Without a Word: How Kanye West Launched His Album Donda to His Church
On Thursday, July 22, 2021, Kanye West set up his sanctuary at Mercedes Benz stadium, a listening party for his upcoming album Donda. The event sold out a few days prior, with a capacity of 42,000. Trapital’s Dan Runcie does some napkin math and sums it up well, “Very few artists can pull that off.” The unofficial streaming count ticks in at 3.3 million viewers, which I’m frankly surprised at (there’s just over 38,000 at an unofficial Twitch replay), but I guess I shouldn’t be.
Dissect’s Cole Cuchna writes, “Man I love album rollouts from the heavyweights. Nothing like seeing so many people excited about MUSIC. I can’t really explain it but witnessing that really makes me happy. Like just knowing you’re in the middle of a MOMENT.” I feel exactly the same way; less so than in my younger years, but still enjoying the excitement of a cultural moment.
There was a time when being a fan of Kanye West’s work or persona was, somewhat, acceptable. That time has long passed; being a fan meant justifying his actions or people’s (mis)perceptions of him, and thus many retired. Gene Park, whose bio used to say “defending kanye since 2006,” retired it. And yet, like the fans who stay quiet, he’s still not gotten over being a fan. That’s what I wanted this post to be about—the fans that power Kanye West’s work. But of course, it became a little bigger than that.
