After many, many, MANY moons—Donda, Kanye West’s 10th studio album is finally available to stream on various music platforms.
While many Yeezy fans were and still are excited about the drop, there is one person who appears to be unhappy about the whole thing—and, no, I’m not talking about Drake.
Per Pitchfork, just hours after Donda was released on Sunday, Kanye took to Instagram where he claimed that his label had put out the album without his permission.
“Universal put my album out without my approval and they blocked Jail 2 from being on the album,” West wrote in a post. “Jail 2” refers to the song “Jail Pt. 2,” featuring DaBaby, the followup to “Jail” that features Jay-Z.
In a separate, since-deleted post, Ye also posted screenshots of a text exchange that explained why DaBaby was initially left off the album, alleging that the “Bop” rapper’s team didn’t want to clear the song. Hours later after the song showed up on the album, Arnold Taylor, founder of South Coast Music Group (the record label DaBaby is signed to in partnership with Interscope Records), attempted to clear the record on Instagram, writing:
“This is CAP, I woke up this morning [Sunday morning] to this social media bullshit. I never got a call or email from @kanyewest @__bu @johnmonopoly I just received it today and Cleared it in 2 seconds. Why wouldn’t I want a hit song out when #SCMG is all about the growth and culture of hip hop and my artist!!! To all of the media blogs and outlets don’t believe everything you see in a post, thank you!!! #SCMGShit.”
Though things turned out in DaBaby’s favor with regard to his feature on Donda, there are a couple of other artists who apparently weren’t so lucky. Namely Soulja Boy and Chris Brown. Hours after the album’s release late Sunday night, Soulja Boy hopped onto Twitter where he revealed that his verse had apparently been left off “Remote Control,” and included screenshots of a text exchange that showed Ye’s initial interest in working with him.
“Idk how to feel, Kanye sent me that song “remote control” and I don’t hear my verse on it… hmm fuck that nigga,” the “Make It Clap” rapper wrote, later adding “That nigga Kanye weird af. This nigga Kanye smh. Tell homie don’t hit my phone no more.”
Additionally, Chris Brown also expressed his disdain in a since-deleted Instagram Story, writing: “Kanye a whole hoe.” Unlike Soulja, Breezy is in fact included on the track “New Again,” so it’s a bit unclear why the “Heat” rapper is upset.
Regardless, I do think it’s funny (read: not hilarious at all) that all the featured artists I’ve mentioned in this post are hella problematic. DaBaby, Soulja Boy, Chris Brown. But at this point in Yeezus’ “evolution,” their inclusion (or lack thereof) is probably par for the course.