"Donda"...Donde esta the old Kanye?

I will admit, when I offered to write a review of Kanye West’s new album it was more of a joke than anything, and yet here we are. In hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have said anything at all. I’m not the biggest Kanye or trap fan in the world to begin with, so feel free to take everything I say with a grain of salt (or take it personally if you really want to I suppose). 

Sitting at just under two hours, “Donda” is an album full of repetitive sounds and a handful of lyrics that don’t really make a whole lot of sense when you think about them for longer than two minutes. Starting off in true Kanye fashion, the first track is a whole minute of Syleena Johnson saying Donda over and over again. I won’t say that completely deterred me, but it surely wasn’t what I was expecting, and I can’t imagine wanting to listen to it more than once.

The second track, “Jail,” started off very promising, with a cadence that mirrored “Donda Chant,” and I was, admittedly, excited about it. However, about a minute in, it became so repetitive that I never wanted to hear another overly synthed bass beat ever again. It didn’t take long to realize that this would be a recurring theme throughout the album, which made me more upset than I thought it would. I really was hoping to like this album, but it just wasn’t exactly what I wished it would be. 

It wasn’t all bad though. I actually added “Off the Grid” to my run playlist, and I think it’s by far the strongest song on the album. Playboi Carti and Fivio Foreign, the two features, poured their heart into each of their verses, which gave it such a refreshing feel compared to some of the other songs on the album. I also thought that “Believe What I Say” had strong, relatable lyrics that Kanye delivered well and from the heart, making all the difference. 

All in all, I don’t think it’s the worst album ever made by a long shot and at the same time I don’t think it was necessarily worth all the hype it got when it was released. But if you haven’t listened to it, I’d say give it a go - it has some noteworthy parts for sure, you just have to be willing to sift through a couple hours of music to find them.