Kanye West’s “Donda Experience Performance” event, marking the premiere of his new album and Donda sequel Donda 2, took place on February 22 at LoanDepot Park in Miami. Billed as a “DONDA 2 listening and DONDA 1 performance” by West on Instagram, the event’s livestream happened at Imax theaters, on West’s Stem Player website, and on YouTube.
After over two hours of heartbeat noise, the show began with a house on fire and a new song that appeared to feature posthumous vocals from XXXTentacion. As multiple new songs played in the stadium, West danced near the flaming house while wading through water. He shared “Flowers,” which he teased with his Stem Player exclusivity announcement, and “Eazy.”
West was joined in the water by Migos as a new song featuring Baby Keem and the trio played. The next two songs featured Future, who is said to have executive produced the album. The latter, “Pablo,” also featured Travis Scott. Pusha T appeared in the stadium as his new single “Diet Coke” played.
A subsequent song called “Louis Bag” opened with a sample of Vice President Kamala Harris’ “We did it, Joe” phone call. It featured Jack Harlow (who appeared at the event), and West’s repeated line, “We stopped buying Louis bags after Virgil passed.” It was followed by another song featuring Future. A sample of Kim Kardashian West’s Saturday Night Live monologue about Kanye West opened the next track (though not the punchline: “So, when I divorced him, you have to know it came down to just one thing: his personality!”). The next song began with a TikTok-popular Empire sample.
The event pivoted to a live performance, which featured the Sunday Service choir and multiple songs from Donda. Marilyn Manson, who is facing multiple sexual assault lawsuits and is the subject of a new documentary that outlines allegations of abuse, once again joined West and DaBaby during “Jail.” Fivio Foreign and Alicia Keys delivered a live performance of the new single “City of Gods.” Soulja Boy appeared to be featured on “Fist Time in a Long Time” amid an on-again, off-again feud with West. The event ended with a performance of “Off the Grid” that featured Playboi Carti (in apparent Joker makeup) and Fivio Foreign.
Donda 2 will purportedly be made available exclusively through West’s Donda Stem Player. He claimed that he turned down a $100 million deal from Apple, choosing instead to release the album via his own platform. In late January, West had announced that Donda 2 would arrive on February 22, but it did not appear online or on the stem players at midnight. So far, four songs—“Security,” “Pablo,” “Open Road,” and “We Did It Kid”—are available at Stem Player.
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