Well, it’s finally arrived…

After months of postponed release dates and distracting off-stage stunts (the most recent of which saw ex-wife Kim Kardashian don a jet-black wedding veil), Kanye West’s long-awaited album, DONDA, has officially hit streaming services. But as is often the case with the Chicago rapper, the release of his tenth studio project has not been without its expected dose of controversy. 

A mere hours after DefJam Recordings finally dropped his latest album, Kanye West took to social media to reveal that the production company had released DONDA without his prior approval. While most of us are secretly thankful that the plug has been pulled on his increasingly-tiresome album rollout, Kanye instead took aim at Universal Music Group in a blunt Instagram call-out. 

 

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As is par for the course in the Kanye-verse, the beef doesn’t stop there. West’s post also claims that DefJam removed a song featuring DaBaby from the final tracklist, a move Kanye had already criticised in a separate, now-deleted Instagram post last week (see below).

It’s been speculated that DaBaby was removed following his controversial statements at Rolling Loud in May, but in any case, the rapper’s featured verse has since been reinstated on “Jail Pt. 2” in the hours after DONDA’s release.

On top of DaBaby, DONDA also includes features from equally-controversial artists like Marilyn Manson and Chris Brown, with other big-name musicians like The Weeknd, Young Thug and Playboi Carti lending a hand across the album’s 27 tracks.

With a feature from the otherwise-squeaky clean Ariana Grande and an album cover that somewhat underwhelms (spoiler alert, it’s black), DONDA release day has arrived in typical Kanye fashion; bizarre, controversial, and reliably predicted to set the internet alight.