Out of nowhere in the middle of Sunday, Donda has finally seen the light of day. Besides the big nonsense that this outing sparked on social media, Kanye provided an album that was substantial to say the least. 27 tracks, for an hour and 48 minutes of listening and an incalculable number of guests: this release puts an end to an interminable saga and can now give way to music. Here are the five things to know about this eventful outing
He sampled Globglogabgalab on “Remote Control”
On Donda’s 12th track, “Remote Control” , featuring Young Thug, we find a surprising sample to say the least. Indeed, Kanye sampled a passage of fifteen seconds of Globglogabgalab at the end of the piece. This sample was added very recently, since it did not appear on the version of the track played on August 5th during the second Donda L istening Party.
Globglogabgalab is the anthropomorphic worm who sings about his love of books in the children’s film Strawinsky and the Mysterious House . If this film dates from 2012, it was in March 2018 that the Globglogabgalab singing scene, performed by Tony Halstead, hit the internet and memes groups.
Guests wandering from one song to another
Coincidence or not, Kid Cudi was to be present on the track “Remote Control”, the one on which Globglogabgalab was finally sampled. Played in Atlanta during the second night of listening, this track included, after the verse by Young Thug, a third verse by Kid Cudi. Although withdrawn from this track, he finally participates in the track “Moon” , on which we also find Don Toliver.
Among the other changes which had been controversial during the listening, Jay-Z was not withdrawn, since it is found on “Jail” , the second track of the album. A time thought to have been abandoned in favor of DaBaby, the duo Kanye West and Jay-Z have made their comeback on one of the titles that stand out the most from Donda .
For its part, DaBaby obviously did not facilitate the release of the album. While we thought for a while that he was delayed because his manager had not given his approval concerning the performance of his artist on “Jail pt 2” , it seems that the latter is not involved in this story. DaBaby manager Arnold Taylor spoke on Instagram. He denied having slowed the release of the album and assured that he had no problem with the title. “Why would I refuse to have a hit released when it’s in the best interests of hip-hop culture and my artist?” He said. A few hours after the album’s release, “Jail pt 2” was available.
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Who is behind the publication of the album?
As crazy as it sounds, it could well be that the album was released by Universal without Kanye West’s approval. While we know the perfectionism taken to the extreme of Ye, which is at the origin of the delay of Donda (and many other albums), it seems that the record company has forced the release of the tenth album of Kanye West.
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On Instagram, the artist spoke quite explicitly: “Universal released my album without my consent and blocked the presence of ‘Jail 2’ on the album.” A version of Kanye who joins the words of the manager of DaBaby that the blocking would not have come from him. So if the album wasn’t released by Kanye, is he 100% happy with it? Will he be entitled to changes over the next few weeks, as he did on The Life of Pablo ? The answer should not be long.
Donda: A century record for Kanye
Indeed, with the impressive start that Donda made on streaming platforms, Kanye West is on the verge of breaking a record: that of the number of albums ranked number 1 on the Billboard 200 in the 21st century, based on forecasts that put it number 1 on the charts (with nearly 100 million streams on Spotify in 24 hours).
.@kanyewest’s #DONDA is now expected to debut at #1 on the US albums chart. Official sales projections expected tomorrow (via @HITSDD).
— chart data (@chartdata) August 29, 2021
In addition to his remarkable performance on a global scale, Kanye broke another record: that of the number of countries in which his album was at the top of the trends on Apple Music. He has reached the insane mark of 130 countries. From South Africa to Romania via Peru and Thailand, Kanye is number 1 everywhere.
.@kanyewest’s “Donda” is OFFICIALY the album with the most #1’s in @AppleMusic’s history. pic.twitter.com/fN3kX8ZaZk
— Kanye West Charts (@kwcharts) August 30, 2021
Gesaffelstein present at the production of three titles
The French producer and composer of electronic music had already, in the past, collaborated with Kanye West on Yeezus through titles like “Black Skinhead” or “Send It Up”. We find him here in the co-production of three tracks: “Jesus Lord”, “No Child Left Behind” and “Jesus Lord pt 2”.
It is also interesting to compare the covers of the projects of these artists. If it seems obvious that Gesaffelstein was inspired by Yeezus’ cover for his album Aleph released a few months later, we notice that Donda’s cover is exactly the same as that of Hyperion , Gesaffelstein’s latest album released in 2019. .
