Kanye West's "Donda" Release Event

Overview

Kanye West's Donda Release Event refers to the release of rapper Kanye West's upcoming, 2021 album Donda, which became the subject of image macros and other memes in late July 2021. Kanye held the first listening party at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on July 23rd. On August 5th and 26th, West held a second and third listening parties in Chicago before releasing the album on August 29th. Multiple viral moments occurred during the album's build-up and became the subject of memes primarily on Twitter and Reddit.

Background

On July 23rd, 2021, Kanye West's newest album Donda was set to be released at midnight across all streaming platforms,^[1] but the album was never released. In response, Kanye started holding "listening parties" of the album in progress. He would hold 3 listening parties in total spanning from July 23rd, 2021, to August 26th, 2021. Throughout the process, Kanye held publicity stunt after publicity stunt to hype up the album's eventual release, similar to other controversial stunts the musical artist has pulled like, Kanye West's 2018 White House visit and his 'I Love It' song made with Lil' Pump.

Developments

First Donda Listening Party

On July 23rd, 2021, Kanye West's newest album Donda was set to be released at midnight across all streaming platforms,^[1] but the album was never released. Regardless, Kanye held a listening party inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on the 23rd. The event was sold-out and livestreamed on Apple Music with 40,000 fans in attendance.^[2]

On the night of the event, YouTuber^[6] Unghetto Mathieu uploaded footage of the listening party, receiving over 1.1 million views and 21,000 likes in six days. The video has since been removed from YouTube. A different video of the entire event uploaded by YouTube channel, Trem of Lab, is provided below, posted on August 26th, 2021.

Images from the release party began going viral on July 23rd, 2021, across all platforms, depicting a lone Kanye surrounded by fans sporting a bright, red outfit and pantyhose over his face (shown below).

Twitter user @javrawr compared the image of Kanye in the middle of the stadium to a Club Penguin screenshot. The tweet gained over 305,000 likes in roughly one week (shown below).

On July 24th, 2021, a new image of Kanye in the stadium went viral on Twitter,^[3] posted by user @victoriamcbryde who spotted the rapper the next day, in the same "release-party fit," wandering the stadium through aisles of fans at an Atlanta United soccer game (shown below). The tweet gained over 10,700 likes in roughly five days.

It was only revealed after the soccer game image went viral that Kanye set up a recording studio and living quarters inside the stadium.^[4] News outlet Consequence revealed the information in a tweet on July 24th, 2021.

Quote tweets of both @victoriamcbryde's and @Consequence's tweets began to go viral, comparing the rapper's look and situation to the Phantom of the Opera (shown below). Twitter user @ComfortablySmug's tweet gained over 1,300 likes in roughly four days. Screenshots of these also went viral across other platforms as well, like Instagram and Reddit.

Kanye's Bedroom Inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium

On July 27th, 2021, Kanye finally posted a photo to his Instagram^[7] of his living quarters inside the stadium. Quickly, the bleak, locker-room-esque photo (shown below) gained roughly 1.6 million likes in less than 24 hours (seen below).

Users across Instagram and the subreddit /r/WestSubEver began remixing the image,^[5] comparing Kanye's living situation to Doomer culture in general and meme templates like, Damn Bitch, You Live Like This? (examples seen below).

Joker Groupchat Text Message

On August 21st, 2021, Kanye posted a screenshot to his Instagram (shown below) of a message sent to a group chat including Pusha T and Drake, among others, where the message he sent was a photo of Joaquin Pheonix's Joker accompanied with text underneath. Kanye posting the screenshot adds to an ongoing beef between the two rappers that sparked back up again because of a Drake feature on Trippie Redd's new album, Trip at Knight, which was released on August 20th, 2021. On the track, "Betrayl," Drake is featured and raps, "All these fools I'm beefin' that I barely know / Forty-five, forty-four (burned out), let it go / Ye ain't changin' s*** for me, it's set in stone." This is said to be the inspiration for Kanye's Joker post.^[8]

I live for this / I've been fucked with by nerd ass jock niggas like you my whole life / You will never recover / I promise you

The post would be deleted by Kanye later the same day, however, people began to meme about the image regardless (examples shown below), mostly referencing Kanye's "Jokerification" and the fact that Drake and Pusha T were in the group chat together, two rappers who have had a notorious beef since 2011.^[9]

Kanye Doxxing Drake

Early on August 23rd, 2021, Kanye posted a screenshot on his Instagram (shown below, top) of photos taken at Drake's address in Toronto. The post was quickly deleted by Kanye but not before users and major news outlets screenshotted it themselves, as well as people on Twitter and Reddit memeing about it. Drake would respond to the doxxing in an Instagram Story posted of him laughing about it (shown below, bottom). Even though the rapper's address was revealed, this wasn't a true doxxing, as Drake's address was publicly known previously.

Multiple memes were posted to Twitter and Reddit, among other places, about Drake and Kanye's beef. Memes related to the two rappers would also mention Kendrick Lamar, who on August 20th, 2021, also announced the release of a new album.^[10] People on Twitter and Reddit began to murmur how three of the world's most notable hip-hop figures could be posting new albums at the same time (examples shown below).

Third Donda Listening Event

On August 26th, 2021, Kanye held a third Donda listening party for the upcoming album whose release had been delayed twice since the beginning of August 2021.^[11] This third listening event was held in Chicago at Soldier Field and was streamed live on Apple Music. Kanye used the space to recreate his childhood home in the form of a church. Kanye and other musicians like Marilyn Manson and DaBaby were on the porch of the fake house together during the event. At one point, Kanye revealed a song with a sample from the Globglogabgalab meme. A short video of this moment (shown below) received meme attention across YouTube, Twitter and Instagram for its absurdity.

This third event also received meme attention because of the new track, titled "Jail," a track Kanye'd previewed at an earlier listening party that featured notable rapper Jay-Z. When played again in Chicago, fans realized that the Jay-Z verses were cut out and replaced with DaBaby rapping instead (shown below, top).^[11] Fans reacted across all platforms and were generally outraged by the replacement, mainly due to a recent controversy involving DaBaby making homophobic statements on July 25th, 2021, during his Rolling Loud set.^[12] People on Twitter, for example, took to memeing about it, one Twitter user even using crate challenge footage to express their feelings (shown below, bottom).

KANYE WEST & DABABY – JAIL#DONDA pic.twitter.com/MwAtG2y2eK

— Dave (@davesaitama) August 27, 2021

Everyone when they heard Kanye replace Jay-Z with DaBaby:#DONDA pic.twitter.com/y07oxaSSMc

— Kenny Eaton (@TheKennyEaton) August 27, 2021

Additionally, on August 27th, 2021, the morning after the third listening party, Kanye changed Donda's release date on Apple Music to September 3rd, 2021, making it the same release date as Drake's upcoming album, Lover Boy, which Drake had also announced on the morning of the 27th on ESPN's SportsCenter.^[13] People on Twitter and Reddit began to meme about this coincidence, playing into the earlier drama of Kanye's Joker Group-Text and Kanye doxxing Drake on August 23rd, 2021 (examples shown below).

Album Release

On August 29th, 2021, Kanye West released his tenth studio album Donda. The album received mixed reviews from critics and audiences, inspiring memes and discussions.

Search Interest

External References