At this point, it seems as if every prominent figure in the hip-hop community has an opinion on Kanye West’s new album DONDA. Charlamagne Tha God dubbed it lackluster. Punch of TDE likened it to an “experience.” Now, Joe Budden has come through to share his own conclusion on the polarizing project during a recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast.
“I love it,” says Joe. “So genius. It’s brilliant.” When asked to give a numerical ranking on ten, Joe wastes little time in doling out an impressive 8.5. “It’s 8.5. It’s [a masterpiece].”
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A generous review to be sure, and further testament to how divided people seem to be where DONDA is concerned. There really doesn’t appear to be any middle ground here, and though Joe’s paywalled JPD episode prevents us from hearing his full explanation as to why he scored DONDA so highly, he’s certainly not alone. It’s likely the divided discourse will continue for some time, though it should be interesting to see how much replay value the project holds.
It’s especially interesting given how critical Joe has been of Kanye West in the past, especially in the midst of the Surgical Summer of 2018. In 2019, he accused Kanye West’s Sunday Service of being a “scam.” Clearly, there’s something about DONDA that spoke to Joe’s musical sensibilities, and it should be interesting to see how many other artists and personalities share similar thoughts in the coming months.
Do you think DONDA is worthy of the “masterpiece” title? And should that be the case, are you comfortable in placing it alongside Kanye’s best albums ever?