Released: 2025
Genres: Trap, Pop Rap, R&B, Experimental Hip-Hop
The Musiquarium’s DONDA 2 Review Score: 8 out of 10
In 2022, DONDA 2 was released exclusively on a device called the Stem Player, making it a prime target for filesharing, due to its excessive price tag and general inaccessibility. After releasing some initial updates to the album, Ye soon abandoned the project altogether, making it a lost and forgotten album, outside of a few songs that saw official releases, such as Eazy, True Love and City of Gods. Not only that, but Ye’s business venture with the makers of the Stem Player was short-lived and ended swiftly — the result of his then recent controversies, involving an admiration for a certain 20th century Austrian dictator. Other partnerships followed suit (like Adidas), ditching Kanye and his soiled reputation, terminating contracts that Ye had actually been wanting out of for years.
Three years of Ye’s most intense controversies later and he finally finishes what he started, with the official streaming release of DONDA 2, which includes an updated and expanded tracklist, finished verses and (slightly) improved mixing and mastering, though it’s far from perfect.
If 2021’s Donda was a celebration of Kanye West’s late mother and his faith, then DONDA 2 is the bitter, resentful divorce album (à la Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear). So, why is it named DONDA 2 if it has nothing to do with his dearly departed mama? If Donda was about his mother (arguably the most important woman in his life), then perhaps DONDA 2 is about the other most important woman in his life and the other most important mother to him: Kim Kardashian, the mother of his children.
TRUE LOVE uses a voice memo from the late XXXTentacion, as Ye laments about the restrictions around custody and the process of seeing his children after his divorce. While I’m not a fan of XXXTentacion, it feels like a nice send-off for the murdered musician. BROKEN ROAD is a brief, but sorrowful track featuring Don Toliver. GET LOST is an auto-tune acapella song, with nothing but Ye’s vulnerable voice; people have criticized it for how empty it is, but that’s the entire point of the song — it’s just Ye, all alone.
KEEP THE FLOWERS (originally just Flowers) references the fact that Ye had sent a truck-load of roses to Kim, only for the gesture to all be in vain, which just makes him bitter and resentful, telling her that she’ll never find someone better than him. While it may initially seem quite egotistic, we all know how truly insecure Ye really is and he isn’t trying to convince anybody, but himself.
TOO EASY‘s refrain of: “Ain’t no one love me, I ain’t even gonna love me, I needed you to love me” displays Ye’s complex juxtaposition between his confidence and his low self-esteem — he constantly acknowledges his musical prowess and yet, he needs external validation to feel loved, even though he is (well, was) one of the most celebrated artists of the 21st century. The beat on this song is also one of the best on the album.
PABLO continues the comparisons between Ye and the Pablos (Pablo Escobar, Pablo Picasso & Paul the Apostle), which started on The Life of Pablo. MR MIYAGI (named after the character from the film, The Karate Kid) is back, after being absent from the 2022 version of DONDA 2. HAPPY may initially seem like a typical trap song, but Ye saying “Do I look happy to you?” is clearly a cry for help.
SECURITY is an antagonistic banger, with Ye venting about not being allowed to see his children, as he cooks grits naked in the kitchen. CITY OF GOD is a drill song and was one of the few songs released as a single back in 2022, with an Alisha Keys hook. 530, which was missing from the Stem Player release, is finally on the album and in a shortened form, compared to the version released last year on VULTURES 2, which added an unnecessary outro.
SCIFI is a minimalistic song built around strings and despite the Kim Kardashian Saturday Night Live dialogue and the Morgan Freeman line, it’s actually quite a beautiful and tragic song. BURN EVERYTHING and MAINTENANCE are two more new songs on this version of the album, and are welcome additions within the context of the album.
LOUIE BAGS has punchy drums, a hypnotic loop and a Kamala Harris voice sample, as well as a finished (A.I.) verse from.Ye. WE DID IT uses horns similarly to those on All of the Lights. LORD LIFT ME UP and FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME end the album with uplifting songs of faith, and could have fit on albums like JESUS IS KING or Donda.
JESSE and SUZY are two new additions to the album, which both feel out of place, though Ye’s 2022 collaboration with The Game, Eazy, was fortunately left off (it’s turntablism sound did not fit the rest of the album).
A lot of the songs on DONDA 2 may initially seem empty, but they embrace space. This isn’t a typical rap album, nor is it quite like anything Ye has released prior, though it does share some thematic characteristics with 808s & Heartbreak.
Although Ye can be a bit callous towards his ex-wife on this album, deep down, this is the work of a man who was afraid to lose the other woman who mattered most in his life. At times, Ye seems like a reality TV show character (which he was), at other times, he seems like a vessel for the highs and lows of the human experience.
There’s a really good album inside of DONDA 2, but it does lose some points for taking three years to get a proper release, for it’s use of A.I. to finish some of Ye’s vocals, and for some issues with the mixing and mastering, though it ultimately sounds far more finished than the original release.
Despite the flaws of DONDA 2 and its somewhat unfinished nature, there are still plenty of memorable songs here, which show a candid look into Ye’s mind during his highly publicized divorce and the start of his “villain” era.
For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Ye on Discogs.
Back to the 2025 Album Guide or the Ye Reviews page.
Written by Brett Nippard
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