Kanye West's "Donda 2"

About

DONDA 2 is the 11th studio album by American rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and the follow-up to his tenth album DONDA. It's set to release in February 2022. Online anticipation for the album was riddled with controversy regarding Kanye West vs. Pete Davidson, online discourse between Ye and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and the reveal that the album would only be available on a Stem Player rather than on streaming services like Spotify.

History

On January 3rd, 2022, it was revealed by Complex^[1] magazine that Ye was officially working on "his new masterpiece." That same day, Instagram^[2] page RapTV posted about the announcement, earning roughly 288,700 likes in one month.

Internet users reacted to the news through memes. For instance, on January 3rd, Twitter^[3] user TervoPatrick tweeted a blank, white square, captioning it, "Rumored DONDA 2 cover art," in reference to DONDA's all-black album cover. The tweet (shown below, left) received over 100 likes in one month. Other meme creators were tired of Ye's publicity, like Instagram^[4] page xiu_shoegaze, who posted a meme on the 3rd using the Mr. Incredible Shut the Fuck Up, Please Shut the Fuck Up template, earning roughly 2,900 likes over the course of one month (shown below, right).

On January 27th, Ye revealed in a now-deleted Instagram post that DONDA 2's release date was February 22nd, 2022. He also stated that the album was to be executive produced by Atlanta rapper Future. It was reported on by Instagram^[5] page theshaderoom who earned roughly 135,900 likes in three weeks. Despite all this, the release date was later changed to February 31st, 2022.^[6]

DONDA 2 Private Listening Party

On February 8th, 2022, Ye held a private listening party for DONDA 2. In attendance were multiple rappers and musical artists like Drake, Baby Keem, Travis Scott and Yung Lean. All five musicians were photographed together at the party (shown below). The photo was most notably posted to Instagram^[7] by Yung Lean, who captioned it "New Beatles," and earned roughly 399,400 likes over the course of ten days.

Pete Davidson Blacklist

After the private listening party, many online started to speculate about who wasn't featured in the photograph. Towards the end of 2021 and going into early 2022, drama developed between Ye and SNL cast member Pete Davidson in regards to Davidson dating Ye's ex-wife Kim Kardashian. On January 17th, 2022, a track snippet was released of Ye rapping about beating up Davidson.

On February 12th, 2022, Ye in a now-deleted Instagram post (shown below, left) revealed that rapper Kid Cudi would not be featured on DONDA 2 because he's "friends with you know who." The post was reported on by the Twitter^[8] page of RapTV, who earned roughly 21,200 likes in six days. This prompted a response from Kid Cudi, who commented on the now-deleted Instagram post, calling Ye, "a fucking dinosaur" (shown below, right). It earned roughly 8,400 likes in less than 24 hours.

Meme creators started exploiting the Kid Cudi and Ye drama. For instance, Twitter^[9] user spaceeong referenced the Kardashian-West Halloween Family Photo in a tweet, captioning it, "kid cudi callin kanye a dinosaur making sense now," earning 218,600 likes over six days (shown below, left). Instagram^[10] page italyctuals_images_only posted a faked "trap music" infographic on the 13th, making a joke about Swedish musician Bladee replacing all of Cudi's features on DONDA 2, earning over 290 likes in five days (shown below, right).

On February 13th, Ye spammed a series of Instagram posts related to Pete Davidson and his ongoing love for Kim Kardashian and his family, including his daughter North West. The Instagram posts shocked many and led to subsequent memes like Kanye West Holding Notepad. It also led to his break-up with actress Julia Fox, known for her role in Uncut Gems. It also led to an interview with Fox regarding the break-up, inspiring the Julia Fox 'Uncut Jams' soundbite.

Stem Player

On February 17th, Ye announced in an Instagram^[11] post that DONDA 2 would only be available on his own platform: a physical device called a Stem Player.^[12] He relayed in the post (shown below) that the album would not be made available on streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, citing recent news that artists get "just 12% of the money the industry makes" via streaming platforms. The post received roughly 950,700 likes in less than 24 hours.

Internet users and meme creators reacted to the development en masse, mostly joking about not wanting to pay $200 for a Stem Player. For instance, Twitter^[13] user big_business_ tweeted, "Kanye charging $200 for DONDA 2 ??? get ya money but I'm wait on distribution from Zippyshare records," earning roughly 10,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Twitter^[14] user bitchiwas999 also tweeted about the development on the 17th, making a joke about DONDA 2 being available on PornHub and earning roughly 7,800 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

DONDA 2 Listening Party

On February 22nd, 2022, Kanye West hosted the official listening party for the upcoming DONDA 2 album. It was held in Miami, Florida at the LoanDepot Park Stadium. Overall, the event was similar to the original DONDA release event held in August 2021 in Chicago where multiple musicians like DaBaby and Marilyn Manson were accompanying Ye onstage.

At the more recent DONDA 2 listening party, more notable musicians and celebrities were in attendance. Among the list were both DaBaby and Marilyn Manson again, Playboi Carti, Rick Ross, Jack Harlow, Future, Migos, The Game, Fivo Foreign, Pusha T, French Montana, Alicia Keys and even Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Other artists were featured on the tracklist but weren't in attendance, such as Soulja Boy and the deceased XXXTentacion.

Elon Musk At DONDA 2 Listening Party

One of the more notable and shocking celebrities in attendance at the listening party was Elon Musk. On February 22nd, 2022, rapper Rick Ross, known in memes for his thoughts on pears, filmed Elon Musk walking into a VIP room that he was also in, uploading the video to his Instagram Story and tagging @spacex, as well as writing, "will be on Mars 1st," beneath it.

The video was reposted to Twitter^[15] by the account dondas_place soon after, where in less than 24 hours, the video received roughly 461,500 views and 7,000 likes (shown below). It was also reposted by the Twitter^[16] account of XXL Magazine, where it received roughly 8,200 views in the same amount of time.

Elon Musk x Rick Ross #DONDA2 pic.twitter.com/y9Xmg8IPzi

— Donda’s Place (@dondas__place) February 23, 2022

Rapper French Montana was also backstage with Rick Ross and Elon Musk, posting two of his own videos to his Instagram Story of him, Ross and Musk discussing cryptocurrency, among other topics of wealth. The video was reposted to Twitter^[17] by the account teslaownersSV, where in less than 24 hours, it received roughly 4,000 likes (shown below).

The person that had the biggest impact on elonmusk was kanyewest. Elon at Kanye’s show. pic.twitter.com/mW2ddRMgj6

— Tesla Silicon Valley Club (@teslaownersSV) February 23, 2022

Playboi Carti DONDA 2 Listening Party Outfit

Another notable moment during the listening party that was turned into memes was when rapper Playboi Carti, known in memes for his ""Pissy Pamper" verse":https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/playboi-cartis-kid-cudi-pissy-pamper, came out in a skimpy outfit, sporting fishnets, leather pants, a neon leopard-print jacket and make-up resembling the Joker. A screenshot of his outfit was posted to Twitter^[18] by the account of RapTV, which in less than 24 hours received roughly 17,700 likes (shown below).

Memes appeared in large amounts after his appearance, mostly centering on Playboi Carti's Joker makeup. For instance, Twitter^[19] user SauceuaMandela compared Carti to a WWE wrestler, earning roughly 6,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). The Twitter^[20] account FaZeKutti compared Carti directly to the Tracksuit Joker meme in a tweet, earning roughly 3,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

DONDA 2 Sound Engineer / Kanye Throwing Mic

During a moment at the DONDA 2 listening party, Ye was on stage with Marilyn Manson when his microphone malfunctioned. Kanye then threw his mic at a sound engineer nearby, causing another viral moment. The clip of Kanye throwing his mic was uploaded to the /r/Kanye^[21] subreddit soon after by Redditor KetamineWest, whose post received roughly 9,000 upvotes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Memes about the moment appeared online as the event continued to take place. For instance, Twitter^[22] user FunGuyBurner posted a meme that made a joke about Pete Davidson being the sound engineer that Kanye was mad at, using the Let's See Who This Really Is template from Scooby-Doo. The meme (shown below, left) earned roughly 2,300 likes in less than 24 hours. On Reddit, Redditor deomoan posted a meme to /r/Kanye^[23] making a GIF caption with the Drake Helps Lil Yachty With the Laptop template. The meme (shown below, right) reads, "Me showing Kanye's team how to set up a microphone," and in less than 24 hours earned roughly 3,900 upvotes.

Additionally, one of the sound engineers of DONDA 2, William Mareci, posted an Instagram Story that read, "WASN'T ME," in reference to the problems experienced during the live performance. A screenshot of it was uploaded to /r/Kanye^[24] by Redditor Chickeleg. The post received roughly 1,600 upvotes in less than a day (shown below).

DONDA 2 Morgan Freeman Rhymed With "Semen"

Another viral instance during the DONDA 2 listening party was when Ye namedropped actor Morgan Freeman, rhyming his name with the word "semen" in a verse that read, "When you laid down and I gave you the semen, I swear I heard God, the voice of Morgan Freeman." It was tweeted about by the Twitter^[25] account RapMais, who received roughly 4,600 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Twitter users reacted to the Morgan Freeman bar en masse, like Twitter^[26] user jirenIsDuppy, who tweeted, "Nutting in a woman and immediately imagining Morgan Freeman’s voice is just plain psychotic," earning roughly 1,200 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

Search Interest

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