outro alongside Stalone while managing to embrace a gospel sound that is reminiscent of his previous release, Jesus Is King.
The album has 27 songs with a runtime of over an hour. All tracks are available to stream on Spotify and YouTube.