Kanye West has been on a roll regarding staying in the media lately. Everywhere you turn, it seems that Chicago-rapper is back in some drama or is on his way out of some drama and into some more drama–whether that drama is based around Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson, Kid Cudi, his Jeen-Yuhs documentary, or Kanye just being Kanye, there always seems to be something. Today’s episode deals primarily with the eventual release of his forthcoming album Donda 2.
After announcing that not only would the song only be available on his Stem Player and would cost his fans a whopping $200 to obtain (later revealed that fans would be able to get the music for free on the website) but that he wouldn’t be uploading the album to any DSPs citing that these DSPs only allow for the artist to get “12% of the money the industry makes” and calling for a kind of revolution stating that artists need to “take control and build our own.”
(Brad Barket/Getty Images for Fast Company)
While we didn’t see the backlash from companies and streaming services swift and in that moment, the reactions id eventually come, with the first one being from Apple themselves. While the statement wasn’t given publicly, it was sent directly to Kanye in private and, as a result, was made public. Kanye West posted a screenshot of a text message sent to him from Damian stating to let Kanye know “that Apple is no longer doing the sponsorship deal.”
Using the screenshot as a way to show his fans what the streaming platforms feel about artists, Kanye posted the picture captioned “duh” with an eye-rolling emoji and a slyly laughing emoji. It seems to Kanye this is all the proof he needed to justify his decision. As of now, Donda 2 will be released on February 22nd via his Stem Player and stemplayer.com, but it seems the world doesn’t know anything more than that. We know and can’t deny that when Kanye is set on a decision, there isn’t much to change his mind.