If Kanye West‘s Donda rollout felt messy and hurried, there’s a good reason for that.
According to legendary rock musician Todd Rundgren, who recorded a ton of material for Donda, Kanye rushed his tenth solo album purely so he could release it before Drake‘s Certified Lover Boy.
Donda hit streaming services by surprise on August 29, followed by Certified Lover Boy‘s arrival less than a week later on September 3.
Rundgren, whose compositions have been sampled by everyone from J Dilla and Madlib to Frank Ocean and Fetty Wap, made the claim in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock published on Tuesday (September 14).
“I realized why they hurriedly wrapped the whole thing up and put out what is obviously really raw, unprocessed stuff,” he said. “It’s because Drake was running the whole process. He was too afraid that Drake would one-up him, so he hurried up and released the album the weekend before Drake could get his out. And in the end, Drake ate his lunch anyway.”
Todd Rundgren isn’t the only insider to suggest Kanye West was keeping tabs on Drake while recording Donda. In July, Consequence claimed in a since-deleted tweet Yeezy was “looking for [Drake’s] drop date” before releasing Donda — perhaps explaining its multiple delays and sudden release.
Whether Kanye’s strategy (if Rundgren’s claim is indeed true) paid off is up for debate. Donda currently holds a 53/100 score on Metacritic, tied with Jesus Is King for his lowest-rated album.
Even though it earned Kanye his ninth consecutive No. 1 album with over 300,000 first-week sales, Donda was swiftly blown out of the water by Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, which shot to the top of the Billboard 200 after moving 613,000 units in its opening week — the biggest sales week of 2021.
Kanye West Wanted To Destroy Drake In A Verzuz During His ‘Donda’ + ‘CLB’ Crusade
Elsewhere in his Ultimate Classic Rock interview, Todd Rundgren explained that he was drafted into work on Donda by Kanye West’s close friend and collaborator 88-Keys, who’s a big fan of his music and wanted to see the two musical greats work with each other.
Rundgren said he accumulated “three album’s worth of Kanye stems” over a year-long period and was happy to contribute to the record any way that he could.
“I didn’t mind working on his gospel stuff,” he said. “If you want to sing about Jesus, go ahead, I don’t care. I’ll help ya do it, you know? If you want to sing about your troubles with your wife, go ahead and do it. I don’t care.”
However, Todd Rundgren ultimately grew frustrated with Kanye West’s creative process and doesn’t know if the material he worked on made it onto the final version of Donda (Rundgren’s name doesn’t appear anywhere in the album’s credits).
“When it got into the homestretch in July, I just said, ‘That’s enough for me. I have no idea whether any of this is being used,'” he explained. “There is a possibility that I’m actually in there somewhere. There’s so much junk in that record!”
He added, “[Kanye West] is a shoe designer… He’s just a dilettante at this point. Nobody would regularly make records like that unless they had stupid money to throw around. Nobody rents a stadium to make a record in. Nobody flies in the entire world of Hip Hop just to croak one syllable, just so you can say that everybody was on it.”
At the end of the day Kanye’s crazy ass got paid
No doubt, but to call the album a classic is being disingenuous IMO.
real talk right here from a real legend. Kanye is cool but let’s face it, this was more of a gimmick than a musical body of work. Kanye a real talent too but at this point music does not seem to be among his top priorities.. its about making a scene and making a controversy.. that’s why Kanye hooks up with trunp, marilynmanson or who ever is currently investigated for sexual abuse.
Facts, if you read the liner notes there are at least four producers and four writers on each track. The album is not great even with all of that help.
I like both albums, but seeing as how Metacritic scores are being tossed around:
Donda user rating is 6.5 with 2735 comments.
CLB user rating is 3.5 with 935 comments.
Just saying.
But… Donda was better tho
Both albums were horrible. Donda is damn near unlistenable and drakes is exactly the trash I expected. Hip hop fans go listen to that new banks ish. Coti is album of the year
I can’t agree more. I am glad to see people speaking truth to probably the weakest public beef that led up to the release of shitty albums. Salute!!!
Metacritic literally includes a review that gave donda a 0 because Manson was on there.
The real difference between both album is: if I cut half of the songs off donda it is a certified banger.
If I cut half of the songs off CLB it’s still mid at best.
Typing that up make you feel better?
CLB is not good. Debate for worst Drake album and I am a Drake fan. But, Donda is revolutionary for CHH. Drake added nothing to rap with CLB.
drakes uses a method that works but its redundant and gets old by the 4th song, kanye is all over the place… none of these albums are classic, all the money they have and this is what the people get? and this beef is like 2 college nerds arguing over calculus nobody cares
We don’t believe you , you need more people.
Both albums were underwhelming. No one talked about Propain’s album. It was released earlier this year and everyone slept. Its a great album but had none of this hype around it
Here is an honest assessment that few are willing to say…….both albums are trash. Compared to their previous work, both of these albums are pure piss water. I love hip hop so much, which is why I say this. Both are capable of much better, underwhelmed by the efforts.
That’s your opinion.. Not a fact.. Diddy liked both meanwhile he fought drake for stealing his beat and he was on all day so the question is.. Are you a player or jus a commentator?
That is my opinion you are correct. Diddy’s preferences have zero impact on my perspective. I listened to both and my feelings after are that both are trash. Comment sections are for good conversation and debate, so I appreciate your response. I just wasn’t feeling either. More hype than bars and beats that I could get behind.
Rushed?! That turgid pile of Sh!t came out two months late! Both albums are absolutely bloated, dull vanity projects, both artists egos have long since devoured their talents. Kill ’em K. Dot!
Oxxycodone available
But Donda was the biggest ratchet of all time. Klownye an Arrogant narcissistic egomaniac who thinks he is a creative genius and is intellectually smarter or more enlightened than anyone else. Well Kimye did you ever think your wife who has been the side piece in the industry would leave you cause your breath smells like Ray J balls?
All the hype, the antics, gimmicks, tweets, stadium listening sessions, guest appearances, producers and money thrown at Donda and this shit was still super hot garbage! One of Klownye worst albums ever! Dont ever put this goof up there…guy only getting money from his clothes which suck btw.