This buzz only began to carry real weight by mid-June, when it was confirmed that West had returned to Island Sound Studios in Honolulu, Hawaii in order to record new music away from media chaos and family struggles.
These performative mask antics began to spark fan-wide anticipation that West was back in album release mode, as the masks in question were aesthetically similar to those West created and wore in collaboration with fashion designer Martin Margiella during the 2013 “Yeezus” tour. His last tweet was posted in early November of 2020, and by June 2021, West began to hide his face under custom-made masks whenever making rare appearances in public. Shortly after the failure of his bizarre 2020 presidential campaign, West’s presence on social media and in the public eye became increasingly sparse, especially after his divorce from Kim Kardashian became widely known. This familiar clash of quality and chaos, and its disorienting effect on hardcore fans and casual listeners is bittersweet: because once again, Kanye West is on fire - and in more ways than one.
But, disappointingly and not so-surprisingly, “Donda” also acts as a return to the irresponsible and rage-inducing antics West once used to propel himself into mainstream headlines and social media dialogue just prior to the release of his projects. To my great surprise, it acted as evidence that West can release a sonically progressive and commercially successful record again. His new LP “ Donda ” is a partial return to form for West. ” Between this and his frustratingly misguided politics, West gave me every reason in the world to not touch his music or public persona - in writing - with a 10-foot pole. While not a bad album by any means, its lack of creative vision and overall substance indicated to me that West’s then-recent infatuations with Christianity, politics, and architecture rendered him too distracted to feasibly create music at the level of quality of his previous albums, namely the juggernauts “ Graduation ,” “ My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ,” and “ The Life of Pablo.
I never thought I would end up writing about Kanye West.Īfter his 2019 release, “Jesus is King,” a half-baked hodge-podge of hip-hop and gospel music, I considered Kanye’s imperial phase - a peak of simultaneous creative and commercial success - to be over.
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