Donda: Album of the Year?
Kanye pictured with his mom, Donda West
Photo from Harpers Bazaar
Donda, by Kanye West, was released on August 29th, and within its first week, it instantly jumped to the top of Billboard Top 200. The album was made in honor of his late mother, Donda West. In addition to Donda, Kanye has topped the Billboard charts another 9 times with albums including: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Graduation, Yeezus, and The Life of Pablo. The 27-track album has been anticipated to come for a while, and with its drop, some people were disappointed in the album. With this album, Kanye has another chance to win album of the year and further make him one of the best artists of our generation.
Donda is the best album to release this year. With songs like, Moon, No Child Left Behind, Hurricane, and Jail, the album does not disappoint. Collegiate Times is a student-run news website for Virginia Tech University, and they had this to say about the album, “‘Donda’ makes for a creative departure from mainstream rap music. If there’s one thing Kanye West does well, it is harnessing the power that comes from his personal style time and time again, and he does that exceptionally well on ‘Donda.’ The biggest way in which he was able to achieve this on his latest release was by integrating gospel music and carrying over Christian themes from his previous release into this new album.”
Kanye does a great job of using his own style to create a unique album that only Kanye can create and execute well. Compared to other albums that came out within the year like, Certified Lover Boy by Drake and Call Me if You Get Lost by Tyler the Creator, Donda offers a unique experience with the first half being about making mistakes and having struggles in life, and then moves to praising God and being free. I truly think this album will win album of the year.
Kanye and Drake Comparison
Photo by Meaww
A few problems people have with the album is that it is way too long, and they aren’t wrong. The album is very long, it has a whopping 27 songs and is about 2 hours long. According to Rolling Stone, the album is “an overlong mess, dotted with moments of sincerity and some spectacular music.” Paul Thompson titled his review of the album, “Kanye Searches for Meaning on the Muddled, Grandiose ‘Donda.’”
Another huge argument is whether Drake’s Certified Lover Boy is better than Donda. The problem with Donda is that because of its length, some songs aren’t as great as others and with Drake’s album it has less songs, which gives him more time to perfect songs. In my opinion, Drake’s album is repetitive, and all songs sound the same, while Donda offers an array of different styles and sounds that makes it a great album.
At the end of the day, nothing will deny the impact Kanye and his music has had on the music industry.