Kanye West’s second Donda listening party was hosted at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Thursday night (August 5), hours before the album was expected to arrive. Par for the course, the event didn’t begin on time but once it did, those in attendance militantly put their white lights up.
Dressed in a black Balenciaga spiked jacket, full-face mask and black pants, Kanye took centerstage in the blacked-out arena next to a single twin bed with a white sheet, set of weights and two pairs of shoes as dozens of people shrouded in black walked circles around him.
At one point, Ye started doing push-ups as the 24-track album played before stripping his jacket off to expose his “DONDA” vest.
Donda came with a small army of notable guests, including JAY-Z, Kid Cudi, The Weeknd, Roddy Ricch, Travis Scott, Lil Baby, Playboi Carti, Lil Yachty, Fivio Foreign, Don Toliver, Young Thug, Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine, Jay Electronica and The LOX (fresh off their Verzuz), among others.
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The JAY-Z feature was one of the most talked about following the first Donda listening party. Even though Kanye and Hov have collaborated numerous times, most notably on 2011’s Watch The Throne, their friendship had been strained over the years.
In 2017, JAY-Z appeared on the Rap Radar podcast and explained Ye’s infamous rant during a Sacramento concert is what pushed him over the edge.
“We’ve gotten past bigger issues, but you brought my family into it,” he said at the time. “Now that’s a problem with me. That’s a real, real problem. He know it’s a problem ’cause me and him would have been talked about it. We would have been resolved our issues, but he know he crossed the line.
Kanye West & JAY-Z Reunite On 'Donda' Album + Their Fans Lose It
“I know him. He knows. He knows … I know he knows because we’ve never let this much space go between one of our disagreements and we’ve had many. That’s part of who we are. That’s what I liked about him. He’s an honest person. He’s open and he’ll just say things and he’s wrong a lot of times, but we’ll confront it.”
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Now with that firmly behind them, fans are already talking about a possible Watch The Throne 2. For now, Donda is expected to arrive any minute and fans are holding on to hope hope it will actually drop this time.
