Soulja Boy Says He and Kanye West Are ‘All Good’ After Old Beef Appeared to Be Renewed
DONDA
Kanye West Announces ‘Donda 2’ Will Be Released Exclusively on His Stem Player
What Are The Features On Kanye West’s ‘Donda 2’?
For plenty of Kanye West fans, his 2021 album Donda felt like a comeback. Sure, it might not be My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy levels of Yeezus, but it was a start. It felt like Ye was trying again, not wandering around the gospel realm with choirs and Sunday Services in tow. So when word got out that he’s already hard at work on Donda 2, and it will be here in the matter of a few short days, excitement about the project reached a fever pitch. And so naturally, excitement over the release also begged the ever present question when it comes to a Kanye album: Who will he collaborate with? Here’s everything we know so far on that tip.
What Are The Features On Kanye West’s ‘Donda 2’
Luckily, one producer on the new Kanye album has given the media plenty of info on some of the album’s more relevant aspects. So we know that he’s once again working with Nas Digital, who produced “Junya” and “Remote Control,” on Donda part one.
When Kanye announced the album last week, he stated that Future will serve as the executive producer for the album. This creative partnership followed up a surprise New Year’s Eve performance from the pair of rappers, who have rarely worked together in the past.
A recently released collaboration with The Game called “Eazy” takes shots at Pete Davidson, who Ye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian is reportedly dating. While it’s unclear if this is a Donda 2 track, it seems like The Game and the track’s producer Hit-Boy might be in the mix.
Spotted hanging out at the studio with Kanye in mid-January were The Game (a collaboration we’ve since heard), Moneybagg Yo, Chavo, and his frequent collaborator Mike Dean, so it’s very likely we’ll get a guest verse or something from a few of them. Even weirder? Big Sean, who has continually implied he has beef with Kanye and is no longer signed to GOOD Music was also at the studio hang. Rekindling? We’ll see.
Kanye was in the studio with Blueface, The Game, Moneybagg Yo, Chavo and Mike Dean last night, Big Sean was there as well apparently
pic.twitter.com/ZNbSMPnTc3
— Kurrco (@Kurrco) January 12, 2022
The next day, photos of Kanye, ASAP Rocky, and Pusha T at the studio together surface. I’ll tune in for a song by that trio any day.
Asap Rocky is locked in the studio with Kanye & Pusha T
pic.twitter.com/djBCH7he2y
— Wave Check
(@thewavecheckk) January 13, 2022
A few days ago, Digital also spilled the beans that Marilyn Manson is working very closely with Kanye on the project. “I see Marilyn a lot in the studio,” the producers said. “Like, every day I go to the studio, Marilyn is there working on Donda 2.” Though that particular partnership might upset some fans, at this point, Kanye doesn’t seem to care. After all, doing whatever he wants is basically what he’s best known for at this point.
Marilyn Manson Is Reportedly Working Closely With Kanye West On ‘Donda 2’
At the upcoming Grammy Awards, Marilyn Manson secured himself a nomination thanks to his work on Kanye West’s album Donda. Ye received backlash for working with Manson in light of allegations of sexual assault and abuse he faces, but it appears that hasn’t deterred West from containing to work with Manson, who is reportedly involved in the making of the upcoming Donda 2.
Digital Nas, a producer who worked on the first Donda album, told Rolling Stone, “I see Marilyn a lot in the studio. Like, every day I go to the studio, Marilyn is there working on Donda 2.” He continued, “[West] doesn’t want Marilyn to play rap beats. He wants Marilyn to play what he makes, and then Ye will take parts of that and sample parts of that and use parts of that, like he did [generally when making] Yeezus. […] He has some producers from Yeezus working on Donda 2 this time around, [as well as] Marilyn, me, a bunch of producers from Donda 1.”
He also noted that West and Manson have “a crazy dynamic,” saying, “I would have never, ever thought that would happen, but it happened.”
Furthermore, Nas speculated why West decided to work with Manson, saying, “I think it’s moreso that Ye is coming from a standpoint of like, ‘We all make mistakes.’ I think that’s maybe why he had DaBaby and Marilyn at that one show. I’m just assuming it is from a standpoint of like, ‘We’re all sinners. We all make mistakes. We shouldn’t point the finger at someone for the mistakes they’ve made or something like that.’”
Kanye West’s Release Date For ‘Donda 2’ Might Have Been Inspired By A First-Ever Occurrence With Pluto
Five months after Kanye West released his tenth album Donda, which was met with a few delays, the rapper is prepared to release its sequel. Earlier this week, West announced that Donda 2 will arrive on February 22 and that it will be executive-produced by Future. Many are understandably unsure if West will deliver the album on that day, as he has a well-documented history of pump-faking on release dates. However, thanks to an Instagram story Kanye shared, there’s seems to be some significance behind the date he chose, which hopefully means it will arrive on schedule.
Kanye West IG Story
— Rap301 (@_Rap301) January 27, 2022
West shared a screenshot that revealed February 22 is also a big deal in astrology. “Astrologically, a Pluto return is when the heavenly body returns to the same position in a birth chart where it was when the chart began,” the image read. According to Bustle, Pluto’s return occurs once every 248 years, meaning that this will be the first one in the United States since the nation’s founding.
Furthermore, one of Future’s nicknames is Pluto, dating back to his 2012 debut album of the same title. Other times Future has used the name were on his 2012 mixtape Astronaut Status, and his 2021 joint project with Lil Uzi Vert, Pluto X Baby Pluto.
You can view a screenshot of Kanye’s post above.
Kanye Wants ‘Donda 2’ To Soundtrack ‘Major Moments’ Like Funerals, Childbirth, Graduation Or Weddings
Now that Kanye is back in a prolific phase, releasing Donda last year and almost immediately announcing a follow-up, he’s got a whole new slew of producers and collaborators in the mix. That’s a good thing, Ye’s taste level in other artists has always been one of his strong suits — except for that whole Marilyn Manson fiasco — and now one of his new producers, Digital Nas, has spoken to Rolling Stone about his time working with Yeezy on Donda 2.
Digital Nas, aka Nasir Pemberton, said he initially traveled from his home in Atlanta to work with Kanye in LA, but ended up moving to the city of angels in the end. “I went out there on a whim, no expectations,” the 23-year-old told Rolling Stone. “Then it turned into me living out there. By the fifth day, my manager gets an email like, ‘Hey, we want Nas out here indefinitely.’ And we’ve been just rocking ever since.”
Not a bad way to kick off your career! As for what fans can hope for from Donda 2, Kanye is planning and hoping to have it soundtrack major moments in his listener’s lives. “These are the directives for the album: ‘If it cannot be played at a funeral, childbirth, graduation, a wedding, it will not be on our record,’” Nas said. “We learned a lot from Donda 1. We learned what hit. We learned what was sticking. So we took from there. It has to be able to be played at four major moments in people’s lives. That’s crazy, right?”
Check out the entire interview here, and keep an eye out for Donda 2, which drops in just a few weeks on February 22.
Kanye West Reunites With ‘Donda’ Standout Vory On The Dream Chasers Rapper’s Debut Album
Of all the artists who were featured on Kanye West’s new album Donda, one of the standouts was Dream Chasers rapper Vory. The Meek Mill-associated artist featured on a number of the album’s songs, including “God Breathed,” “Jonah,” and “No Child Left Behind.” The project turned out to be a watershed moment for the rising star, who now turns his attention to his own debut album — which has turned out to be just as star-studded as Kanye’s.
According to a text screenshot he posted on his Instagram, his upcoming project will reunite him with Kanye West, as well as connect him with trap rap man of the hour Gunna, whose own new album DS4EVER recently debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200. Other rappers involved will include the emergent Landstrip Chip, Toronto hitmaker Nav, and Mobile, Alabama crooner Yung Bleu, as well as newcomers Beam and Rockford, Illinois battle rapper Fresco.
Before taking off thanks to his appearances on Donda, Vory put in major work behind the scenes, writing alongside Bryon Tiller, Drake, and The Carters‘ Jay-Z and Beyonce, while working on refining his own records. He signed to Dream Chasers in 2020 before putting out a self-titled EP showing off his polished pen. He was also featured on Meek Mill’s 2021 album, Expensive Pain. Vory’s debut will be out sometime this year.
Kanye’s ‘Heaven And Hell’ Video Is Essentially An Eerie Gap Commercial
In the newest phase of his career, Kanye has become more fashion-focused than ever before — and the music videos and live performances he’s released around his latest album reflect that. Considering Donda was unveiled over several different listening sessions, it makes sense that the artist now known simply as Ye is just getting around to introducing music videos for some of the project’s songs.
Tonight, he shared the video for Donda track “Heaven And Hell” as a traditional music video — albeit one where every faceless person in the video is wearing the black hoodie he designed for Gap — but also as a Gap ad itself, first aired on ESPN during the College Football National Championship game. If you’re interested in purchasing the hoodie, you can head to yeezygap.com, where you’ll be prompted to fill in your name, email and sizes. The hoodie currently comes in both adult and child sizes, and in either black and blue. It’s $80 for an adult and $60 for a child size.
Check out the full “Heaven And Hell” video above to get quite a few glimpses of the item. It might not be the puffer, but this looks like it could be another classic Kanye staple very soon.
Kanye West Was In A Hotel Room With Two Mystery Brunettes Right Before His Date Night With Julia Fox
At first, it seemed like Kanye West was having trouble moving on from his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian. For her part, Kim was immediately linked to Pete Davidson, and even though she opted to appear in a wedding dress as part of Kanye’s recent Donda spectacles, she made it clear reconciling wasn’t in the cards for her. And even though he recently shouted her out during his concert for Larry Hoover with Drake, he’s no longer acting like a married man.
In Miami for part of his surprise New Year’s Eve show with Future, Kanye was spotted with not one but two mystery brunettes in a hotel room on New Year’s Day. In a report from the The Daily Mail, photos of Yeezy and a woman in a crop top on a balcony indicated he had company ringing in 2022, and later another woman in a plunging top also appeared on the balcony.
But later that night, Ye was out with someone else — he was spotted by TMZ at Carbone with actress Julia Fox on what appeared to be a date. So single Kanye is definitely back in the building, no matter how he might still feel about the mother of his children. Let’s hope all this leads to some musical inspiration in the very near future.
Ye’s ‘Donda’ Bulletproof Vest Was Turned Into An NFT And Sold For A Lot Of Money
Fans began to grow impatient earlier this year while waiting months to hear Ye’s long-delayed album Donda. That’s why the rapper’s Donda listening parties were such a big deal. Ye took over stadiums, sleeping at one and building a replica of his child home in another, and played the entirety of his LP to eager fans. The events were so iconic that one of the bulletproof vests he wore to a listening party is being auctioned off for a lot of money — alongside an NFT that’s an exact digital replica of the vest.
After his Donda listening party in Atlanta was over, Ye apparently gifted his ballistic vest to one of the security guards working there that night. The security guard sold the clothing item back in August for $20,000, but now, it’s sold for even more than that. Auction company Christie’s come into possession of the vest. But rather than selling the vest by itself, Christie’s had an NFT made of it. According to NME, the vest and the NFT just sold for a whopping $75,000.
Sharing a video of the NFT on Instagram, Christie’s wrote:
“We are proud to offer a unique piece of music history: the bullet proof vest worn by Kanye during the August 5th debut of his DONDA album, complete with ballistics panels, hand painted DONDA and Kanye signed MBD, ‘my body different’, and the first 1-of-1 NFT of its kind sold at Christie’s, allowing this moment in music history to live on both physically and digitally.”
Check out the NFT vest above.