Written Before Listen
I’m doing this written before listening just in case I review it but I might not. On the other hand, I am curious so I’m going to start listening to it and Without further ado, let’s get into it.
My Thoughts On The Stem Player
So let me go right away and talk about the device that this album is exclusively on, the Stem Player. I like the idea of it a lot. I’ve always wanted to hear isolated parts of a particular track, but now Kanye is treating it like it’s the next big thing, which it isn’t. It’s a cool idea, but since it’s Kanye creating it, he wants to put a business move on it. I will say this, I respect the business move but if you’re selling an album in the way that it is now for 200 dollars, that’s scamming your audience.
Comparison To Donda
Not only it is half the length of Donda, but there barely is any experience to it. There is no anthemic ode to the egoism that Kanye holds in high regard like “Jail”. There isn’t any sinister and haunting track like “God Breathed”, there isn’t any banger that is in the same realm as “Off The Grid '' or “Praise God”. There’s nothing as cohesive as “Hurricane'' or “Believe What I Say”. I think the mix of egoism, spirituality, consciousness and modern sounds are shown well on the original Donda. I enjoyed Donda, it was a very grand experience and every track worked in a way that only Kanye could make. The one-hour and 48 minute album was necessary but I feel like the 47 minutes that Donda 2 holds is nowhere near worth its time.
Features
For some reason, the first voice we hear on this album is XXXTentacion, which is not only disgusting to hear but they aren’t even worthwhile features. They’re unfinished hook ideas that are at least 3-4 years old at this point. The Don Toliver feature is good as well as the Very feature but they are the track. There are way too many Future features on this despite them not being so bad and the Baby Keem feature is super short that it barely left any impact on the album. I would say the same thing on the Travis Scott feature on “Pablo” too. I would say that the Migos feature is pretty good as well as the Fivio feature on “City Of Gods”. I think Jack Harlow did a solid enough job on “Louie Bags” and Soulja Boy was being Soulja Boy on the final track. So I think the features most of the time did well because…. it’s a Kanye track, they want to do their absolute best with them, but do all of them fit in the way that Kanye usually makes them fit? Absolutely not.
Production
Oh, God. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!?!?!? How did we end up with this!?!? The College Dropout, Graduation, 808s & Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Yeezus, and maybe even Donda all had forward-thinking production in one way or another. This on the other hand was backward thinking. It wasn’t generic, it wasn’t a misstep, it was a step back. It’s like taking the basic elements of trap music, making it Kanye certified, and calling it a day. This album is missing every single key ingredient to Kanye’s sound. It takes half a man to do some of these beats and he somehow makes a song with 5 people sound so unfinished. I guess we have to trust the process.
Favorite Tracks
I liked “City Of Gods” when it came out. It was a good collaboration and it kind of felt like an “Off the Grid” part 2. I also liked “Too Easy” as it is kind of like an experimental trap song with chaotic sirens and very involved drums. Other than that….Donda 2? More like Donda 2 much money to spend on this yeye ass album.
Verdict
This…..this is worse than Jesus Is King