Kanye West: tribute to his deceased mother and little else on his album 'Donda'

Kanye West performing 'Donda' on July 22 in Atlanta. (C) Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for Universal Music

Kanye West's career (Atlanta, 44 years old) lives settled in memory and oblivion.

The memory that until

his 2016 album, the Chicago rapper was one of the most influential, revolutionary and successful artists on the planet.

And forgetting everything else.

Namely, candidacies for the US presidency in which not even the one who would be his vice president in case of winning knows what is on the list, collaborations of doubtful taste, mental problems, statements in which slavery is classified as a decision personal, sympathy for Donald Trump, attempts to solve the housing problem in Los Angeles by building bunkers in his mansion, a hazardous existence as husband and ex-husband of Kim Kardashian ...

More information

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In half a dozen

songs

his new feature, a monster of almost two hours in which a couple of dozen artists collaborate, glimpses the guy who brought hip-hop into the 21st century and actively helped make it the style on which they pivot all current musical trends. In the rest, what is heard is little and what is seen is that artist absolutely dislocated, unfathomable, sometimes unbearable, hardly great. Kanye West is a stew in which the music has gone from being chicha to being potatoes: you eat a couple and leave the rest, lest they fill you up too much and you can't finish the chorizo. The chorizo ​​is now a jacket, a pair of sneakers, a listening event for its new songs that is so far above the new songs that it doesn't matter that at the time of celebrating the sarao they are not even finished, a series for Netflix,a millionaire divorce, a post on Instagram. A) Yes,

is Kanye West's new album, but most of all, it's Kanye West's new era. Perhaps the last as a musician.

On December 10, 2007, Donda West, Kanye's mother, passed away after a plastic surgery operation that went wrong.

A decade later, the rapper tweeted a photo of Jan Adams, the surgeon who carried out that operation, accompanied by a text in which he identified him and asked his followers how they thought he should title his next album.

West claimed to want to stop hating the doctor and be able to forgive him.

Therein lies the origin of

a work that in one way or another has flown over the career of the Chicagoan for almost three decades and that, when it has finally materialized, has become a perfect summary of what his life has been and his work during this time.

DaBaby, Kanye West and Marilyn Manson at the 'Donda' performance in Chicago on August 26. MEGA / GC Images

At the end of last July,

first listening event took place at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Atlanta

In front of a packed pavilion, West accompanied the songs on the album with a show created with Denma Gvasalia, Balenciaga's creative director, with whom he has collaborated since 2015, when he was in charge of the Vetements firm, and contributed several designs to the first collection of

West's mark. At the end of the event, West decided to stay to finish the album in the pavilion's premises. He slept there for the two weeks until the next performance. During this process, songs were changed, musical elements were removed and added, although the staging and the way of monetizing it were also refined. That second event managed to break the record for the concert - without being exactly a concert - with the highest grossing in US history: seven million dollars (5.91 million euros). This was achieved not only by the tickets sold or the

broadcast

, the most followed in the history of Apple Music (3.3 million viewers), but above all by the sale of products associated with

that brand was born before becoming a record. For the third presentation of the then still unfinished album in Chicago, West and Gvasalia created a reproduction of the house where the rapper grew up, including his child's room, in a staging that was reminiscent of that mythical piece by Tracey Emin from 1998 that replicated his bed. Two of

collaborators were invited to the event

Marilyn Manson, accused of abuse, and DaBaby, pilloried for a series of sexist and homophobic comments. Just at the end of the show, the website of the American brand Gap, with which the rapper has a collaboration contract, allowed him to purchase in pre-sale the red jacket that West had worn on stage at Soldier Field in Chicago that same night. If there are no delays, those who pay now the 180 euros that the garment costs, will receive it in spring 2022. For the same price, Kanye has announced Kano, a device that will allow the user to modify and remix the songs on the album. Everything can be arranged, even these songs.

Donda

has had an equally busy life before being accessible to the public as after. After appearing on the main

platforms

on Sunday, August 29, its author commented that his label, Universal, had published it without his consent. Despite this, practically all of the album's tracks are in the

of the most listened to on Spotify.

, one of the best songs of the title and on which Jay Z collaborates, reaches nine million listeners a day. They are also doing spectacularly well

in which Lil Baby and The Weeknd participate, and which is very close to the Christian Kanye of

his previous album, and

cut with the collaboration of rapper Playboi Carti and that is the closest thing to a good song by Kanye West, that hip-hop genius, that

contains