Our Resident Kanye Expert Breaks Down “Donda” — And Whether It Was Worth The Wait
On today's episode of BuzzFeed Daily, we broke down the top pop culture headlines AND discussed the new Kanye album. You can listen below or scroll down to read more about the interview!
So let's dive right into it! Recently we talked to Elamin Abdelmahmoud about whether Kanye's Donda album was worth the wait. Here's some of what we learned:
BuzzFeed Daily: What's your initial reaction? Was it worth the wait?
Elamin Abdelmahmoud: Here's the thing — the thing that most people know about this album at this point is that it's so long. It's an hour and 45 minutes long. Someone commented on Twitter that it's as long as The Boss Baby. That's facts. That's 100% true.
But also the fact that it's that long kind of makes it seem almost like a choose-your-own-adventure kind of album. I see a lot of people [saying] there's a lot of filler tracks, but some good songs and everybody names a different constellation of songs as their good songs and a different constellation of songs is the bad songs. I think that the main adjective that I would use to describe this album is "exhausting." It is an exhausting record. I am spent and it's only been out for a day.
BuzzFeed Daily: What do you make of the latest issue over this DaBaby track? Some say it was due to legal and copyright issues and Kanye said Universal was out of line. He reportedly told his manager in a text message, "I'm not taking my brother off. He was the only person who said he would vote for me in public." And there was, of course, a lot of controversy surrounding DaBaby beforehand, which we will get to later. But what's the story behind why the track was originally not released?
EA: If Kanye's to be believed...DaBaby's manager was the person who would not sign off on DaBaby being on the album. That's an interesting perspective to bring to all this, because there's something about the fact that DaBaby is a little bit toxic right now. He's been taken off so many different festival lineups this year. And so if you're DaBaby and you're DaBaby's management, you probably want to have him be as lowkey as possible. Maybe have him take a few months off from saying anything in public — like "Shut the fuck up, DaBaby." People can maybe listen to you sometime later just so you can manage your way through the comments and the aftermath, because people are still not going to let go of that because it was a really toxic thing that he said in public.
And so if you're Kanye's management — if you're Kanye specifically — I think you're thinking about the fact that your label doesn't want DaBaby associated with you. DaBaby like wants to lay low and he wants to maybe cut through all this industry facade to be like, "Well, no, DaBaby's my brother and I want him on this album."
I have to say that when we found out that DaBaby and Marilyn Manson are going to be on the same song together — which is this second version of the song "Jail" — it was at the third listening event that Kanye held for this album. And the Twitter response was pretty much universal, like, "What the hell, man?" Why would you go and get two of the most toxic men out there right now — DaBaby, for those homophobic remarks, and Marilyn Manson, who's facing a raft of sexual assault allegations and rape allegations — and put them on a record. Are you are you trying to say something? Are you trying to say something about our culture right now?
BuzzFeed Daily: [Kim Kardashian has] been showing up to all of these events, and for her to be showing up to these release parties with her kids, and then in a wedding dress... I'm confused. Was this whole divorce just a smokescreen for this album release?
EA: I think Kanye is heartbroken, and also just being a divorced dad about all of these things. I don't I don't think it's any more complicated than that in the sense that there's a couple of overtures about him trying to get his family back together. These are these are complicated things that, you know, none of us have to negotiate in public. And also none of us have to negotiate making very public art about. At the end of the day, in his fantasy, would he want to recreate a wedding at the end of his third listening party? I am sure that he would. Do we have any indications that this is what's going on? No, not at all.
We also talked about Sarah Paulson's response to the criticism of her decision to wear a fat suit in the upcoming American Crime Story series about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.
Sarah, who gained 30 pounds and wore padding for the role, plays Linda Tripp, the woman who secretly recorded her phone calls with Monica.
Following the backlash, Sarah told the LA Times that while she feels the quote “controversy” around actors and fat suits is legitimate, she believes she was right for the part and actors shouldn’t take full responsibility when fat suits are worn.
She also said: "Was I supposed to say no [to the part]? This is the question. I think the thing I think about the most is that I regret not thinking about it more fully,” adding, “Should I have known? Abso-fucking-lutely. But I do now. And I wouldn’t make the same choice going forward.”