6AM thoughts on DONDA
Kanye have always been the mirror of my inner self. He was singing about working in Gap when I had my high school retail job, rapped about heartbreaks on 808 when I was having my first sad love story, helped me to become a phoenix of my own fairytale with Dark Twisted Fantasy, was there with Yeezus drug chaos, I was a visa away to model for The Life of Pablo and felt Famous with my chest. And it was when he dropped ye, the moment when I found out about my mental health diagnosis and felt that I am not alone. Feel the love felt like a manic episode and Ghost Town really felt like a long awaited happiness. “You will be fine” as a song.
I was waiting for DONDA a lot because I wanted to see what’s coming for me. We was so aligned it made no sense, I started to use Kanye albums as my personal tarot cards with perfect features. First performance felt so different from the second one, but I found both brilliant in their own way. The full red look and patent leather pants, mask and Akira fit reference made me think straight away: he is back and he is here for me. It felt like flying on the other planet when I heard Moon for the first time and Jail was on repeat every day ever since the first screening. Those were PERSONALLY GROUNDBREAKING.
Ye started rollout with live streaming from something I would call an ART JAIL CELL. Chance pulled up. Steve Lacy Pulled up. Demna with his boyfriend who was responsible for merch design and Ye spike jacket from Balenciaga Men’s Fall 2020 pulled up. Vic Mensa and Lil Yachty pulled up. Jadakiss, Styles P and Sheek Louch cheered Kanye while he did push ups - felt really chaotic post-divorce masculine energy in 15m2. At some point we could see model Cailin Russo in Balenciaga armor thigh-high boots from runway and DONDA merch. Two more models joined - IN FULL RED.
“The mix of the fashion show and a moshpit was just a perfect combo for the whole Kanye aesthetic”
The event itself started with Ye in an imaginary room - first thought was Tracey Emin work “Bed” and looked very much apart of the performance. Spiked jacket laying around. The list of features looked extremely impressive - he added some new ones from Kid Cudi and Young Thug together on one song (my personal heaven), he definitely called the Lox after the Verzuz - what a genius move - and added Jay Electronica on the same song. Now we got TWO songs with Carti, Yachty and Roddy Rich did their mid verses and The Weeknd was just perfect addition to the Hurricane. My absolutely favorite one is still Jail - I was screaming it all loud at 4am with my red lights on, my neighbors definitely hated me. Even though I feel like Jay Z could go harder and it would be really perfect then. Young Thug and Kid Cudi on one Ye song is definitely my dream come true.
The whole performance felt way more evolved than the ones he did with Vanessa Beercroft - I am not sure that Demna is responsible for the biggest part, but the mix of the fashion show and a moshpit was just a perfect combo for the whole Kanye aesthetic. When he started doing push ups and screaming on this big ass phone it was really a part of a staged newly single life routine. Hope to see more men doing push ups on camera after. The whole art performance turned fashion show turned a moshpit and going to heaven was the real character evolution in 20 minutes. The part where hundreds of guys in all black jumped out I remembered his texts with Skepta: I need 30 goons for All Day performance on BET. Same Energy.
I feel like my favorite part is versatility of the sound, beats, meanings and visuals. Heaven and hell dancing together. It was really beautiful. I feel like he did something similar to TLOP - he morphed many sounds into one big performative act. Kanye has always been the king of collaborations - from working with Jay-Z Neptunes and Lupe in early 2000s to discovering and co-signing the biggest stars of decade like Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, and even Drake - Ye one of the first biggest stars to have a feature with him. Ye has a perfect quality of having his hand on a pulse of NOW. One of the reasons he will always be relevant is that he is open to collaborate with young talents and let them be themselves, bringing different sounds into his art. Collaboration with Demna and Balenciaga was as genius as calling Lox after their unofficial Verzuz win. Who else if not Ye? I am personally upset that 070 was the only woman in the list, but to be fair I don’t find any female artists on his level or with the sound that actually fits the aesthetics. I don’t believe he drops before at last few more days. RED LIGHTS ON WE ON IT.
