by Alex Goode
Let's be real for a moment, you 100% know who Kanye West is. Whether it be from classic tracks like "Heartless" or "POWER", or from his recent shift into more gospel-inspired music, or from any of his crazy off-stage antics, I'm willing to bet that you know who he is in some way. And that's for a good reason, there's no denying the amount of creativity and influence that Kanye West has. Throughout his career, he's proven himself to be a powerhouse of talent and charisma, but you might be surprised to know that he only has a total of nine studio albums under his belt. There's been a few records that he started making and then didn't finish, but yeah. Only nine. Until now, that is. Kanye has returned with his tenth studio album, Donda (the title being a tribute to his late mother, Donda West). After weeks of speculation, weeks of listening parties, weeks of hype, some fans started to wonder if the project was ever gonna come out. And then, unexpectedly, on August 29th of 2021, it did. Kanye posted on his Instagram that UMG released the album without his permission, though. I don't know if that's true, but I still feel like it's worth saying. At any rate, I'm here to talk about it. There's a grand total of 27 tracks (thanks for that), so I should go ahead and get started.
The album opens with "Donda Chant", which is 53 seconds of exactly what the title says. It features Syleena Johnson repeating the name Donda over and over again in varying cadences and tones. It's kinda cool to begin the record like this, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. After a while, it starts to become annoying. I'm glad it's less than a minute long, though, I don't think I could stand it if it was any longer. This leads into the first proper song on the album, "Jail". It features Francis and the Lights & JAY-Z, and I enjoyed quite a bit. I loved the harsh distorted bass, the backup vocals (provided by the Sunday Service Choir) on the chorus were really nice, and the synths that are sprinkled throughout add an epic feel to the track. Kanye gives a good vocal performance here as well, I like the way him and Francis tag-teamed the second verse and the lyrics are decently-written. It's not the best lyricism Kanye's ever shown off, but it's passable. The best part of this song by far is the JAY-Z verse, he did not have to go as hard as he did. He sounded smooth as hell against the beat, and his verse was nicely-written. I liked this song a lot, I'll probably end up coming back to it a lot. I'd also like to point out that Marilyn Manson has a writing credit on this track. We'll get to him later, though. Following this, we have the song "God Breathed". This one is just okay, I'm not too crazy about it. Firstly, I find the repetition in the hook to be a little obnoxious. Secondly, there's a part in the instrumental that sounds like a sample of a dude screaming? I don't know what that is, but I don't like it at all (it's way too high in the mix, and it gave me a splitting headache). Aside from those issues, the rest of the track is alright. The featured artist, Vory, did a good job with his part, the stripped back instrumental was a nice touch, and Kanye once again gives a solid performance. Overall, though, this one is average at best. I wouldn't call it a skip, but I don't see myself coming back to it a lot. The next track, however, "Off the Grid", is another one I like quite a bit. It's not one of my favorites, but it's pretty solid. It features Playboi Carti & Fivio Foreign, and both of them do a great job with their respective verses. I think Fivio was trumped Carti on this one as far as their verses are concerned, but it's also not really fair to make the comparison given that Fivio's verse is five times longer than Carti's is. I once again find the repetitive hook to be pretty annoying, but I do like how the first chorus leads into the first verse. It feels like it's one extended Kanye passage as opposed to the standard verse-chorus structure, it's experimental and I like it. And Kanye's second verse near the end is insanely good. His energy is infectious, he rides the beat super well, he has good wordplay and rhyme schemes, he goes super hard on this verse and I love it. The beat is nice as well, I especially liked when the more drill-inspired elements come in when Fivio's verse starts. This is a banger, for sure. I still don't think it's one of my favorites, but I like it a lot. Into the playlist it goes.
Next up is the song "Hurricane", featuring The Weeknd & Lil Baby (I will be referring to The Weeknd as Abel, cause that's his real name). This song was originally supposed to be on the scrapped Yandhi album, and it's good to see it finally get a home here. Hearing how great this song turned out makes me wish Yandhi had actually dropped, cause "Hurricane" is a nice track. Abel did so good, for starters. His voice is beautiful, he sings with so much power in his vocals, his falsetto is auditory heaven, and I adore the choir backing vocals in the next to last line of his chorus. It adds so much weight to what he's saying, it's so good. Lil Baby is the weakest part of the song, to me, but I still like what he does here. Everybody gives a good performance overall. I'm noticing a trend with the censoring of the more explicit language, though. It started with the previous track and it continues here, not sure how I feel about that. But anyway, the next track is another religious banger. It's called "Praise God", it features Travis Scott & Baby Keem, and I think it's pretty solid. Right off the bat, I love the moments where the real-life Donda's voice is sampled. Having Kanye's mom end a chorus that is sung by him is really sweet, that's a nice touch. Travis Scott is also solid on this track. He has good energy, his vocal deliveries are cool, his flow on the second verse is catchy. I'm glad Travis was here, he was a good fit. I unfortunately cannot say the same for Baby Keem, though. He has a decent flow for most of his and, he comes through with some nice punchlines sometimes, but he's largely a very uninteresting inclusion. His falsetto vocals sound outright bad, his lyrics are largely devoid of substance (save for a few good bars here and there), and he doesn't sound natural against a beat like this. Doesn't help that he has the longest verse on the song. At least the beat goes hard, though, I really like the eerie organs you hear throughout. The next track, "Jonah", is the first track on here that I outright just don't like. Vory comes back for another guest part, and Lil Durk is here also. They aren't very interesting inclusions, to be quite honest. Vory's voice on the chorus sounds nice, but the melody is unappealing. the instrumental is boring to listen to, Lil Durk's verse doesn't have a whole lot going for it, and even Kanye himself doesn't come through with an interesting verse. There's not a whole lot to say about it, I just listened to it and I've already forgotten most of it. I don't like this song at all, sad to say. It's the first actual skip, so that's what I'll do. On to the next song, "Ok Ok". This song features the return of Fivio Foreign, as well as the first-time additions of Rooga & Lil Yachty. This is another one I'm not particularly fond of, but I like it more than I did the previous track. Fivio's inclusion in this track is just to do some ad-libs in the first verse, so there's not much to talk about there. Lil Yachty's verse was okay, not particularly interesting but still tolerable. I like what Rooga did a lot, though, he was a very good addition. Kanye's vocals on the hook are nice, the beat is more interesting time around, and the lyrics are pretty solid throughout. The title is a good summary of how I feel about this song, and there's really not much else to say. Now, the next track, "Junya"? It's another one I'm indifferent on, but it at least has more going for it than "Jonah" did. The "mm mm" ad-lib Kanye does is cool the first time, but it gets annoying after repeated uses, and I think the chorus repeats a bit too many times in the first half. I love the bass hits, though, and Playboi Carti has nice energy in his verse on this one. Kanye's ending verse is also pretty good, and the beat for this one feels more energetic and lively than it has on the previous few songs. This is a nice one. I'm not too crazy about it, but it's definitely not a skip. I know I kinda rushed through the last few cuts, but I just didn't have a whole lot to say about them after I listened to them. That's it, really
Moving on, we have a song called "Believe What I Say". This one features Buju Banton on additional vocals. He isn't listed as a feature, but he's there. It also heavily samples a song made by Lauryn Hill, but she's not listed as a feature, so this one is just Kanye and Buju on the mic. I like how the sample plays into the beat, and I think I also heard a bit of a "Good Morning" sample? If that's what that is, that's dope. I really appreciate that. I also like Kanye's vocals on this track (especially the chorus), and Buju sounds nice as well. Buju has a spoken word-esque passage as an interlude near the end of the song, and it's done nicely. He has a lot of wisdom present in his voice, he sounds like he gives good advice. The beat is simple, but I think it's effective. It fits the tone of the track nicely. This is a great track, I really enjoyed it. And the next track, "24", is another one I loved a lot. It prominently features Kanye's Sunday Service Choir on backup vocals, and they sound beautiful in harmony. And the instrumental is perfect for a song like this, the organs and pianos are very nice. The lyrics are also great, especially on the second verse. The only noticeably off thing with this track is Kanye's nasally vocals, but that isn't too big of an issue when you factor in the power and emotion that his voice holds as he's singing these lyrics. To once again mention the second verse, he sounds like he's on the verge of tears while he's singing "I know you're alive, and God's not finished". Kanye's delivery makes up for any flubbed melody notes that may be present, cause it feels like he's more worried about what he's saying rather than how he sounds while he's saying it. I love this track a lot, and I feel like it's gonna be a tough act to follow. Thankfully, the next track, "Remote Control", follows it nicely. Kanye's vocal runs he does for various notes during this song are really pretty, the drumming is sporadic (but not in a way that ruins the vibe of the song), the whistling is catchy, the OnlyFans bar is kinda funny (though it feels more like a joke Eminem would make) and Kanye has good vocal presence on this one. Young Thug comes through with a solid feature verse, as well. I like his delivery, his flows, his singing is great, his ad-libs are funny. He does a good job on this song, him and Kanye both do. But then, in the final moments of the song, the most baffling thing happens. Kanye included a sample of the Globglobagbalab song that became a big meme in 2018. The song originally came from an old 2012 Christian animation movie called Strawinsky and the Mysterious House. I've never seen it myself, but I know the song very well thanks to the memes. The fact that it's sampled here, apparently in place of a Kid Cudi verse, is probably the funniest thing I've heard all year so far. I don't really know why I'm surprised, this level of weirdness is something I've come to expect from Ye at this point. Kanye is a genius, and all this does is further prove it. It's a good song all in all, it's just that the outro is mind-boggling. Thankfully, the next track, "Moon", is less insane. It's the exact opposite, actually, it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. This song features Don Toliver & Kid Cudi, and it feels like "Hurricane Pt 2" in a lot of ways. I mean that in the best possible way, by the way. Cudi's singing/humming is gorgeous, the guitars sound smooth, Toliver's high-pitched vocals on the chorus sound stunning, and I love the section in the middle when all three artists are taking turns saying things one after the other. This track makes me feel like I'm ascending, I love it so much.
The next track is "Heaven and Hell". This one is the first proper solo Kanye track, a mere fourteen songs into the album. I think Kanye, like usual, is good at carrying a track by himself, but I honestly don't think this is a good example of it working. The beat is fire, especially in the second half, and the 20th Century Steel Band sample is used nicely, but I feel like Kanye's verse is kinda lackluster in terms of substance and delivery. The flow he goes for is pretty cool at first, but it starts to become stale after it becomes clear that he has no intentions of switching it up as he keeps going. He sounds really nice against this instrumental, its a bit of a let down that his verse doesn't do much for me. This track definitely could've been better, but I had high hopes for the following track. It's called "Donda", it's the title track, and I think it's pretty cool for the most part. The bulk of the track is a spoken word sample from Donda herself, and it's a powerful speech. I can tell from the clips of her talking that she was a very intelligent, well-spoken woman while she was here. And the intro is pretty as well, it features Kanye and Stalone singing together in a very lovely way. It's when the chorus kicks in, that's when the track starts to lose me. It's sung by The World Famous Tony Williams, somebody that I admittedly am not very familiar with, and I don't think he gives a good performance. The notes he's going for sound like they're just ever so slightly out of his range, and the obvious strain is a little too distracting. Other than that, though, I like the vibe of this track. At the very least, it's refreshing to hear Donda speak again. The following track, "Keep My Spirit Alive", does a pretty decent job of keeping the laid back vibe going. I wasn't all too fond of Westside Gunn's verse, and I was initially put off by KayCyy's chorus (though it did end up growing on me as the track progressed). Conway the Machine comes through with a really good performance in his verse, my only issue with it is that I wish it was longer, and then Kanye sticks the landing brilliantly. There's even a pretty neat Royce da 5'9" cameo near the end, which I thought was cool. I wish he had had a bigger presence, but it was fun to hear him nonetheless. I like the instrumental, too, it's pleasant on the ears. There's not really a whole lot to talk about here, in all honestly. It's one of those moments where I liked it, but I didn't have a whole lot to say about it, know what I mean? And the next track, the nearly nine-minute "Jesus Lord", is definitely better than the previous track. I feel like the ambient buildup in the intro goes on for a bit too long, but it really goes when it starts to get going. The chorus is wavy, and Kanye comes through with a ferocious verse. It's one of his longer verses on this project, but he does a lot with the time he has. Aside from the Buzz Lightyear line, he clearly isn't wasting time. He tells a very interesting story in the back half of his verse that I liked a lot, also. And then Jay Electronica comes in and absolutely spazzes out on this beat. He has great bars (I especially love the tectonic plates line), he has a solid flow, his energy is nice. I just wish he had gone on for a little longer. The ending features an extended spoken word passage from a man named Larry Hoover Jr., he uses it to speak about how the conviction and arrest of his father in 1973 has affected him and his family. I'll be honest, I don't know a whole lot about Larry Hoover and his story, but Kanye apparently did plead clemency for him directly to Donald Trump himself when he was still in office. At any rate, the speech is very heartfelt. It's a good way to close out a great song. It's unfortunately followed by a song that I think is just okay, "New Again". It features backup vocals from Chris Brown (who I don't like for various reasons), though he doesn't show up for very long at all. He has almost the same impact as Royce did on "Keep My Spirit Alive", I don't know why he's there. And I find the rest of the song to be bland, forgettable. The synths in the instrumental are nice, reminds me of something off of Gorillaz's The Fall, but that's all this track has going for it. The slightly off-beat choir at the end, Kanye's largely substanceless verses, the all in all pretty bland beat. There's not a whole lot that I enjoy about this one, I'm thinking it's a skip.
We are now led into the song "Tell the Vision", which is the shortest song on the whole project (unless you count "Donda Chant", which I don't). This track features the late Pop Smoke, it's actually a slight remix of a song he previously made (it was also called "Tell the Vision", and it featured Kanye & Pusha T). I gotta be honest, this version of the song is not the best version. Kanye himself doesn't even appear on it, he took out his part and Pusha T's part and gave us only Pop Smoke's verse. That's find in theory, his verse is pretty nice, but the mixing is not very good. I think Kanye ran Smoke's vocals through the same stem splitter that he did when he got the Globglogabgalab vocals for "Remote Control", cause you can still hear faint hihats when he's rapping. They don't sound like they're supposed to be there, it's a little jarring. I understand wanting to tribute him, but this doesn't feel like that. The next track, "Lord I Need You", is pretty interesting. The vocal sample in the intro and the outro is annoyingly high in the mix, but that's really the only complaint I have. Kanye gets introspective about his marriage to Kim Kardashian, and it's pretty moving to hear. He had some pretty clever wordplay, a fittingly laid-back mic energy, he sounded like this is something he's wanted to say for a while. The instrumental is also fittingly laid-back, I like the way it sounds. I wanna give a special shout out to the Taco Bell/KFC line, cause that's just the truth. I find this one to be very enjoyable. The next track, "Pure Souls", is also very good. Roddy Ricch shines here, but that's no surprise (that dude is immensely talented). And the Shenseea outro is the perfect way to close out this song, her voice is gorgeous. Kanye also preforms nicely here, all three of the artists sound so good against the beat. This song also shines lyrically, everyone shows solid penmanship with their respective sections (special mention goes to the "same lane" bar, that was nice). This song was mixed very well, Roddy and Kanye have good vocal chemistry, Shenseea sticks the landing perfectly. This is a damn good song, it will definitely see repeated plays in my playlists. Following this is the track "Come to Life". There's no listed features, but I was very excited by the fact that Tyler, the Creator has a production/writing credit. This song is beautiful. From Kanye's pristine vocals, to the church congregation samples, to the piano passage that starts in the middle of the second chorus, everything about this song comes together sublimely. We once again have a song that makes me feel like I'm ascending, like my spirit is leaving my body and entering a new plane of reality. This is some of the most consistently solid singing I've ever heard from Kanye, the lyricism and delivery is great, I'm absolutely enamored with this song. Tyler killed it with the production, Kanye killed it with how he preformed over said production, it's so good. I could gush about this track all day, but I have to cut it off somewhere, so let's move on to "No Child Left Behind". Vory comes back once more on this track, and he once again does well. He's a very good performer, I'll likely end up checking out his solo material after this. As a whole, this song doesn't follow "Come to Life" in a way that keeps the vibe up (but that was already gonna be a difficult thing to do for me anyway). However, that doesn't mean I dislike the song. Far from it, this track is a lot of fun. I like the melancholy organs, the singular piano chord hits, Kanye's voice sounds smooth, Vory sounds nice also. The way it just abruptly cuts out at the last two seconds is a little jarring, but it doesn't take away from the really lovely tune all in all. The production on this one is stellar, it's well-written, Kanye and Vory still have good vocal chemistry. This is another really good track, I'm digging it quite a bit.
And the last four tracks are remixes of songs that were previously heard earlier on the album. They're marketed as sequel songs, but they're really just the same songs as before but with a different lineup of features. The first one is "Jail, Pt 2". In this version: Francis and the Lights are gone, JAY-Z is swapped out for DaBaby, and Marilyn Manson is also thrown into the mix. In case you're unaware, DaBaby and Manson both recently came under fire for some pretty serious stuff. DaBaby was accused of homophobia after some questionable comments he made during one of his recent concerts, and Manson is currently facing multiple sexual assault lawsuits. The decision to put these two people on a song is very weird, but hearing Manson scream "GUESS WHO'S GOING TO JAIL TONIGHT" almost makes up for it. And DaBaby's verse is not good, in my opinion. It's alright sonically, his flows are nice to listen to, but him basically blaming the negative reaction to his AIDS comments on the people instead of himself is a little tasteless. That's all I'm going to say about that, moving on. Next in the line of sequel remixes is "Ok Ok, Pt 2". If you remember, I wasn't too keen on the first one, and I'm not too into this new one either (though part 2 is definitely better than part 1). Fivio's ad-libs are still here, and Rooga's verse is still here, but Lil Yachty is swapped out with another Sheneesa verse. I actually think Sheneesa is a better choice than Yachty, to be honest. She sings in her natural Jamaican patois, and I really enjoyed that. I gotta be real, though, Rooga's verse didn't hit as hard this time around as it did on the original song. I don't know why I feel like that, but I do. There's not really much to say, it's a slightly better remix of a mid song. The next one is "Junya, Pt 2". This version shortens Kanye's part, lengthens Playboi Carti's part, and replaces Kanye's ending verse with a Ty Dolla $ign feature. I'm not a fan of the longer Carti verse, but that's admittedly because the annoying Kanye "MM MM" ad-lib being a big part of it. Ty Dolla $ign has a short but sweet contribution, I like his addition a lot. I think the original Kanye verse is better, but I also like what Ty did. This leads us to the final track, and the remix I was the most anxious to hear: "Jesus Lord, Pt 2". I loved the original when I first heard it, and this version thankfully leaves Jay Electronica's verse in. It also adds in guest verses from all three members of The LOX (Sheek Louch, Jadakiss, and Styles P respectively). This new inclusion extends the track from nearly nine minutes long to eleven and a half minutes long, and I'm not mad at that whatsoever. As far as the new verses go, I think they do a solid job. Sheek has a laid-back flow with a good set of punchlines, Jadakiss comes through with a gritty vocal delivery and some smooth deliveries, and Styles easily has the most emotionally potent verse out of the three. I think they all three transitional from one to the next very smoothly also, they're good inclusions for this remix. This was a nice, if a little bloated, way to close out the album.
With that, my good friends, we have reached the end of Donda. I unfortunately did not get this finished before Anthony Fantano got his review out, but that's fine. I think that this album has some very high high points, but it also has some kinda low low points. The good certainly outweighs the bad, but the bad pile is still significantly sizable. I think my favorite tracks were "Moon", "Come to Life", "Hurricane", "Jesus Lord", and "Believe What I Say", with my least favorite tracks being "Jail, Pt 2", "Jonah", and (I guess) "New Again"? I don't really know if "Donda Chant" counts, so I left that one off. It also feels weird saying "Tell the Vision" is a least favorite because it's technically a Pop Smoke tribute, but it really doesn't do much for the record except make it longer. I'm overall feeling a 7.5/10 for Donda. Yes, I know that's a half-point higher than what Fantano gave it, but that's genuinely how I feel about the project. It's not a bad album by any means, but it's also very messy. I think I prefer Jesus is King over this, in all honestly. I am glad the album is finally here, though. Thank you for reading, but now I must go. I have to listen to "Come to Life" and ascend again. Maybe I'll see God this time and finally become a believer again.
