Over the past few weeks, there’s been a massive debate about who would win a battle of first-week sales: Drake or Kanye West. Drizzy, of course, took home the Billboard Artist Of The Decade Award, an accolade earned from an unmatched run and plenty of Billboard-topping singles and albums. This morning’s release of DONDA means that we won’t have the epic showdown between the commercial giants but Kanye’s still bound to do some massive numbers.
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Kanye West’s DONDA could very well set a tone for the century on the Billboard 200. Though album projections haven’t been confirmed yet, the rapper is expected to outsell Halsey, even after losing two full streaming days. Kanye West could “break the record for the most #1 albums on the Billboard 200 among artists debuting on the chart this century with #DONDA,” per chartdata.
Ye’s album arrived at the wee hours of the morning after it was revealed on Friday that DONDA had been submitted to his label. His new album boasts the original version of “Jail” ft Jay-Z, along with “Hurricane” ft. The Weeknd and Lil Baby. While Thursday’s listening party revealed that artists like Kid Cudi had been removed from certain songs, it seems that Kanye West took in the feedback of his fans.
Earlier today, Kanye claimed that the release of the delay in the album’s release was due to DaBaby’s label refusing to clear his verse. Ultimately, DaBaby’s manager, Arnold Taylor, cleared the air and said he only received the song this morning and immediately signed off on it.
Regardless, the album is here in its entirety. Check out the features and production credits here.