Kanye West held a listening party for his long-awaited 10th studio album, Donda, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Thursday, July 22.
His estranged wife, Kim Kardashian and their four children attended the album listening party.
Kim Kardashian is at Kanye’s Donda event with their childrenpic.twitter.com/4dkM6fvY87
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) July 23, 2021
The album was named for Kanye’s late mother, Donda West.
According to reports, Kanye was still mixing the album in Atlanta late Thursday, which explains the delayed start of the event.
He was spotted backstage at the stadium working on last-minute tweaks. He invited rappers Plaiboi Carti and 2 Chainz to add verses to the album on Thursday. Which likely means the album will not be ready for release on Friday.
.@2chainz recording for #DONDA backstage at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta today (7.22.21) pic.twitter.com/3TKolRNcOx
— Photos Of Kanye West (@PhotosOfKanye) July 22, 2021
.@KanyeWest working on DONDA in Atlanta today (7.22.21) pic.twitter.com/JlQdceSXhE
— Photos Of Kanye West (@PhotosOfKanye) July 22, 2021
The event finally got underway around 9:30 p.m., as Kanye strolled onto the white stadium floor wearing a red bubble jacket with matching red tank top and latex pants.
The highlight of the unfinished album was Jay Z‘s verse on “Guess Who’s Going to Jail Tonight.” Jay Z reportedly recorded his verse at 4 p.m. today.
Mr West is in the building #DONDA pic.twitter.com/Afljy1jKYe
— Def Jam Recordings (@defjam) July 23, 2021
.@kanyewest backstage tonight at the #DONDA listening party (7.22.21) pic.twitter.com/aop5FOxXSA
— Photos Of Kanye West (@PhotosOfKanye) July 23, 2021
Asap Ferg at the Kanye West Donda Listening party with Chris Tucker pic.twitter.com/LEc5nUnQFV
— 2Cool2Blog (@2Cool2BIog) July 23, 2021
The album reviews were all bad on Twitter and Reddit.com.
One Reddit user wrote:
“As a HUGE Kanye stan, this was f–king horrible. Idk how anyone is defending this.”
Another Reddit user wrote:
“Remember when you saw the Sha’carri commercial and thought ‘oh shit when the beat drops on this track, its gonna be crazy’. Well, that’s every song. And the beat never drops.”
And a third Reddit user wrote:
“this album was so bad that the only way you could save it is by calling it “avant garde.”
Watch the full listening party below.
