A few weeks ago, Kanye West released his 10th studio album, Donda. With it came much anticipation, as he put off the initial release three times. Regardless, the long-awaited album is here, and fans everywhere are praising it.
Although you would imagine an album that was initially set for Aug. 5 wouldn’t have garnered interest after being nearly an entire month “late,” Donda is still one of the hottest albums out. Go anywhere on campus, and you can hear people blasting tracks like “Moon” and “Hurricane” in their cars. An album this universally accepted is guaranteed to launch twitter feuds, as various twitter accounts have called the album “mid” or “underwhelming.”
This album is revolutionary in its use of features, and the production is some of the best to hit the rap charts in a while. Tracks like “Believe What I Say” and “Pure Souls” shine with some hard-hitting lyrics as well as masterful, energetic beats. These songs provide dance-worthy music with meaningful subject matter that make them worth the listen. More spiritually enriching tracks are “Keep My Spirit Alive” and “24,” which details being able to say you’re OK in every situation.
Combine this already wonderful production with some well-attributed verses from some of rap’s most popular names, such as Young Thug, Don Toliver, Playboi Carti, Kid Cudi and Travis Scott, to name a few. Overall, the influence of this project will last for a long time and impact our generation’s intake of music for years to come.
Donda was the hottest album for a few days — that was, until Drake released his sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy, a hyper rap album that screams Drake but provides some nuance and freshness we haven’t seen from any of his previous projects. Certified Lover Boy is an overall well-produced album, with production from the likes of Metro Boomin', TM88, PARTYNEXTDOOR and more. The songs are fun and energetic, nothing unexpected from the Canadian rapper, but this time it feels different. Drake seems more open and honest about his experience with anxiety and depression but also more open about the birth of his son, Adonis, who he previously tried to hide from the public. Tracks like “Way 2 Sexy” and “Knife Talk'' are hilarious but also very hard-hitting with some cool production, whereas tracks like “Champagne Poetry '' and “Papi’s Home” are more serious in nature.
Although lovable, this album provides the classic, sometimes cheesy, rhyme schemes Drake throws into every album. At one point, he throws in a line referencing Milwaukee Bucks player Giannis Antetokounmpo in “7am On Bridle Path,” saying, “I keep it a buck like Antetokounmpo.” These lines and fun rhyme schemes are what set Drake apart from every other rapper in the industry.
These two albums being released in such proximity are the cause of some feuding on the part of both Kanye and Drake, as one or both were going to try to compete for listenership and audience draw. These attempts to compete were ultimately successful but had a reverse effect on both albums. The fight for listeners for each respective album is what actually pushed both albums to have such paramount numbers. Donda’s initial release day streams were 95 million, and Certified Lover Boy’s were 153 million — incredible feats already — and numbers are continuing to grow. The two albums were revolutionary in that they both helped propel popular rap forward in the overall number of streams that two competing albums can have.
Oftentimes, one album wins in overall viewership, and the other “fails,” but in all honesty, neither of these albums flopped. Both albums had incredible numbers, receiving millions of streams worldwide. The competition between the two albums has set a precedent that two albums can exist and even be released in the same time span and, if promoted well enough, both succeed.
Both Drake and Kanye are notorious and influential in that they both will have lasting impacts on the type of rap that's produced for years to come. Simply saying one was better than the other doesn’t do either album justice or acknowledge the time it probably took to create these projects. Both are fundamentally great in their own way and, through creating new waves of sound, these projects will be considered great for time to come.
