Kanye West may be quite a controversial celebrity, but there’s no doubt he is one of the most successful and inspirational artists to ever walk the planet. Three separate listening parties, all in attendance of around 40,000 fans, were held for his newest album, Donda. Two of the parties were at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and the last in Kanye’s hometown of Chicago at Soldier Field. Almost two years after the original announcement of the album, we’ve finally got Kanye West’s 10th studio album, Donda.
Donda was named after Kanye West’s late mother, Donda West, and Kanye shows true appreciation for his mother, Christianity, and his family throughout the album. Big music sources like Pitchfork and The Los Angeles Times have shown mixed reviews.
Pitchfork gave Donda a very low rating of 6/10 and said the 1 hour and 48-minute runtime “lacked connective tissue and the songs had a higher calling than they delivered.” Pitchfork does give Kanye West his deserved credit for his new use of flows and exquisite production. Roddy Rich, Travis Scott, and Baby Keem stuck out to them on the album and Pitchfork's favorite songs included “Clique,” “Off the Grid,” and “Junya.”
The Los Angeles Times gave another mixed review on Donda and criticized him for controversial features like DaBaby and Marilyn Manson. In addition, The Los Angeles Times claims Donda was “a dump of stray thoughts about his mother, divorce, God, and bipolar disorder.” They did compliment Kanye’s true dedication to the music itself and appreciated the overall creativity. Along with the small compliments, Lil Baby, Roddy Rich, and Westside Gunn had the most memorable features for them.
Although these big sources gave mixed reviews, that disregards how fans like myself feel about the album. Therefore, I conducted an interview with “the album reviewer,” a music-focused Instagram page with around 13,000 followers, to get another opinion on Donda.
What is your overall rating of the album and why?
“I would say probably a 9/10 because I enjoyed most of the album from start to finish but all music has room for improvement”
What could have Kanye done differently on Donda?
“Kanye could’ve mixed certain songs like Pop Smoke’s verse better and got rid of unnecessary time like the open space on beats, and definitely could’ve added Kid Cudi back on ‘Remote Control.’”
What features were most memorable for you and why?
“Roddy Rich on ‘Pure Souls’ - voice fit really well with the beat and matched the song nicely, The Weeknd on ‘Hurricane’ - Complemented the song with a great chorus leading to great verses by Lil Baby and Kanye himself, Westside Gunn on ‘Keep My Spirit Alive’ - The verse was just beautiful”
Lastly, what are your favorite songs on the album?
“‘24’ or ‘Pure Souls.’”
I also asked my classmate and Middle Creek Junior Chase Williams the same questions on how he felt about Donda. First , Chase gave an overall rating of 7.5-8/10 due to the fact Kanye has better albums out there. Next, I then asked Chase what Kanye could have done differently to improve the album and he said he could’ve cut some of the song lengths. Thirdly, I asked Chase what his favorite features were on Donda and he loved Playboi Carti’s verse on “Junya” and “Off the Grid.” Lastly, I had to ask Chase what his favorite song on Donda is and he seemed to really enjoy Junya and Hurricane as both Kanye and the features “went off.”
Whether it’s a professional music source or a simple music lover, the ratings of Kanye West’s Donda have varied from positive and negative reviews. The 27-song tracklist includes a variety of unique sounds, exquisite production, and great features that showed improvement from his last album, Jesus is King. As a lot of music does, I could see this album aging very well and the mixed reviews becoming more positive and appreciative.