Kanye West has taken his chaotic first steps into the world of livestreaming with a listening party and live performance of new album ‘Donda 2’. Seen by millions worldwide, the unique concert was well-hyped — and delivered on it (for the most part).
Ye’s unveiling of Donda 2 was a one-of-a-kind live concert and online experience. A mix of stunning visuals, exceptional music, coupled with some audio issues and the strangest spectacles you could imagine.
Since this live show was announced earlier in February on Kanye’s Instagram, fans have been losing their minds theorizing about how this live show would go down.
Despite being marred by audio issues and scattered with controversial figures, it’s clear that Donda 2’s had the release impact that Kanye was hoping for.
Kanye West’s Donda 2 Experience stream nearly reached 200,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch.Initially only available from stemplayer.com, the ‘Donda 2 Experience’ was (and at the time of writing still is) available to be watched on Twitch and YouTube.
According to Twitch Tracker, West’s Donda 2 debut stream of the event reached a peak of 194,748 viewers — topping Daft Punk’s 172k on the same day.
YouTube videos of the experience have been viewed well over half a million times, and rising.
DONDA 2 EXPERIENCE
WATCH LIVE
ONLY ONhttps://t.co/81me2iWKLs pic.twitter.com/R86y35q7ZD
— STEM PLAYER (@stemplayer) February 22, 2022
The live stream itself was a mammoth four-hour experience. Beginning with a two and a half hour long waiting room featuring a heartbeat. Once the show itself began a huge water arena featuring a stylized version of Kanye’s childhood home was set ablaze.
From the intense display kicking proceedings off the show continued to get wilder with cameo’s, unreleased tracks and visual delights throughout.
Fans were treated to the Donda experience over one and a half hours of intermittent music including premieres of tracks such as ‘Flowers’, ‘Louis Bags’ (Feat. Jack Harlow) and ‘Kid We Did It’ (Feat. Kid Keem and Migos) with Jack Harlow and Migos joining Kanye’s nostaglic childhood meets hell stage for their respective verses.
Ye also took the time to play a sample of ex-partner Kim Kardashian’s SNL monologue from October of last year calling him “the best rapper of all time” and the “richest Black man in America”.
With the “Donda 2 hype train” in full swing, it’s clear that the event has stirred the eternal pot of interest in Kanye’s 11th studio album.
It wasn’t without issues. Marred with audio problems, fans have already shared videos of how they imagine Kanye dealt with the production team once he got off stage.
Kanye after the show looking for the sound engineer #DONDA2 pic.twitter.com/BbfMFO5Pc8
— TheProdigy▫️ (@Brishaa_tt) February 23, 2022
this was deadass the second half of the donda 2 livestream #DONDA2 pic.twitter.com/skMNoCbsGS
— spence (@spencerkinsime) February 23, 2022
Even in the face of these issues, it’s hard to imagine that Ye is over-troubled with concerns around the success of Donda 2.
After declaring that the album would only be available to listen to on the Stem Player, sales of the player have been announced to crack the $1.2 million mark.
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He’s since doubled down on his opinions surround his choice to sell the album exclusively through his own platform stating: “Some say I’m the only one who can make this change. So as the leading innovator in music of the past 20 years, I’m putting my own work on the line to change it.”
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