Kanye West rolled ‘DONDA 2’ out with a national IMAX event, and fans were quick to report that even on this album, Ye wouldn’t leave Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson alone.
Donda 2 never officially dropped on Tuesday, Feb. 22 (aka 02/22/2022) like Kanye “Ye” West originally promised, but ‘Ye did play the album for fans at a listening party that night. Those who attended the event spilled the tea about what to expect on the album, and it included some drama surrounding the rapper’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Kim Kardashian. Kanye teased the album’s track list a few days before the release party, and the song that had people talking the most after the Feb. 22 event was “Security.” On the track, ‘Ye seemed to throw some digs and threats towards Kim and her boyfriend, Pete Davidson.
“Never take the family picture off the fridge,” Kanye reportedly raps on the song, according to fans who attended the listening party. “Never stand between a man and his kids. Y’all ain’t got enough security for this, y’all ain’t got enough security for this. I put your security at risk, I make your security acquit, like we don’t get paid enough for this.” Kanye has already been vocal with his allegations that Kim has put security between him and his kids, and this song seems to double down on those claims.
Ye announced the Donda 2 listening party on Feb. 12, posting a photo of a house – similar to the one he grew up in – on fire. Ye rebuilt the childhood home for his August 2021 Donda listening party at Chicago’s Soldier Field. It was during this Chicago event that Kim appeared wearing a Balenciaga wedding gown at the event’s finale. At the time, the couple was six months removed from Kim filing for divorce. Despite the separation, Kim had shown up to support Ye at the Donda listening parties in Atlanta. However, following Ye’s recent attacks on Kim and her relationship with Pete, listeners assumed that Kim wouldn’t do a repeat performance for this initial Donda 2 listening event.
Though Kim and Pete began their relationship in the fall of 2021, Ye began his war on their love at the start of 2022. The first salvo came in January with “Eazy,” a collab with The Game. “God saved me from that crash / just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass,” rapped Ye on the track, which also appears on Donda 2 and was played at the Feb. 22 event. West followed that up with a verse on “City of God,” a new collab with Fivio Foreign, a few weeks later. “This afternoon, a hundred goons pullin’ up to SNL / When I pull up, it’s dead on arrival / They act like they love me, they don’t even like you,” rapped Ye, who also added, “And if I let ’em have my wife, n***as should thank me / With this Balenciaga and Balenci’ boots and a new blue Yankee.”
After that, Ye continued to go off on Pete. He cut ties with longtime collaborator Kid Cudi over his friendship with Pete. Ye dissed Pete’s friend Machine Gun Kelly (“No One Has Heard A Machine Gun Kelly Song”) while insinuating there was a Disney-backed conspiracy against him. Ye posted-and-deleted numerous memes and images that mocked Pete, to the point that Kim texted him to back off out of fear that a Ye-fanboy would hurt Pete. Though Ye promised to take “accountability” for his actions, that truce didn’t last long — and clearly, the war has found its way home on Donda 2.
