DONDA

The winner of nearly two dozen Grammy awards, Kanye West, has surely made a name for himself. Born June 8, 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia West later found himself in Chicago's South Shore following his parent’s (Ray and Donda) divorce. He discovered his attraction to hip-hop at a young age and even had DJ/Producer Ernest Dion Wilson (No I.D.) as his mentor. From there he perfected his craft and graduated from Polaris High School, even winning a scholarship to study at Chicago's American Academy of Art; however, he eventually decided to leave college and put all his energy into his music career which is where the title for his 2004 studio album “The College Dropout” came from. West got his first big break producing the Jay-Z track "This Can't Be Life," off Jay-Z’s 2000 album “Dynasty: Roc La Familia.” He was then nicknamed the "chipmunk soul” for his signature style of creatively mixing/speeding up soul samples. Following his collaboration on the Jay-Z track, other doors opened for him, and he began working with other artists like Ludacris, Alicia Keys, Talib Kweli, Beyonce, and more. After struggling to go from producer to rapper, he fought to make his voice heard and dreams a reality. Tons of people told him, no, but that did not phase him and in 2004 he proved all of them wrong with his chart-topping album “The College Dropout.” From that point on it was only a treacherous climb upwards.

A couple of weeks ago Kanye West held a listening party for his upcoming album “Donda.” The event took place at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium which was completely packed for the listening party. The album has numerous tracks that discuss some heavy topics like family, religion, and loss. Kanye West took an authentic approach to his performance; standing, kneeling, and dancing at the center of a white tarp for the duration of the event. His actions during the listening party gave the audience a chance to see the real him and understand where he is coming from through his music. Overall the listening party was very powerful, West poured his heart out and vented a lot of things in his music. This album is definitely destined for great things and fans are highly anticipating its official release on August 6, 2021.