Donda

Background

Kanye began working on Donda — named for his mother, who died in 2007 — years before its eventual release, with recording sessions spanning multiple years and locations. The most public phase involved Kanye living in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium for weeks while conducting stadium listening events that functioned as performance art as much as album previews — the first event in July 2021 drew 42,000 people. There were three stadium events in total, in Atlanta, Chicago, and Las Vegas, each presenting a different version of the album. The final release in August 2021 came without Kanye's announced approval, and he publicly disputed the released version.

Legacy

Donda debuted at #1 and became one of the most streamed albums of 2021 despite its unconventional rollout. The stadium listening events were widely covered as a new form of album launch — experiential, spectacle-driven, and formally separate from the album itself — and influenced how subsequent major releases were framed and presented.

Fun Fact

At one of the Chicago listening events, Kanye reconstructed the childhood home he grew up in on Dorchester Avenue inside the stadium, and also appeared with DaBaby and Marilyn Manson — two figures then facing separate public controversies — in a moment that generated intense coverage and debate.