Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda.

By: Aaron Cruz

After three separate public listening parties and multiple controversies, Kanye’s latest has finally come out. And even though expectations were all over the place, I don’t think anyone could have expected exactly what we got. Donda is just as chaotic as the events that preceded it.

Donda.

Donda. Donda.

Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda.

Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda.

Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda.

Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda.

Doooooonda. Doooooonda. Doooooonda. Doooooonda. Doooooonda. Doooooonda.

Doooooooooonda. Doooooooooonda. Dooooooooooooooooonda.

Doooooooooonda. Doooooonda. Doooooonda. Doooooonda.

Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda.

Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda. Donda.

Donda.

Since 2016’s The Life of Pablo, rapper-singer-songwriter-producer-multi-hyphenate Kanye West has been honing in on his style of hip hop, creating a sound inspired by elements of rock, engulfed in gospel, and, most notably, woefully unfinished. Kanye does his best to make his albums display his headspace at the time. As such, the following albums of this style, Ye and JESUS IS KING, have not only been about the topics discussed in the lyrics but also a reflection of Kanye’s mental state at the time of creation. This style has added a new dimension to Kanye’s repertoire of artistic skills—one that already includes singing, rapping, and songwriting. Kanye’s most impressive skills have always been songwriting, creating loops, and coming up with musical ideas that are positively breathtaking. With his new sound, Kanye’s latest albums have taken a new approach to songwriting by presenting these musical ideas in as raw, or, more accurately, as unfinished, a format as possible. This makes Kanye’s projects showcases of musical ideas rather than albums. As his ego grows further, so too does his lack of dedication to finishing or rounding off the rough edges of his music, leaving a graveyard of unexplored yet brilliant concepts. So here lies Donda: an album with all of the genius of KIDS SEE GHOSTS and all of the personality of Graduation, but one that is tortured by the ego and corresponding carelessness of its creator.

The follow-up to “Donda Chant,“ “Jail“ is another jaw-dropping moment to add to the pile in Kanye’s discography. Huge electric guitars pump through the mix, accompanied by his heavily processed vocals. The song remains on this one guitar loop for its 5-minute duration, as the accompaniment morphs from the repetition of “Take what you want,” to rapping by a returning Jay-Z, to a massive chorus from Ye with Francis and the Lights. “Guess who’s going to Jail Tonight,“ they scream into the song’s mighty musical void. And it truly is a void—the song borrows cues from trip-hop to create a track that is unmoving but entertaining throughout its runtime. It mixes many ideas, but instead of sitting in its brilliance, it revels in its uniqueness.

“God Breathed”, is the first confrontation of religion on the album. Once again, since The Life of Pablo, Kanye’s music has focused heavily on his relationship with God. However, Donda sees Kanye embracing religion in a rebellious sense, sticking almost stubbornly to his faith. In “God Breathed”, Kanye addresses the idea that the world around him is connected to and created by God. “I know God Breathed on this,” he repeats in his strong defiance.

The album then falls apart with “Off the Grid“. The song is repetitive and unlikable from start to finish, and it fails to connect to the main ideas of the record. It, along with many other songs here, is a barrier to entry with Donda. At its core, this is the main problem with the tracklisting—it is so profoundly inconsistent that it is difficult to remember the incredible highlights as they are washed over by such damning lows. Given the bloat present, it makes sense that Donda is Kanye’s lengthiest project yet, clocking in at almost two hours. It is a massive amount of music, but it fails to deliver a consistent and enjoyable experience considering how much of it is garnish to the meal. “Praise God”, “Ok Ok”, “Junya”, and “Remote Control” are all standout moments, not for brilliance but for a complete indulgence in mediocrity.

Towards the end of the album, Kanye states blatantly: “I ain’t had a high in so long; I been in the dark for so long.“ This idea is reflected throughout the album musically; his tracks feel austere rather than upbeat.. The first track, “Donda Chant“, rhythmically repeats the word Donda 48 times—corresponding to the final 48 beats of Donda West’s heart before she passed away in late 2007. The blaring sunburnt guitar chords that follow and begin “Jail” represent the emotional turmoil that followed for Kanye. The album tries to follow the journey of coming to terms with the loss of a mother, but unfortunately, it constantly deviates from this by throwing in its filler tracks.

“24” is a declaration of God’s positive influence on the world. Bassy gospel vocals fill the stereo field, begging God for his grace. Kanye’s own vocals similarly describe God as the only positive part of his life. Towards the end of the song, he throws out a series of similar lines regarding God and the Devil. As these lines are delivered, they each interrupt each other, displaying Kanye’s need to get this declaration out, like he is stumbling over his words. The emotion he shows on this track is phenomenal. “Know you’re alive, God not finished… The Devil’s alive and now he finished… We gonna be okay…“ he screams confidently. The finishing chorus of “God’s not finished,“ is messy, like a group of people singing at church. This personality lends a rawness to the performances that make the song feel like a celebration of the Lord.

The title track, which marks the halfway point on the album, is introduced with a haunting set of piano chords, over which Kanye repeats “Glory.” This marks the point at which he has come to terms with his mother’s passing, at least as far as he can. Exclamations from Kanye accompany a speech from Donda West over the same piano: “When you’re runnin’ outta timе and you’re not outta time… Change the time.“ He can look back on his time with his mom with over a decade of hindsight. Donda’s speech is followed by a resounding chorus screaming out: “It’s the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever,” a paraphrasing of Matthew 6:13, which states, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever,” as a reason to prevent one from falling into “temptation.“ Kanye is hoping to bring himself out of his depression by looking to the Lord to give him purpose, and it seems as if he believes he has found it, as, from this part of the record onward, Kanye turns to spread the wisdom he has through his music.

“Jesus Lord“ is a work of musical storytelling about how God can work miracles in people’s lives. Kanye sets up a loop, repeating a ghostly “Jesus, Lord,“ which echoes for the duration of the track. Here, he opens himself up by telling the personal story of how he lost his mother. This story is the first time Kanye speaks about himself in an earnest first person, a breath of fresh air for the album. He then tells a fictional story of a family that falls apart due to the murder of their youngest son and how the oldest brother finds the Lord through the pain. Finally, a monologue by Larry Hoover, Jr. about how his father is stuck in jail unjustly—how he has been unable to meet his grandchildren, and how everyone in the family has been affected by the removal of Larry Hoover, Sr. from their lives. Here, faith is presented as a reason to keep in touch with hope for his release. These three stories work into a song that is ultimately about the horrors of life, and as these tragic stories are presented, the faint but constant repetition of “Jesus, Lord“ gives these stories a beacon of light. It is an excellent presentation of God’s effect on people.

The album reaches a musical climax on “Come To Life”. Sunburnt guitars alongside piano stabs underlie Kanye’s vocal performance, in which he says several things to tie up the album rhythmically and repetitively. “They cannot define me, so they crucify me… come and purify me, come and sanctify me… this is not about me, God is still alive,“ he sings as guitar strums blast through the mix. It is an incredible moment, and it would have been a great one to leave the album on. However, the album does not end here.

When Prince pitched Sign O’ The Times to his record label at the time, it too was a twenty-two-song epic. However, Warner Media forced him to cut the album down to a measly 16 tracks. This constrained the resulting album to the best of what Prince had at the time. Sign O’ The Times was one of his most critically successful due partly to the tightness of the tracklist and the pure quality at hand. From the stories that have come out around Donda, it seems as if Kanye West has no one in his life right now to tell him which parts of his albums are brilliant and which are poor. “No Child Left Behind”, an empty and repetitive piece, follows the incredible Come to Life and spoils what would have been a great ending to the album. Many of the songs in the second half of Donda, specifically “New Again“, “Tell the Vision“, and “Lord I Need You“, fail to establish their own identity with an interesting musical idea, and at the same time, are unable to bring in a new lyrical concept. As such, they melt into a sort of Christian mush that dilutes the album like water in ice cream. 

One can only imagine how great the album would be if only these tracks were removed to create a tighter, albeit shorter, album. Two of Kanye’s last three albums, Ye and KIDS SEE GHOSTS, each seemed to follow this principle of removing filler to present only the best music Kanye has to offer, as they each clock in at around twenty minutes with seven songs each. Kanye’s last album, JESUS IS KING, was packed with filler, much like Donda, and it was critically panned accordingly. It appears as if whoever was removing filler from these albums is no longer present, or, more likely, the album was pushed out before it could be tightened up. No matter what, it leaves a poor listening experience overall.

The end of the album features five tracks that act as B-side versions of some of the earlier works. Most of these do very little to support the album and only serve as more padding for its runtime. Especially poor is the track “Jail pt. 2“, which features DaBaby and Marilyn Manson, two of the most controversial figures in music right now, the former for publicly homophobic comments and the latter for a series of sexual assault allegations. Kanye has been known to perform stunts to promote his albums, and this is no exception. Typically these stunts are harmless promotion pieces, but a line should be drawn when they go directly against the LGBTQ community and sexual assault victims. In a genre built on the struggles of the oppressed, the choice reflects awful character and acts as one of the biggest blemishes on the album.

An album like Donda only comes along once in a generation. That is to say, no album in history has had such great ideas alongside such trite songs. Donda is confused and scatterbrained, but occasionally, its genius shines through. In this way, it is the perfect reflection of the current state of Kanye himself. However, this method of writing makes Donda a chore to listen to all the way through. It is a slog only held together by occasional moments of enjoyment. One can only hope that this is not the finished product, because if it is, it will go down as one of the worst in Ye’s discography.

Final Score: 6/10