What To Expect From Kanye West's 'Donda 2' — From Collabs To Lyrics About Kim Kardashian & Pete Davidson
Drake, Future and even Antonio Brown are rumored to feature.
Liam Goodner / DFree / Sky Cinema / Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com January has been nothing but a storm of gossip coming from Kanye West — talking about Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson, his relationship with Julia Fox, and basically exposing his personal life online.
But most importantly, we have news of a sequel to his August 2021 album, ‘Donda,’ coming right around the corner on February 22, 2022 (very clever Mr. West).
It’s a complete mystery how it took three whole years for the infamous rapper and clothing designer to come out with the original ‘Donda’ and then produced a follow-up within a matter of months but who are we to question the work of a self-professed genius?
While the details of the album are vague, fans are eagerly awaiting it's release.
Who will feature on Kayne West's 'Donda 2' album?
The album has barely been announced but rumors about potential features are already circulating.
1. Future is the Executive Producer of Kanye West's new album.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this album is the fact that famous rapper and close friend to Drake, Future, will be the executive producer of the cut.
Now, I like Future as much as the next guy. DS2 will probably go down in history as one of the better trap albums of all time — but executive producer?
Future has very few, very obscure production credits.
Most notably, he was the executive producer of the official soundtrack for the 2018 crime film, Superfly, but doesn’t actually have any production credits.
Typically in music, when we think about production, we think of the person who is producing the beats. Metro Boomin, Mike Will Made It, Zaytoven, among many others are the producers who have worked extensively with Future.
But Future himself isn’t a beatmaker. No, instead, what this executive producer credit likely means is that this album will be curated by Future — he’ll lay out the groundwork for the style, the theme, the features, and will put everything together for West.
This leads me to the next point involving another artist very close to Future.
2. Kanye West could potentially collab with Drake on 'Donda 2.'
In 2015, Drake and Future released what many believed to be one of the best collaborative rap albums of all time.
"What A Time To Be Alive" was constantly compared to the Jay Z & Kanye West album, "Watch the Throne,’"and saw a significant amount of success — topping charts and becoming platinum-selling.
But this isn’t the only time Future and Drake have collaborated together — in fact, they have a long track record together and frequently feature in each other’s music and brainstorming processes.
If "Donda 2" is being executively produced by Future, this could mean that he’ll call in Drake to the studio for a feature with West.
While West and Drake have had a bit of trouble with each other in the past, they seemed to have squashed the beef last month when they performed together at the Larry Hoover free benefit concert that was put together by West.
The month before, they posted pictures and videos on social media of them hanging out together, leading people to believe that everything was okay again.
Not only do I see a potential Drake feature because they’re friends again, but Drake has oftentimes run into trouble with the Kardashian family — rumors of him sleeping with Kim and Kylie and fueling the flames surrounding the gossip.
If Drake is on Kim’s bad side, that gives West all the more reason to get him on the album, since this clearly looks like a move to make her mad.
3. Kanye West is likely to discuss Kim Kardashian on 'Donda 2.'
West hasn't been holding back from talking about his ex-wife publicly so it seems likely he'll air it all out in a song or two.
From seeing his kids, to Pete Davidson, to children's birthday parties, to second sex tape rumors and laptops with unseen footage — West has already said more than enough online and looks set to continue that on the album.
West is no stranger to writing about Kim in his music, and while he once praised her as an "angel," we expect he'll take a different tone this time around.
On his lead single for the Donda sequel, ‘Eazy’, he said that they were “havin' the best divorce ever,” and threw a punchline in about going to court together and going to Kourt(ney’s) together, so maybe their relationship isn’t too far gone in his mind — but he did target someone else in the song.
4. There will likely be a lot more Pete Davidson disses on 'Donda 2.'
West has already given his ex's new boyfriend a shoutout on his track "Eazy" in which he raps, “God saved me from that crash / Just so I can beat Pete Davidson's a--.”
The line caused a lot of buzz so fans will be eagerly awaiting another diss towards the comedian.
“Pete thinks it’s totally hilarious,” an insider told Page Six. “Not just that — he thinks the whole [tabloid drama with him, West and Kardashian] is hilarious. He loves it.”
But Davidson has never been much of a fan of the rapper to begin with — talking about him on SNL and not having the best run-ins with him in the past.
Most famously, during a Weekend Update sketch for SNL, he called him "crazy."
“A lot of people thought [‘Weekend Update’ co-host Michael] Che should be the one to talk about Kanye, and we discussed it,” he said. “Che is Black but I am crazy and we both know what side of Kanye is at the wheel right now.”
This was during that era of West we don’t really talk about where he said slavery wasn’t real and that he openly supported Donald Trump as president.
But anyway, West has also been spreading rumors recently that Davidson has AIDS (?).
Earlier this week, DJ Akademiks claimed "Kanye's been telling everybody within earshot" that Pete has AIDS.
Sources close to Davidson confirmed with TMZ that it has caused several awkward phone calls with close friends, but that the rumors are “nonsense” and that they’re just surprised he would make such a serious claim to try and attack Davidson.
Needless to say, we can expect Davidson to be subjected to more corny punchlines and attention on the new record coming out next month.
5. Julia Fox may feature more on 'Donda 2.'
Fox talked about being in the studio with the rapper so maybe she'll show off her vocals again.
West’s relationship with Fox seems to be progressing fairly rapidly, most recently seeing them at Paris Fashion Week 2022 sporting some of the strangest outfits anyone has ever seen.
Fox even had a hand in an ad-lib on the lead single mentioned earlier, and right after the corny Davidson line.
After West says, “beat Pete Davidson’s a--,” Fox contributes a little with the line “Who?”
Not only that, but West mentions her in a line right after the Davidson one, where he says “And my new b---- bad.”
While Fox has been fairly open to chatting about their relationship, how they interact, and the way they feel about each other, there hasn’t been much information that goes deeper than that.
However, if his relationship with Fox is some sort of retaliatory relationship to rival Kete Kardavidson, then it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if Fox showed more of a presence on the new album, even if it’s just more mentions of her existence and their relationship.
6. Antonio Brown hinted that he worked with Kanye West on new music.
A couple of weeks ago, West was spotted hanging out with polarizing NFL star, Antonio Brown.
In an interview with Complex, Brown talked about collaborating with West after their meeting at the restaurant in LA — hinting at collaborations on music and talking about their new clothing brand.
When asked about musical collaborations he said, “We’ve got some stuff coming, so be sure to get that. Donda 2’s coming; be sure to look for that. Himmothy 2 is coming as well.”
So there may very well be a feature from Brown on the album or perhaps some sort of writing credit.
Hopefully this time, West won’t seclude himself to the locker room of a sports stadium and set a house on fire, but most importantly — hopefully, he doesn’t delay this album.
I don’t want to be waiting around three more years for Donda 2 to drop.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.