DONDA

Kanye West Adjusted ‘Donda’ Based In Part On Online Reviews Of His Listening Events, Mike Dean Says

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Kanye West finally released Donda recently (whether he wanted to or not, it seemed). The creative process of the record was a public affair, as West held three listening parties and made changes to the album between them. Mike Dean, who worked on the album with West, says that after the listening parties, he took reactions to the songs into consideration when making alterations to the album, including online reviews.

Speaking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Dean said (as HotNewHipHop notes):

“It was interesting. It was grueling, lots of hours, lots of changes. Came out great, though. […] Kanye had three listening parties, so each listening party was like a test, kind of. And after each one, I think he wanted… I can’t talk too much about his process. He took all the information he got from everyone — including online reviews, personal friends’ reviews — and he just kind of digested it all and adjusted the album the way he wants.

He also noted that during the events, he was attuned to how the audiences were feeling about the songs, saying, “I definitely looked at how the crowd moved to different songs. I was up at the top of the stadium, DJ-ing.”

As unconventional as the process was, the results speak for themselves: Donda topped the charts and two of the album’s songs debuted in the top 10 of the Hot 100 this week.

Two Songs From Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Debut In The Top 10 Of The Hot 100 Chart

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So far, Kanye West’s new album Donda is an undeniable success. The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and its songs are also faring well on an individual basis. Billboard shared the top 10 spots of the Hot 100 chart dated September 11 today, and two of the songs come from Donda: “Hurricane,” which debuts at No. 6, and “Jail,” which comes in at No. 10. West now has 20 top-10 songs on the chart.

While “Hurricane” and “Jail” have guests on them, they aren’t credited as featured artists, so they do not appear on the chart; “Hurricane” includes contributions from The Weeknd and Lil Baby, while “Jail” has a verse from Jay-Z.

Elsewhere on the chart, BTS’ “Butter” returns to the No. 1 spot for a tenth week, making it just one of 40 songs to ever spend at least that long in the top spot. The song’s rise comes after the group released a new remix of it featuring Megan Thee Stallion, although that version of the song didn’t drive enough listening activity to give Megan a credit on the chart.

Meanwhile, Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like” rises to No. 9 this week, making it just the second country song of the year to make the top 10, following Morgan Wallen’s “Wasted On You.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Diddy Has Praise For Both Kanye West And Drake’s New Albums: ‘You Guys Are True Kings Of Creativity’

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In recent weeks, a lot of conversations have pitted Kanye West and Drake against each other as both released new albums at around the same time. Diddy is taking a more diplomatic approach, though, as he has taken a minute to offer praise for both artists and their new music.

In a video posted on his Instagram Story today, Diddy spoke about Donda and Certified Lover Boy, starting, “I listened to both these albums and first of all, I just wanna say that you guys are true kings of creativity. Both of you guys are so special and so necessary, you know what I’m saying? Just thank y’all for the inspiration. I wanna make sure that what hip-hop knows is: That’s the reach and the power that we have. I really wanna take my hat off to these brothers both sharing their truth.”

He then praised specific elements of both albums before concluding, “I just want to say, love decrees that they both win, that we win. When you’re an artist, you keep pushing it to the limit to be the best. [Not] the best not against another man — there is competition, but the best within yourself, and I think that’s why we’re witnessing two greats and enjoying them. I’m having a ball and the music sounds beautiful. Don’t stop, guys, love y’all.”

Meanwhile, Pusha T brought a different flavor to the conversation by seemingly taking pleasure in a dip in Drake’s streaming numbers.

Pusha T Seemingly Enjoys Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Having A Major Day-Two Streaming Drop-Off

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Pusha T and Drake have one of the most famous hip-hop feuds of recent years. So, it’s not too surprising to see that when Pusha found a comparison that paints Kanye West’s new album Donda in a more positive light than it does Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, he was all over it.

It started with a recent tweet from XXL, which compares the Spotify streaming numbers of Donda and Certified Lover Boy on the albums’ first two days of availability. West’s album was streamed 94.5 million times on its first day before jumping up to 102.1 million streams on its second day. As for CLB, it had 153.4 million streams on its first day before falling drastically to 89.9 million the next day.

It’s worth noting, though, that Donda was released at around 8 a.m. on a Sunday, as opposed to midnight on Friday like most albums are (including CLB). If you do the math, Donda and CLB actually had similar numbers in terms of average streams per hour on their respective first days: about 5.9 million and 6.4 million, respectively. So, looking at streams per hour on the album’s first days versus their second-day performance, they performed somewhat similarly, with Donda experiencing a smaller day-two drop-off but CLB reaching a higher peak. So, all in all, the numbers from that tweet don’t fully represent the situation at hand.

Anyway, somebody shared a screenshot of the XXL tweet and added, “i predicted this. i said drake’s day 1 is gonna be huge off the element of surprise then its just gonna drop. donda everyone heard in full 3 weeks before it dropped, still did these numbers and is only growing in streams. crazy!” Pusha seemingly agreed with the tweet, as he gave it a like.

When West released Donda, Pusha shared a congratulatory post about it, writing on Instagram, “This is about power, money, influence and taste…nothing more, nothing less. Watching you ‘joystick the culture”‘makes us all proud. Continue to do things your way, congrats, and I’m honored to have been a part of the process.”

Pusha T Seemingly Enjoys Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Having A Major Day-Two Streaming Drop-Off

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Pusha T and Drake have one of the most famous hip-hop feuds of recent years. So, it’s not too surprising to see that when Pusha found a comparison that paints Kanye West’s new album Donda in a more positive light than it does Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, he was all over it.

It started with a recent tweet from XXL, which compares the Spotify streaming numbers of Donda and Certified Lover Boy on the albums’ first two days of availability. West’s album was streamed 94.5 million times on its first day before jumping up to 102.1 million streams on its second day. As for CLB, it had 153.4 million streams on its first day before falling drastically to 89.9 million the next day.

It’s worth noting, though, that Donda was released at around 8 a.m. on a Sunday, as opposed to midnight on Friday like most albums are (including CLB). If you do the math, Donda and CLB actually had similar numbers in terms of average streams per hour on their respective first days: about 5.9 million and 6.4 million, respectively. So, looking at streams per hour on the album’s first days versus their second-day performance, they performed somewhat similarly, with Donda experiencing a smaller day-two drop-off but CLB reaching a higher peak. So, all in all, the numbers from that tweet don’t fully represent the situation at hand.

Anyway, somebody shared a screenshot of the XXL tweet and added, “i predicted this. i said drake’s day 1 is gonna be huge off the element of surprise then its just gonna drop. donda everyone heard in full 3 weeks before it dropped, still did these numbers and is only growing in streams. crazy!” Pusha seemingly agreed with the tweet, as he gave it a like.

When West released Donda, Pusha shared a congratulatory post about it, writing on Instagram, “This is about power, money, influence and taste…nothing more, nothing less. Watching you ‘joystick the culture”‘makes us all proud. Continue to do things your way, congrats, and I’m honored to have been a part of the process.”

Kanye West Ties Eminem For The Most Consecutive No. 1 Albums With ‘Donda’

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The road to Kanye West’s tenth album Donda was a long and eventful one. After hosting three listening sessions, two that were in Atlanta and one in Chicago, West finally released the album, which offered nearly two hours of music across 27 songs, with guest appearances from Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, Ariana Grande, DaBaby, Marilyn Manson, Lil Baby, The Weeknd, Young Thug, Roddy Ricch, and many more. While opinions on Donda vary, it easily topped the charts.

West’s tenth album reached the top of the Billboard 200, selling 309,000 units in its first week. This number is comprised of 272,000 streaming equivalent album units thanks to 357.39 million on-demand streams of the songs. It also posted 37,000 pure album sales. It’s the rapper’s tenth consecutive album and eighth straight solo project to do so, a streak that dates back to the 2005 release of his sophomore album, Late Registration.

Kanye’s also joined The Beatles, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Eminem, and Elvis Presley as the only artists in history with ten or more chart-topping projects. Donda also earned the biggest first-week sales figure across all genres in 2021.

You can revisit our review of Donda here.

Donda is out now via GOOD Music/Def Jam. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Drake Played The Entirety Of An Unreleased Track By Kanye West As The Latest Chess Move In Their Beef

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Drake seemed to take several shots at Kanye West on his new album, Certified Lover Boy, and on Saturday morning the Toronto rapper has made another chess move. Drake guest-hosted Sound 42, his Sirius XM radio show on the OVO Sound channel. During it, he played the entirety of an unreleased collaboration by West and Andre 3000 titled “Life Of The Party,” a record West previewed a few days ago, during his first interview since releasing Donda.

The six-and-a-half-minute song opens with a verse from Andre that finds the Outkast counterpart speaking on the loss of his parents. Later on, West delivers a verse that mentions Drake on multiple occasions, referencing their rumored joint album, Calabasas is the New Abu Dhabi.

“I put Virgil and Drake on the same text and it wasn’t about the matching Arc’teryx or Kid Cudi dress,” West raps on the song. “Just told these grown men stop it with the funny sh*t / Thought we was the new Abu Dhabi / Told Drake don’t play with me on GD and he sent that message to everybody.” West adds, “So if I hit you with a ‘WYD,’ you better hit me with, ‘Yessir, I’m writing everything you need.’”

Drake’s latest move comes after he seemed to diss Kanye on “7am On Bridle Path” from his new Certified Lover Boy album. “Give that address to your driver, make it your destination / ‘Stead of just a post out of desperation,” he raps referencing West’s now-deleted Instagram post that shared the address to Drake’s Toronto mansion. He adds, “This me reachin’ the deepest state of my meditation / While you over there tryna impress the nation / Mind’s runnin’ wild with the speculation.”

You can listen to a preview of the song in the post above.

Certified Lover Boy is out now via OVO Sound/Republic. Get it here.

Fans Have All The Jokes For Jay-Z After Appearing On Both Drake And Kanye’s Albums

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It’s no secret that Drake and Kanye West haven’t been on the best of terms in the last few years. Both men released albums just a week apart whose primary rollout strategies seemed to consist mostly of the two trying to out-troll each other (which kinda worked, considering the streaming numbers and Twitter chatter both have generated so far). Meanwhile, it’s also pretty widely accepted that Jay-Z is one of if not the greatest of all time in rap, so scoring an appearance from him is tantamount to having Michael Jordan bless your hoop career.

So it’s pretty funny that both Donda, which dropped last week, and Certified Lover Boy, which came out earlier this morning, both prominently feature verses from the Brooklyn business mogul, despite Kanye and Drake fighting like two cats in a sack for the past several months (or rather, sniping at each other like Love & Hip-Hop cast members at a reunion special, take your pick). At least, the denizens of Rap Twitter seem to think so, breaking out the jokes and the memes to point out Hov’s split loyalties.

Interestingly enough, the situation is somewhat similar to one involving two of these personalities nearly 20 years ago. Kanye once found himself bridging the gap between Jay-Z and his erstwhile rival Nas at the height of their feud over the “King Of New York” title, producing beats for both men’s albums including the infamous “Takeover” diss from Jay to Nas. Perhaps Jay sees himself playing the vital role Kanye played back then, having the age and experience to make amends with Nas in the meantime (although you could argue things haven’t always been exactly peaceful between them). Who knows? Until then, have a laugh at some of the many, many Twitter jokes about the situation below.

Kanye West’s Team Will Reportedly Reignite His Drake Feud If He’s Trashed On ‘Certified Lover Boy’

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As Drake fans have noticed, the rapper has been putting up billboards in various cities promoting the impending release of his album Certified Lover Boy. But right after the Certified Lover Boy promo appeared, Kanye put up a number of Donda billboards in Drake’s hometown city of Toronto, seemingly trolling the rapper. But it now seems as though Kanye is waiting for Drake’s album to drop to see if reigniting their beef is worthwhile.

According to a report from TMZ, the Donda rapper’s manager, Bu Thiam, says that things are “cool” between Ye and Drake as of now. But that could all changed depending on the content of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy album. If Drake opts to take some shots at Kanye on any of the songs off his upcoming album, then Ye would “almost certainly” have to reply.

TMZ recently caught up with Thiam at LAX, who spoke to the situation. “Listen, it’s two creatives taking jabs at each other but it did get rectified,” Thiam said. “We’ll see. [Drake’s] album comes out, I think in a couple days, Friday, so depending on what he says on his album. We’ll see.”

Certified Lover Boy officially drops on Friday, and Drake has shared which collaborators are set to appear on the album. So far, the rapper has confirmed features from Jay-Z, Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Giveon, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Durk, Yebba, and Project Pat.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Fans Think Kanye West Is Trolling Drake With His New ‘Donda’ Billboards In Toronto

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Drake and Kanye West have feuded here and there over the years, and now the pair seems to be back at it again. The two recently traded jabs via verses and text screenshots before West posted Drake’s Toronto address on his Instagram. It appears West may be intent on keeping this spat alive, as some speculate that his latest Donda promotional move was intended to add fuel to the fire.

Fans have noticed that giant billboards for Donda, which have a plain white background with the album title in bold black text, have popped up in Toronto. This comes after Drake has been making use of billboards to share apparent Certified Lover Boy lyrics and reveal some of the artists who are featuring on the album. Furthermore, Kanye’s new billboards are in the city’s Yonge-Dundas Square, which is where Drake’s billboards are.

Some think that this is a deliberate jab at Drake:

It’s worth noting, though, that BlogTO likens Yonge-Dundas Square to Toronto’s version of New York City’s Times Square, which would make the bustling area a logical spot for West to push Donda, feud or no feud. The publication also notes that the Donda images are part of a rotation of ads that cycle through the digital billboards and therefore aren’t a constant presence.

So, while it’s possible that this was a calculated anti-Drake move from West, another explanation could be that West and his team simply chose a prominent area in a major North American city to promote the new album.