Kanye's Donda 2: Exclusive Stem Player release, mentions of Kim during listening parties, and everything we know about the album so far

Over the last few days, there has scarcely been anything more discussed on the internet than Kanye West (now referred to as Ye).

Rap's resident mad scientist has been in the limelight for a multitude of reasons - his very public altercations with ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend Pete, the Netflix documentary chronicling his rise and even his questionable views on NFTs.

Donda 2, his upcoming eleventh studio album, has been somewhat lost in this wave. The album was supposed to be released on February 22, but in true Kanye fashion, it was delayed to February 23, where it was exclusively released on Kanye's Stem Player devices.

While the actual music still eludes the average music listener, we follow all the information known about the musical project so far.

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Kanye's Donda 2: The story

January 27, 2022

Kanye announced via a (now-deleted) Instagram post that Donda 2 would be released on February 22, and that fellow prolific rapper Future will be the executive producer for the record. The post's caption read:

DONDA2 COMING 2 22 22 EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY FUTURE

The post showed a pictorial reconstruction of his erstwhile Chicago childhood home in flames.

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February 7, 2022

A private listening party was held for the album at Nobu Malibu, where fellow rappers Travis Scott, Offset, French Montana, Yung Lean, and Drake, as well as model (and Kim's sister) Kendall Jenner were in attendance.

The singer also announced a public listening party which would be held later in the month.

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February 18, 2022

West released the tracklist of the album via his Instagram.

The tracklist (and features) for Donda 2 is as follows:

1. "Security"
2. "Lift Me Up" (featuring Vory)
3. "Get Lost"
4. "Pablo" (featuring Travis Scott and Future)
5. "True Love" (featuring XXXTentacion)
6. "Keep It Burnin'"
7. "Broken Road" (featuring Don Toliver)
8. 8. "I’m Finna Love Me"
9. "Closed For Business"
10. "We Did It Kid" (featuring Baby Keem and Migos)
11. "Flowers"
12. "Maintenance"
13. "530"
14. "Mr. Miyagi" (featuring Future and Playboi Carti)
15. "Selfish" (featuring XXXTentacion)
16. "First Time in a Long Time" (featuring Soulja Boy)
17. "Louie Bags" (featuring Jack Harlow)
18. "Candyland"
19. "Sci-Fi" (featuring Sean Leon)
20. "Do I Look Happy?" (featuring Future)
21. "Things Change"
22. "City of Gods" (Stem Player Version) (with Fivio Foreign and Alicia Keys)

A curious side-note about the featured artists is that Kanye called out frequent collaborator Kid Cudi for being Pete Davidson's friend. The rapper explicitly said that Cudi would not feature on Donda 2.

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February 19, 2022

Via two posts containing musical snippets from the album, West announced that Donda 2 would only be released on the Stem Player platform owned by him.

The caption of the first post read:

"Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube. Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own. Go to stemplayer.com now to order."

A similarly-worded second post was captioned:

"Donda 2 will only be streaming on my own platform, the stem player. You can download new music from stemplayer.com. You can play 4 different elements of the track: vocals, drums, bass and music. It also has a MP3 player available. We currently have 67,000 available and are making 3,000 a day. Go click the link in my bio to purchase."

This move allegedly led to the culmination of a $2 million sponsorship deal the artist had with Apple Music.

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February 22, 2022

A public concert/listening party was held at LoanDepot Park in Miami. The event was also livestreamed on Stem Player and at select IMAX theaters.

The most talked-about moment, however, arrived when West used a clip from ex-wife Kim Kardashian's SNL monologue which said:

"I married the best rapper of all time. Not only that, he is the richest Black man in America. A talented, legit genius who gave me four incredible kids."

The audio sample taken from Kardashian's SNL episode cuts off right before Kim made a joke. In the episode, she added the punchline:

"So, when I divorced him, you have to know it came down to just one thing: his personality!"

Musically, multiple clips of the party have surfaced on YouTube and other social media, which harken to the album being quite off-kilter and experimental.

It is fascinating to see the musical output stemming from Kanye's whirlwind life, as the rapper's musical innovation and talent is undeniable despite his personal tribulations, public tirades, political opinions, or featured artists.

As of now, the only way to access the album is via Kanye's Stem Player platform.