Kanye West - Donda ALBUM REVIEW
This is the Tenth Studio Album from Atlanta born-Chicago rapper Kanye West.
Kanye needs no introduction so I’m not going to give a big background story on him because anyone that reads this knows who Kanye West is, whether that be from being one of the most controversial and bat-shit crazy but also one of the greatest rappers of all time, or from his famous, now apart relationship with superstar Kim Kardashian. Kanye’s last LP was a big step back in quality, but that step back definitely was not due to a lack of trying from Kanye, it was just an artistic left hook that didn’t really pay off due to the hypocritical bars all over this thing along with the incredibly bland “gospel” music. It was too short to get into, and the music wasn’t exactly enough to keep me excited in what Kanye had left to offer in the rest of his career as he had previously stated that he was only releasing gospel music moving forward, which if that were to be the case I would’ve gave up on listening to Kanye’s new releases moving forward. I’m not here for that.
Luckily, Kanye doesn’t keep his promise and delivers a lot of different sounds on this new record including the trendy sounds like Playboi Carti’s Trap style and drill but he makes changes and adapts these sounds to make them as interesting as when they first arrived on the scene, especially with the track “Off The Grid” which is an incredibly intoxicating banger from front to back, starting with Kanye’s catchy hook, moving to a short but sweet Playboi Carti feature and then switching the beat to a more distorted and interesting version of a typical drill beat, allowing Fivio Foreign to come in and destroy his verse for a long time. This is the best I’ve ever heard Fivio perform and that doesn’t surprise me as most of the features throughout the LP up their game, probably because a Kanye record is the biggest chance to show your talent. The song doesn’t end with FIvio though, with an insane flow from Kanye over that same drill beat that, for the lack of a better phrase, blew my mind. Kanye West, at 44 years old, is still progressing artistically and that track isn’t the only time he shows this on Donda. the track “24” shows that Kanye has even been working on his Christian craft too as him and his Sunday Service Choir group deliver fantastic vocals and great messages scattered throughout this track, including the track being used as a tribute to the late great Kobe Bryant, the start of verse 2 being him talking to his mother through god, saying that the way he’s living his life and the way his kids are growing up to be are going to let her memory live on for a very long time.
This entire thing is dedicated to his late mother, as you can tell by the title of this LP being his Mother’s first name. Donda West was a massive part of Kanye’s life and since her tragic death in 2007 he has released 2 records with the topic of her death being a huge part of them, 808s and Heartbreak and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. It’s 23 tracks long with 4 second parts to tracks already on the record, just with altered features on them and it runs for an insane 1 hour and 48 minutes. Coming into this thing I thought that it would be a painful and annoying listen purely because I've never enjoyed an album that runs longer than 1hr 30 in my life, but this was a relatively fast listen that makes the length feel worth the while. There are no filler tracks on this Album and everything feels like it was placed perfectly and it was meant to be there. Kanye buries a lot of the mum-related bars with layers to them where if someone wasn’t listening with a lot of attention, they’d probably fly over their heads but it is actually a very heartfelt record with multiple references to his mum and also references to god saving his life, A LOT. I’m personally atheist but I don’t mind people expressing their religious beliefs, especially if they feel like it has been such a huge positive in their lives. Every track without fault here has a reference to either christianity or god and not many, if any, come off corny or forced. The two tracks that don’t feel like songs and aren’t there to be in a playlist at all, “Donda Chant” and “Donda” are beautifully touching and spine-tingling. If you skip these whilst listening there’s something wrong with you. It would take away from the experience so much.
There’s only a very small amount of problems I have with this record and then i’ll get to my massive amount of highlights. The track “New Again” has a decent vibe and flows pretty well, but I dislike the vocal inflections on the back end without the instrumental, they go on for way too long and makes the track feel a little awkward. The main issue I have with the track is that Chris Brown is involved which yet again leaves a bad taste because of the sexual assault accusations reappearing recently and that Rihanna feature on All of the Lights still sticks in my mind. I think “Tell The Vision” doesn’t need to be there at all. I love the thought behind putting that in as a tribute to Pop Smoke, but the original track was already great on Pop Smoke’s new record and Kanye just didn’t need to reapply that to his own record with the censored swear words when that isn’t what Pop Smoke was known for at all. The only other issue I have is that “No Child Left Behind” runs too short and could’ve used an added verse to make it a little more powerful.
By seeing that as the issues I have with Donda, you can probably tell that I love this record very much. Donda Chant, from what I’ve heard. is supposed to be a representation of what his mum’s heartbeat pattern was like in her last moments, which if true is very dark and spooky but it is still a spine tingle and a must listen. “Jail” is a fantastic audible representation of what the human race really is, and that Kanye feels like when we are all worthy of being prisoners, god will bail him out of his bad situations and make him a better man. Jay-Z delivers a killer feature which was beautiful to see as the two had not worked together in years. “God Breathed” is a Yeezus throwback in terms of the instrumental but Kanye performs better on this track than he did on any Yeezus track. The outro runs a little too long but it doesn’t rattle the enjoyability at all. “Hurricane” has absolutely beautiful vocals by The Weeknd that create an angelic feel to the track and it makes for an amazing experience. Lil Baby continues his upwards spiral by delivering yet another great feature on a big time record and Kanye does his part in a big way on the track too. Praise God could’ve been top 3 tracks if it weren’t for a lazily written Baby Keem verse because Kanye and Travis Scott absolutely kill it on every element. Still a great track though Keem doesn’t ruin it because his flow still sounds fine. “Jonah” has the second best vocals but easily the most catchy but still beautiful hook on the entire thing by Vory which I can’t stop singing, Lil Durk also delivers vocally and lyrically and Kanye waits until the end to do his thing. “Ok Ok” delves a little deeper into the mental health topic that Kanye went down the route of for his past 3 records, JESUS IS KING, ye and KIDS SEE GHOSTS. It beats out anything on JIK easily but is still less substantive than the incredibly honest thoughts shared on ye and KSG. “Junya” has the most infectious flow on the record with a killer Carti feature which makes sense because the vibe coming off of the instrumental comes straight out of Carti’s playbook, except ye evolves the sound and makes it feel like the die lit experience all over again. On “Believe What I Say” Kanye delivers easily one of his best bars in a while, “ I ain’t got my point across, Til we finally get across and pass the point”. Very clever and classic Kanye. He also addresses the fact that he is fully aware and understanding that people in the media and people on social media don’t like him or the way he goes about sharing his opinion and he just has to accept that. This instrumental is more bouncy and upbeat than any other beat on the record and Kanyes vocals feel most positive on the hook of this track. “Remote Control” has an interesting topic, with Kanye comparing god ruling over the world and everything we do to him having a remote control, like we may control a TV. Young Thug carries this track in terms of interesting vocals and fun aspects to the track and his feature is alive and entertaining from the second it starts to the second he finishes. “Moon” showcases Don Toliver’s raw vocal talent and also gives Kid Cudi the Centre stage on the most dreamy and psychedelic track on the LP. Don might be singing this hook beautifully, but him saying “Don’t leave so soon” and “how can I get through” shows that Kanye wrote this and had Donny perform it. This will be a message to Donda without a doubt. “Heaven and Hell” is a highlight purely because it sounds like Feel The Love pt 2 from KSG and has a fun beat kick in halfway through. “Keep The Spirit Alive” is beautiful vocally yet again, this time from KayCyy and features a fantastic Westside Gunn feature that I didn't expect at all on top of a great Conway The Machine feature which is obviously more expected as Conway is one of the best underground artists around. “Jesus Lord” is probably my favourite track just because Kanye is offering the chance for people that feel something empty in their lives to try and see if Christianity is what they are looking for as it was exactly what he needed. Again, not religious but I have no problem with this because Kanye isn’t shoving it down your throat, he is simply offering Jesus as a possibility of what may be missing in someone’s life. The jeeeeesus, lauuurd refrain every bar is fantastic too. “Lord I Need You” is easily the most surprising in the case of production on this thing as it’s produced by legendary trap producer Wheezy, but this track isn’t trap at all it's actually quite laid back and relaxed and has a strong Christian vibe to it. Wheezy expanding his game is amazing to see and he is proving yet again that he’s one of the best producers in the game. “Pure souls is mainly a highlight because it features, for me, the best Roddy Ricch performance i’ve ever heard in my life. Kanye and Shenseea do their thing but Roddy steals the show for me. And last but CERTAINLY not least, Come To Life. This song is beautiful from front to back, with Kanye going into hard detail about wishing that he could have another life to make up for the mistakes he’s made and wishing that he would’ve listened to and catered to more of Kim’s hopes and dreams and maybe they’d still have a healthy relationship. A lot of highlights for sure and a lot to love about this record.
Overall, I absolutely loved this record and I couldn't be more happy that Kanye is back on track because the past few years have been anything but easy for him but he seems confident and as focused as ever to deliver a great feature list with great production all over and great performances and topics, messages throughout. If Kanye takes another promotional approach similar to this one, i’ll be expecting greatness because that’s what we got with Donda. His mum would be proud.
I rate this new Kanye West a Decent 9.