Kanye West

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

by
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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.

Tyler The Creator Shows Love To Andre 3000 After Hearing ‘Life Of The Party’

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Days after Kanye West previewed “Life Of The Party,” his unreleased collaboration with Andre 3000, Drake somehow got a hold of the record and premiere it in its entirety during a recent broadcast on OVO Sound’s radio show on Sirius XM. The decision to play the leaked song was the latest chess move from Drake in his lengthy beef with West. However, putting the rappers’ differences aside, many who listened to the song were impressed with Andre 3000’s verse as it was dedicated to his mother and father who died in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

One of the people who praised Andre and the song was Tyler The Creator as he took to Twitter to share a pair of lines from it and give a nod to the Outkast counterpart. “Straight from Shibuya,” he wrote in one tweet, referencing West’s hook from the song, before pulling from Andre’s verse for a second tweet, writing, “Hey keep rollin.’” Lastly, Tyler showed love to Andre in a final post that read, “sir 3000* [pink hearts emoji].”

Tyler’s message comes after Andre listed him as one of the rappers he’d love to work with in the future.

“I just want to work with people that inspire me,” Andre wrote in a statement that was released after Drake leaked “Life Of The Party.” He added, “Hopefully I can work with Kendrick on his album. I’d love to work with Lil’ Baby, Tyler and Jay-Z. I respect them all.”

Consequence Backs Kanye West And Disses Drake On His New Song, ‘Party Time’

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Drake’s Certified Lover Boy is laced with a number of bars that many fans took as disses toward Kanye West. One of them came on “7am In Bridle Path.” On it Drake raps, “Give that address to your driver, make it your destination / ‘Stead of just a post out of desperation.”

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.” The Toronto native also leaked the full version of West and Andre 3000’s unreleased collaboration, “Life Of The Party,” during a Sirius XM radio show.

While West himself has yet to issue a response to Drake’s shots, one of his close associates has stepped forward to address the Toronto rapper. Consequence, who was signed to GOOD Music from 2005-2011 and has spent the recent months beside West as he continued to work on Donda, arrived with a new diss track aimed at Drake titled “Party Time.”

On the record, Consequence raps, “We know two wrongs never makes thing right/ But when you insinuate, you are with the next man’s wife/ You might as well say you take the next man’s life/ ’Cause that’s a dark place that makes most men fight.” These lines refer to Drake’s “Knife Talk” with 21 Savage where the Toronto native hints at sleeping with another man’s woman, which many believe is Kim Kardashian.

Consequence then goes after Drake by attacking aspects of his personal life. “But from the outside, a person can tell/ You are going through your own personal hell / Your parents out here like Sonya and Dell,” he raps. And ever since Sophie had a story to tell / You’ve been taking Ls and coming after K / And thought we couldn’t tell you were coming after K / But most crabs are a shell of their self.”

Lastly, Consequence shares his desire to confront Drake in person. “Who told Aubs that he can play with them? / That boy Cons can run the fade with them/ I wish we could shoot five instead of group chats / Next time bring Chubbs when you shoot back.”

You can listen to “Party Time” above.