{"id":1161048,"date":"2021-08-30T21:07:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T18:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1161048"},"modified":"2021-08-30T21:07:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T18:07:00","slug":"5-takeaways-from-kanye-wests-donda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1161048","title":{"rendered":"5 Takeaways from Kanye West\u2019s *Donda*"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Columns<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

5 Takeaways from Kanye West\u2019s Donda<\/em><\/h1>\n
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On his tenth album, Kanye performs the act of creating<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Matthew Ismael Ruiz<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Kanye West at the Donda<\/em> listening event in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Universal Music Group)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s a testament to Kanye West\u2019s star power that even after kissing Donald Trump\u2019s ring, declaring American chattel slavery \u201ca choice,\u201d and pivoting to gospel, he still managed to pack a space-age coliseum to debut his tenth solo album Donda<\/em>. But the Kanye that showed up to Atlanta\u2019s Mercedes-Benz Stadium more than a month ago, for the first of three Donda<\/em> livestreams, was markedly different from the one that debuted The Life of Pablo<\/em> at Madison Square Garden in 2016. No longer surrounded by friends, family, collaborators, and hangers-on, he was alone, covered from head to toe, and pantomiming to clearly unfinished songs. By the third Donda<\/em> event, last week in Chicago, West\u2014who recreated his childhood home in the middle of Soldier Field\u2014had drawn in a dizzying array of supporting characters, including accused abusers, confirmed homophobes, and his estranged wife wearing a wedding dress.<\/p>\n

In its final form, Donda<\/em> is a 27-track epic that clocks in at nearly two hours, packed with multiple versions and dozens of guests including Marilyn Manson, Chris Brown, the Weeknd, Jay Electronica, the late Pop Smoke, Young Thug, and Kid Cudi. Ostensibly a tribute to his mother, who passed away in 2007 due to complications from cosmetic surgery, the album is spiritually aligned with the emo-rap template 808s and Heartbreak<\/em>, itself a reflection of the trauma of losing her, while also belonging to Kanye\u2019s gospel era. But Donda<\/em> is more about West seeking salvation from a higher power than it is a celebration of his mother. Even after all that time in Sunday Service, he appears to have conflated a persecution complex with an understanding of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Here are five things that stood out on the first few listens of Donda<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Only a Sample of Strong Women<\/div>\n

It\u2019s telling how Kanye uses women\u2019s voices on a record dedicated to the most important woman of his life: as cameos in his own grand production of himself. Early versions of Donda<\/em> featured a clip from Gwendolyn Brooks, reciting her poem \u201cSpeech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III),\u201d and multiple spoken-word passages from Dr. Donda West herself. On the final record, Donda appears briefly on \u201cDonda,\u201d speaking mostly of her son, while the Brooks poem in \u201cPraise God\u201d has been reduced to a snippet. These absences loom large, a missed opportunity to lend gravitas to an album packed with goofy similes (\u201cGod the father like Maury<\/em>\u201d) and hymns of praise. Out of the dozens of features and scores of contributors, only a handful of women appear on Donda<\/em>: There\u2019s a Lauryn Hill sample on \u201cBelieve What I Say,\u201d two verses from dancehall queen Shenseea (\u201cPure Souls,\u201d \u201cOk Ok Pt. 2\u201d), background vocals from a singer named Stalone on the title track, and Syleena Johnson\u2019s one-word \u201cDonda Chant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where Are the Drums?<\/div>\n

Before he was fully accepted as a rapper in his own right, Kanye\u2019s skills as a producer were always apparent; his drum programming, in particular, has long been considered virtuosic. So it\u2019s curious that the overwhelming majority of Donda<\/em> features no drums at all\u2014no kicks or toms, a mere smattering of snares, and only the occasional synth bass to mimic a rhythm section. It\u2019s clearly a deliberate, if curious, decision. Some rappers eschew drum tracks and use their raps as a metronome, but the abundance of negative space in Kanye\u2019s verses leaves most of the album\u2019s 27 tracks feeling lifeless and two-dimensional. It\u2019s a crime against hip-hop to waste one of Pop Smoke\u2019s final performances (\u201cTell the Vision\u201d) on what amounts to an aimless interlude, leaving that young man\u2019s ghost floating in the aether with no drums. And in the moments when drums finally do kick in\u2014like the last 30 seconds of \u201cJail\u201d\u2014the results are underwhelming.<\/p>\n

Family Ties<\/div>\n

The scene at the first listening party, with Kim Kardashian in the stands with their children as Kanye wandered the floor, clearly unmoored, was difficult to watch. On one track\u2014cut from the final release\u2014he lamented \u201closing his family\u201d as he played back recordings of his mother repeating \u201cnever abandon your family,\u201d spiraling into a feedback loop. At times, it felt like he was performing for Kim. But in the weeks that followed, the record\u2019s content shifted towards the hopeful, at least in regards to his marriage. And by the time he held the final event in Chicago last week, there were rumors that the couple had begun to reconcile, seemingly confirmed by Kim\u2019s participation and the new track list. As she aimlessly floated around the field in her Balenciaga wedding gown, it became apparent that we may have just been witness to a cynically commercialized, weeks-long couples therapy session.<\/p>\n

Edits (Pt. 2)<\/div>\n

Back when it seemed like he would release Donda<\/em> immediately following the first listening event, there was an element of frantic disorder to the record\u2019s assembly, with Jay-Z reportedly recording vocals for \u201cJail\u201d mere hours before the song would premiere. That energy would carry over even after the record\u2019s release; despite the free pass Jay gave Kanye for his flirtation with MAGA-dom (\u201cTold him to stop all of that red cap, we goin\u2019 home\u201d), Kanye dropped the verse from the second listening session in favor of one from DaBaby before bringing it back for the official album. Kanye then claimed that his label released Donda<\/em> without his permission, which he would not grant without DaBaby\u2019s verse.<\/p>\n

Three other songs\u2014(\u201dOk Ok,\u201d \u201cJunya,\u201d and \u201cJesus Lord\u201d)\u2014would also get alternate versions appended to the end of the track list, betraying the lack of decisiveness that have come to define his most recent productions. And on a record full of songs that sound like sketches, these alternates sound like the most complete compositions on the record. The coexistence of the DaBaby and Jay-Z versions of \u201cJail\u201d is interesting enough, but the rest raises the question: Why include the originals at all? Shenseea crushing her verse on \u201cOk Ok, Pt. 2\u201d is fun, but it also makes the version we just heard 16 tracks earlier seem like a waste of our time. It\u2019s no wonder his label took the album away from him and pushed it out. If they hadn\u2019t, who knows how much longer he would\u2019ve kept noodling.<\/p>\n

The Performance<\/div>\n

Much of Kanye\u2019s engagement with performance art can be summed up by the clip from Blades of Glory<\/em> he sampled for \u201cNiggas in Paris\u201d: \u201cNo one knows what it means, but it\u2019s provocative!\u201d This is the man who made an apartheid \u201cjoke\u201d on a song sampling Nina Simone\u2019s version of \u201cStrange Fruit.\u201d So his various provocations of the past few years, from the MAGA hat to \u201cslavery was a choice\u201d and his support of Bill Cosby, right up to his embrace of canceled homophobe DaBaby and Marilyn Manson (as he faces multiple allegations of abuse and sexual assault) at best feel like shallow troll jobs designed to provoke without much thought. At worst, intentionally associating Manson with the hook on \u201cJail\u201d\u2014\u201cGuess who\u2019s goin\u2019 to jail tonight?\/God gon\u2019 post my bail tonight\u201d\u2014seems to offer a pardon for his alleged abuse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But the Donda<\/em> rollout itself has exposed some of the more vacuous elements of our culture, regardless of his intent. At this point the admiration Kanye holds for Marina Abramovi\u0107 is no secret. The Serbian performance artist managed to challenge the relationship between art and artist, holding up a reflection of those that consumed her work (and her Self) that was often uncomfortable and revealing. And after years within the archetypal \u201creality\u201d TV family, Kanye experienced firsthand that everyday life as a celebrity is itself a performance. So those three events (each teasing an unfulfilled Donda<\/em> release) and his \u201cKeeping Up with Kanye\u201d livestream from the fishbowl in Mercedes Benz stadium as he \u201cfinished\u201d the album feel like an extension of that ongoing performance.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the grandest statement Kanye has made over the past month of his album rollout is his role in the indictment of the attention industrial complex he\u2019s long since conquered. Because after three massive productions, weeks of breathless coverage and social media saturation, is this really all he has to say? If, despite all the pomp and circumstance, the result is inherently shallow, his infinite self-reflection\u2014and our obsession with it\u2014says as much about us as it does about him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/thepitch\/5-takeaways-from-kanye-wests-donda\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columns 5 Takeaways from Kanye West\u2019s Donda On his tenth album, Kanye performs the act of creating By Matthew Ismael Ruiz August 30, 2021 Kanye West at the Donda listening event in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Universal Music Group) It\u2019s a testament to Kanye West\u2019s star power that even after kissing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1161049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-1161048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1161048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1161049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1161048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1161048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1161048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}