Kanye West kicked off his rollout campaign for his DONDA 2 album with the star-studded listening event that took place at the LoanDepot Park stadium, in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday evening (Wednesday in South Africa).
DONDA 2 album: When is the release date?
The rap-fashion impresario was meant to drop his follow-up to DONDA on Tuesday 22 February 2022. However, true Ye fans know the perfectionist has not released an album on time in over 13 years.
So, naturally, the day came and went without the DONDA 2 album drop which, by the way, is slated to exclusively release on his very own Stem Player music platform.
The listening party, attended by thousands of Ye ‘stans’, offered a glimpse into what can be expected from DONDA 2, and apart from the poor sound engineering that gave the likes of Fivio Foreign and Playboi Carti one of their worst live performances ever, it seemed — to some, at least — that Kanye was playing demos of the new album, an indication that he may be far from finished with compiling the body of work.
fivio having a 1v1 with his own verse and he's NOT winning #DONDA2 pic.twitter.com/4iwinbJF40
— s*th (@ihysith) February 23, 2022
Here is the confirmed tracklist
Apart from the amateur audio hiccup, which most certainly irritated the perfectionist in Kanye (he tossed his mic in the midst of performing Jail), DONDA 2 promised a strong guest lineup, which includes the Migos, Jack Harlow, Travis Scott, Future, Payboi Carti, and a stellar verse from Soulja Boy.
KANYE THREW THE MIC SOMEONE GETTING FIRED 😯 #DONDA2 pic.twitter.com/i21gHtd1tc
— Club Ambition (@ClubAmbition__) February 23, 2022
Here is a draft version of the DONDA 2 tracklist:
Kanye West’s #DONDA2 experience setlist pic.twitter.com/4zKGZLHTkX
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) February 23, 2022
Fan reactions to DONDA 2 album listening party
For neutrals, the DONDA 2 listening experience was a washed up version of the events from his previous album rollout. Not only did it seem rushed, but there was clearly no correlation between the artists on stage and sound technicians.
Playboi Carti performing “Off The Grid” during the #DONDA2 experience pic.twitter.com/Wp1GkDGOHf
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) February 23, 2022
The glitches, however, were accompanied by stellar moments, including an intense appearance from Harlow, and perhaps, Soulja’s moment of the night.
SOULJA BOY'S MADE THE ALBUM THIS TIME #DONDA2 😮 pic.twitter.com/MnyRJ6JgUM
— Club Ambition (@ClubAmbition__) February 23, 2022
Here are some of the reactions we picked out from fans who tuned into the listening event:
🚨BREAKING: #DONDA2 SOUND ENGINEER IDENTITY pic.twitter.com/QKuSeVMfiQ
— Kesh (@KeshMCFC) February 23, 2022
Sound engineers are NOT seeing their kids tn #DONDA2 pic.twitter.com/0u5juMsH5N
— Billy 🅿️ (@DatBozo22) February 23, 2022
Kanye when he’s sees the audio team after the show:#DONDA2
— Jay Shah (@TheJayShah3) February 23, 2022
pic.twitter.com/smhWsBX2sE
oh no they found him 🤣🤣💀 #DONDA2 pic.twitter.com/bMjYICakzq
— GUSSY (@AngusTimoney) February 23, 2022
Ye: Guess who’s going to jail tonight!
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) February 23, 2022
Mic operator: #Donda2 pic.twitter.com/IdYxgyICgd