Donda
by Kanye West
User Score
6.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3155 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,070 out of 3155
  2. Mixed: 161 out of 3155
  3. Negative: 924 out of 3155
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  1. VanZizek
    Mar 6, 2023
    6
    I love Kanye and giving him a 6 is painful, very empty in its content, he is no longer the same guy I knew, nor has his evolution made any sense musically speaking. I know you have to separate the art from the artist but with Kanye it's impossible, the parts about his mother are brutal, his Christina part seems lost and I'm sorry but there are 10 unnecessary songs. Overrated album.
  2. Blonisco
    Jan 26, 2023
    6
    这专是相当遗憾的一专，从豪华版换曲目来说就看的出Kanye制作时的混乱，很多donda2020时期的弃曲觉得比现版好听的多，当然现版也有很多优秀的曲子如24，BWIS，但是突出的缺点掩盖了优点，就像Yes的地形海。
  3. SideOrderoLemon
    Dec 5, 2022
    5
    Despite the hype leading up to the release of Kanye West's new album, Donda fails to deliver fully, but may surprise with decent beats. The emotional detail falls flat however when compared to Kanye's other albums and leads to a lack luster performance. Off The Grid may be the only song that is consistent throughout the album, but even so just highlights his fall from grace. From the veryDespite the hype leading up to the release of Kanye West's new album, Donda fails to deliver fully, but may surprise with decent beats. The emotional detail falls flat however when compared to Kanye's other albums and leads to a lack luster performance. Off The Grid may be the only song that is consistent throughout the album, but even so just highlights his fall from grace. From the very start, the irritating and repetitive "Donda Donda Donda" may leave a sour taste in your mouth. Though somewhat listenable, Donda does not do justice to Kanye's slowly fading vision.… Expand
  4. garfield7081
    Jun 25, 2022
    6
    still waiting for kanye to make an actual rap album again

    best song: praise god

    worst song: tell the vision
  5. AShinyG1ratina
    Jun 21, 2022
    5
    :trollface:
    In all honesty this album’s pretty good for what it is, albeit like 50 minutes too long.
  6. WarudoDZ
    May 18, 2022
    6
    Good Album , greatest tracks but to long (27 song) he did remove the part2 , Tell the vision et junya and this is a great 8 but now is is a 7
  7. jake47jake
    May 17, 2022
    6
    i got very excited for this one. this disappointed me greatly. i still think it is good but heavily flawed. only a few songs are memorable in this 27 track project. that is a problem. despite that the production is top tier.

    Favourite songs- jail, off the grid, hurricane, moon
  8. themusicreview
    Apr 6, 2022
    6
    Donda is an insanely good output of consistent and awe inspiring music created from a man who has had some missteps in his recent production. The 27 tracks and more have proven to be an unrelenting force of gospel, psychedlic, trap and drill music bound in a historically long and marathon like slog which actually feels shorter than it really is.

    Donda is poetic and it feels like the    Donda is an insanely good output of consistent and awe inspiring music created from a man who has had some missteps in his recent production. The 27 tracks and more have proven to be an unrelenting force of gospel, psychedlic, trap and drill music bound in a historically long and marathon like slog which actually feels shorter than it really is.

    Donda is poetic and it feels like the magnum opus of a man who's had an up and down career path. There's flight and trajectory in songs like Moon, Off The Grid, Praise God, Jail, Come To Life, Junya, God Breathed and 24 where levitation and gravitation toward the Higher Self and Higher God comes to full fruition. It is a spiritual discovery and the climax of a man who is still searching for Jesus or God or anything that he comes close to.

    I believe Donda is an album that will age like fine wine, its sounds being so futuristic and minimal, the hollow sounds and landscape of solar like territory does well in a radio scene of repetitive hype rap or dull hooks. This is more than refreshing, it's an album of power and a stance against devilish material and also a moralistic choice to create art which stands in faith and strength despite public judgment. I come to full admiration for an artist who is able to create songs which compel light in times of personal struggle and his divorce comes to full investigation here as songs also reflect his recovering mental health.

    I hope Kanye improves on his editing and makes his album more tight to create a personal experience. It is outlandish and sometimes does feel too long with the part 2's. However this still earns a 10/10 because the highs do hit high. Moon is his best record in 5 years and Off The Grid is his entry into drill which Kanye has him rapping for his life like he's off his laziness. It is his best record since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and critics have failed to realise the depth and spiritual recovery uncovered in this jewel. It is healthy Kanye, a sane Kanye and a Kanye seeking repentance and change, if they can't accept that then it means they're just bitter against an antagonistic image of Kanye portrayed by media.

    You must be able to separate art from the artist and Donda has sounds which will prove in five years to be like the Christian Yeezus, wait and see. Incredible stuff, solid sounds and a incredible list of young features hungry, energizing a focused Kanye to become the soldier he once was. Prayers up for sure, Donda is a gem.    … Expand
  9. Toasttt
    Mar 26, 2022
    4
    meh .
  10. Fuerstenberg
    Jan 20, 2022
    6
    A 108 minute roller coaster ride with a chaotic mix of good hip hop beats, gospel choirs and church organs. Kanye processes a lot and opens up like never before. Traded as album of the year before its release, "Donda" is almost forgettable after 5 months of listening.

    The bottom line is that Kanye's tenth album has its highlights, but only a few of the 27 songs really convinced me. And    A 108 minute roller coaster ride with a chaotic mix of good hip hop beats, gospel choirs and church organs. Kanye processes a lot and opens up like never before. Traded as album of the year before its release, "Donda" is almost forgettable after 5 months of listening.

    The bottom line is that Kanye's tenth album has its highlights, but only a few of the 27 songs really convinced me. And even the impressive feature guest list doesn't lead to a better rating than 6 out of 10.

    My favorites:
    "Off the Grid"
    "Hurricane"
    "Jail"
    "Jonah"
    "Moon"

    ~ Fürstenberg
    January 20, 2022    … Expand
  11. sodovich
    Dec 25, 2021
    6
    The max I can give is a 6. It has some good songs like "Hurricane" (best track) and "Moon", but overall lacks personality and the Kanye West that we are used to.
  12. clem666
    Dec 24, 2021
    5
    Wow. Hard to rate since 'Donda' is to me literally Ye's both worst and probably best material.

    What I found underwhelming was the overall repetitiveness of songs, especially 'Jail', the unlistenable 'Donda Chant', 'God Breathed', 'Ok Ok', 'Junya', the end of '24' and the awful and umpteenth version of 'Tell the Vision' trying to revive the guts of late Pop Smoke. Add this to the four    Wow. Hard to rate since 'Donda' is to me literally Ye's both worst and probably best material.

    What I found underwhelming was the overall repetitiveness of songs, especially 'Jail', the unlistenable 'Donda Chant', 'God Breathed', 'Ok Ok', 'Junya', the end of '24' and the awful and umpteenth version of 'Tell the Vision' trying to revive the guts of late Pop Smoke. Add this to the four 'part 2' tracks and you get an album based on very similar beats and compositions. Ye had the quite bright idea to invoke numerous fellow artists and friends on this record. However there are many tracks in which he seems to be invited on rather than be the obvious primary artist. In this case it is hard to love this material since Ye appears to be only one of its component. I mean, I'm not far from hating Playboi Carti and he's featured twice (or even three times counting 'Junya part 2'). He took way too much space in my opinion for me to really enjoy some of the consistent parts of 'Donda'.

    However I can't deny the fact that some artists did embellish the experience. Jay Electronica is fantastic on 'Jesus Lord', Kid Cudi is great on 'Moon' as Travis Scott and Baby Keem are more than welcome on 'Praise God'. Each artist delivered an interesting piece of oneself in order to craft and contribute to Ye's massive project.

    On his side, Ye gathered a surprising amount of producers. But he still got us confused with all these release dates, the terrible communication surrounding 'Donda' and all the drama. Ye's punchlines vary between awesome and totally dull (just remember the notable 'Dustin he a Hoffman'). Anyway, I'm glad this album came out, because I really doubted it would. Still a messy, uneven and chaotic release. In conclusion I love the tracks I originally liked and I hate songs I simply disliked at first listen. 'Donda Deluxe', even if it brought some great tracks, got us more confused than possible.    … Expand
  13. MESSA21
    Dec 3, 2021
    6
    While this album has some good and even great tracks, West made it way too bloated to keep my attention through out the record. Tracks like Off the Grid, Jesus Lord, Moon, Jail, Praise God is what I wish Jesus is King was like. But tracks like Tell the Vision and all the Part 2's just seem like a waste of time. I enjoyed it but I'm not gonna sit down and this 2+ Hour album likely ever again
  14. maelton
    Nov 23, 2021
    6
    I understand it's art and all, but honestly the album itself was kind of boring to me
  15. JoePapaReviews
    Nov 21, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Don't expect it to be rap because it really ain't it's gospel music at most. There are tracks which were great from the start like Jail and Off The Grid (Praise God is good but quite annoying) and then the awful tracks like Tell The Vision which was unfinished and still is poorly made and should've been cut from the original release. The deluxe version was alright but ordered different. Life Of The Party was phenomenal but should've been on the original release.… Expand
  16. gabylovestaytay
    Nov 13, 2021
    4
    Kinda like going to church but do it an album... okayyy. god bless america,
  17. aftergiowhore
    Nov 4, 2021
    6
    Though I'd call the album 'mid' for Kanye's standards but it very much does have some songs which you could consider to be career highlights.
  18. ninodanes
    Sep 21, 2021
    6
    overrally a good & not exceptional project from Kanye. the production & sound as expected of Kanye stands out in this album. of course there are highlights from the body of work but however too many features & the number of tracks make the album sound a bit saturated & lack of a certain direction altogether.
  19. Junkiest
    Sep 18, 2021
    6
    A wise man once said “This is not album of the year, this is album of the life.”
  20. asdf123k
    Sep 18, 2021
    6
    This album had some trash songs, it's bloated, misconceived, and executed poorly. That aside, no one else could make it.
  21. ReviewThangs
    Sep 17, 2021
    6
    Absolutely bloated, there are moments in there I enjoyed but I can't find them again after repeated listens because so much of it is just boring. Sounds wise, there's nothing new or exciting here that Kanye hasn't done before, sounds kinda similar to Life of Pablo just way less inspired.

    If he managed to trim it or label it as a Disc 1 and Bonus Disc maybe you could make an argument    Absolutely bloated, there are moments in there I enjoyed but I can't find them again after repeated listens because so much of it is just boring. Sounds wise, there's nothing new or exciting here that Kanye hasn't done before, sounds kinda similar to Life of Pablo just way less inspired.

    If he managed to trim it or label it as a Disc 1 and Bonus Disc maybe you could make an argument that it's the best of the last 3 albums, which isn't really saying much.

    The album art too...

    Kanye was never the best lyrcist but still made even his dumbest lines work. His production was always where he was years ahead of his contemporaries but here it's just boring.
    I even somewhat enjoyed his last album shortly because it was at least unique for him despite the fact that it did not hold up on repeated listens. This can't even annoy me, which is the worst part, it's just bland and inoffensive.    … Expand
  22. Mobina1
    Sep 10, 2021
    6
    An average album for "Kanye West" imo. 27 songs in an album is just boring. I was waiting for the album to end. btw it isn't that bad to get 0 from Independent lol
  23. amiru1isme
    Sep 7, 2021
    5
    Donda lacks unique production, brilliant lyrics and effort, yet considered to be a tribute to his mom. Few of the features are very well put and well assigned for the album but other than that, it's a filler/loop material that also lacks magic and craft that Kanye had beforehand.
  24. Mshad23
    Aug 30, 2021
    5
    The album was very difficult to get through on first listen. Over time there are a few highlights that have emerged, a few sparks of polished creativity, in a seemingly dark jungle of creative, but ultimately chaotic and unfinished darkness.
  25. Frisse99
    Sep 5, 2021
    5
    To me, this album is like throwing some excellent ingredients for a delicious soup in a pot but then taking it off the stove before it's cooked to completion.
  26. bl_nk
    Sep 4, 2021
    6
    Bloated and in desperate need of an edit. I ended up with 13 tracks kept out of 27.

    Glimmers of what made Kanye compelling will shine through on tracks like "Hurricane", "Moon", "No Child Left Behind, but thematically, Kanye's narcissism-presented-as-religiosity is suffocating. Some of the production is beautiful, but I can't remember a single bar, it's all church camp rap. Curses are    Bloated and in desperate need of an edit. I ended up with 13 tracks kept out of 27.

    Glimmers of what made Kanye compelling will shine through on tracks like "Hurricane", "Moon", "No Child Left Behind, but thematically, Kanye's narcissism-presented-as-religiosity is suffocating. Some of the production is beautiful, but I can't remember a single bar, it's all church camp rap. Curses are edited out, but references to gang violence etc. are included, as well as contributions from notable creeps in the music industry such as Manson. It's morally inconsistent, and (frankly) massively obnoxious.

    You get the sense that Kanye thinks he has nothing to learn from anyone else in the room because he's such a "genius" that every fart is gold, and in many ways this album is his reality check.    … Expand
  27. arc55
    Sep 4, 2021
    6
    I see too many people saying this album is either AOTY or complete garbage, let's be honest it is neither, I think the album is way too long and on the second listen a lot of songs got pretty boring once the excitement wore off. Still, it has an interesting and slightly unfinished production with a few bangers like Hurricane, and Jail.
  28. CSA
    Sep 4, 2021
    6
    Sorry, but unfortunately, this sounds like some new artist tryin' to sound like Kanye making his first songs and putting them all out at once without even selecting the ones which actually worth being on an album... Some of the songs sounded unfinished, some of the beats sound like they are undone, it feels they can't drop somehow and the entire song feels like made over a intro part ofSorry, but unfortunately, this sounds like some new artist tryin' to sound like Kanye making his first songs and putting them all out at once without even selecting the ones which actually worth being on an album... Some of the songs sounded unfinished, some of the beats sound like they are undone, it feels they can't drop somehow and the entire song feels like made over a intro part of the instrumental. So many filler tracks. Sure Kanye showed some signs of his talent on this one too but overall, it was luckluster.… Expand
  29. destinyfan1
    Sep 4, 2021
    6
    An album with really high heights and really low lows.(With some average tracks)
    The album starts of strong (donda chant song of the year).But already weakens off at praise god with a meh travis verse and awful keem verse. Jonah picks it up a bit .But im not so crazy with the beat tbh.Ok ok and junya are just afwul tracks .What made kanye think to bring lil yachty on this album is beyond    An album with really high heights and really low lows.(With some average tracks)
    The album starts of strong (donda chant song of the year).But already weakens off at praise god with a meh travis verse and awful keem verse. Jonah picks it up a bit .But im not so crazy with the beat tbh.Ok ok and junya are just afwul tracks .What made kanye think to bring lil yachty on this album is beyond me.But don't get me wrong it's not only bad because of lil yeachty.The beat is generic and kanye probably brings one of his weakest performances on this song.Rooga was ok.After that we get a couple of mediocre songs wich i did get the appeal of but just didn't land with me.Remote control was also pretty bad lmao.Then tha album pciks up heavy again with moon.Probably my 2nd favorite track outside of off the grid.I also LOVE keep my spirit alive with a killer chorus and verses.
    jesus lord it needed a switch up(get it?).Great track tbh but it's samy after 8 minutes.Then ffs the album drops again in quality.Probably the most inconsistent album in have heard in years.Kanye should have never made the album 28 tracks long.The pt2 tracks were cool but i liked the part 1 tracks more.(except for ok ok were part 2 is slightly better).Then it ends good with the last 3 tracks(not oncluding the pt 2 tracks).
    If kanye simply took the best 14 tracks of this album it would have been one of the best albums ever like not even kidding.Just the ammount of meh tracks on here made this album just ok ok.

    top 5 tracks:
    -off the grid
    -moon
    -jail
    -hurricane
    -keep my spirit alive
    least favorite:
    -tell the vision
    -ok ok
    -new again
    -remote control
    -junya    … Expand
  30. bfoore90
    Sep 3, 2021
    5
    An album full of incredible highs and the lowest of lows. Donda is excruciatingly long due to needless filer and lacks the structure of previous releases
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Awards & Rankings

5
#5 Most Discussed Album of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
53

Mixed or average reviews - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 19
  3. Negative: 1 out of 19
  1. musicOMH.com
    Sep 3, 2021
    60
    Though this isn’t a complete comeback, frustrated Kanye fans certainly have more grounds for optimism after this record than they did before it.
    Read full review
  2. AllMusic
    Sep 2, 2021
    60
    Donda isn't without its highlights, but taken as a whole, it's both confused and confusing.
    Read full review
  3. HipHopDX
    Sep 2, 2021
    62
    There are times where Kanye recaptures the magic of his golden years. ... But there just isn’t enough good here to look past the flaws. The final result is a collection of songs with little binding energy other than a vague Gospel through line, which runs across the tracklist — chaotic like The Life Of Pablo but devoid of the magic.
    Read full review
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