There was something curious but telling about the reports of the Miami launch event for Donda 2 this week. They relayed a lot about its visual extravagance, a lot about the technical cock-ups (which at one point caused the artist formerly known as Kanye West to throw down his microphone in anger); a lot about the baleful presence on stage of alleged rapist Marilyn Manson and homophobic rapper DaBaby, and an awful lot about the lyrical barbs aimed at his estranged wife Kim Kardashian West and her new boyfriend Pete Davidson. But the one thing you didn’t hear much about was the music.
You could say that’s a damning indictment of the media’s quest for headline-grabbing sensation rather than the thing that made the artist now known as Ye famous in the first place. Then again, listening to Donda 2 – which features Soulja Boy, Don Toliver and the late XXXTentacion, who have all been accused of domestic abuse – you do wonder if there’s much more to say about its contents. It’s an album on which the interest largely lies in the barbs, and – at a push – working out where your sympathy lies.
