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Kanye West's "Donda 2" Release Concert

Added 2 years ago / Updated 2 years ago

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Overview

Kanye West's Donda 2 Concert refers to the February 22nd, 2022, concert that took place at LoanDepot Park Stadium in Miami, Florida, hosted by rapper Kanye West for his album titled Donda 2. The event was also livestreamed and shown in theaters, increasing the hype surrounding the concert experience, which featured many celebrities and performers appearing on stage with Kanye as songs were played before the album's release. Due to issues with the sound during the show, the event trended online in late February 2022 and was memed on social media.

Background

The lead-up to the event was largely full of excitement and hype. It was expected that Donda 2 would drop on February 22nd, 2022, because it was "all 2's day" (where the calendar date read "2/22/22"), but as the day went on, people began to get restless thinking the album wouldn't drop despite buying the Stem player for it. As it became clear that Kanye would not release the album prior to the event, people began tuning in and buying tickets to see the event in theaters and in-person, with social media posts such as the one by Twitter[1] user @Preme_Profits showing that Kanye's Yeezy Foam Runner had an exclusive color drop for the event (shown below).

Online Reactions

The online reactions to the event were numerous in both quantity and theme as it took place on February 22nd, 2022. Each individual song and act had its own various reaction from the fan base, partly due to each artist having their own fan base that reacted to both their favorite musicians' songs, how they performed and how they compared to the other musicians.

Rick Ross / Elon Musk

Before the event had even begun, social media already started posting about Rick Ross when he posted[2] a video of Elon Musk walking into the event, with them having a friendly tone and interaction with each other that was posted to Twitter on February 23rd, 2022, by the No Jumper account, which received over 1,300 likes in 24 hours (seen below).

XXXTentacion

Kanye started off the show with songs that fans noted featuring the late Florida-based rapper XXXTentacion, and even went so far as to directly include a reference[3] and callout to Gekyume, X's kid that was born after his passing (shown below). Some fans took to social media shortly after to signify how much that meant to them, with the concert happening in Miami, which is where X's family and Gekyume call home.

Jack Harlow / "We Did It Joe"

Jack Harlow's song was notable for featuring the We Did It, Joe quote sampled at the beginning of his performance, which stems from a viral sound bite and meme from Kamala Harris (shown below).[4]

Playboi Carti

Playboi Carti made waves with both his screeching on the song "Off The Grid," but also for his outfit choice, which reminded some fans of the Joker. Fans immediately began posting online about his makeup choice and loud screeching[5] to close out the show, such as Twitter user xanieys who shared a clip on February 23rd, 2022, receiving over 600 likes in 24 hours (seen below).

Marilyn Manson

As with Kanye's previous Donda release event, Marilyn Manson showed up on stage and began to sing, much to the displeasure of many on social media, who expressed disdain for the various allegations he was facing in court at the time. The Manson appearance[6] is also when fans started to notice something seemed amiss with the sound engineering, which was a prevalent theme throughout the night. On February 23rd, 2022, Twitter user grumpycunt19 posted one such example, receiving over 292 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

Sound Engineer Issues and Memes

As the show went on, multiple issues surrounding the sound team and sound engineer started to become prevalent in reaction posts. Between missed cues, backbeats and vocals being too loud, microphones being dead (which prompted Kanye to throw a mic in frustration), by the end of the show, the beat was noted as a disaster by many online as people took notice. Memes began to be made after the show about how Pete Davidson was responsible for the faulty sound engineering, with more memes posted alongside that show Kanye firing or attacking the sound team after the show. The purported sound meltdown was most prevalent when rapper Fivio[7] was being drowned out by his own pre-recorded vocals (shown below).

Morgan Freeman / Semen Rhyme

In a surprising twist of lyrical wordplay, Kanye West decided to rhyme "semen" with "Morgan Freeman" in one of the songs[8] performed. The breakdown of these lyrics is "When you laid down and I gave you the Semen, I swear I heard God, the voice of Morgan Freeman," which subsequently confused many online and proceeded to spawn numerous memes in which Morgan Freeman confronts Kanye about the lines after the show (example shown below).

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys was also a surprise guest during the performance, who had a piano out on the stage where she proceeded to sing[9] the song "City of Gods," sparking a notable amount of conversation online as to her performance vs. other live performances of hers, as well as the amount of setup and prep time needed for her to always have a piano every time she performs somewhere (example shown below).

Stage Scenery

The stage scenery and backdrop itself also played a tremendous part in the show, with the house prop that was set up being a replica of Kanye's childhood home, which had pyrotechnics going off from inside and outside it. Also up in the skylights behind everything was a replica of the moon, which began to eclipse and turn red throughout the performance. Fans took multiple pictures of the event just from an aesthetic point of view, with every section of the seating having a different perspective[10] that the moon was angled in (example shown below).

Search Interest

External References

[1] Twitter – Preme_Profits

[2] Twitter – Elon Ross

[3] Twitter – Gekyume

[4] Twitter – Harlow

[5] Twitter – Carti

[6] Twitter – Manson

[7] Twitter – Fivio

[8] Twitter – Freeman

[9] Twitter – Alicia

[10] Twitter – Scenery

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