On February 22, 2022, Kanye West assembled one of the most visually stunning album listening events in history, with an all star cast to back him up on the release of the newest segment in his two part magnum opus: Donda 2.

Among those to join him at the highly anticipated event were Playboi Carti, Alicia Keys, Fivo Foreign, Pusha T, The Game, Marylin Manson, Jack Harlow, and The Migos. Fans of the sophisticated artist either came to the LoanDepot Park stadium in Miami or joined the musical congregation via livestream.

Die-hard Kanye fans and music heads alike were delighted to find out that Donda 2 has some of the most ambitious artist features on a Kanye album to date.

Donda 2 sees the return of collaborations with artists like Don Toliver, Baby Keem, The Migos, Travis Scott, and Future, as well as exciting first-ever mixes with Alicia Keys, Jack Harlow, XXXTentacion, and more.

A few days before the album release/listening event, however, Kanye did something that shocked fans and sponsors of music.

As a part of an online campaign of now deleted instagram posts where West puts his past “haters” on blast, one of the posts that was taken down was an announcement stating that he will only be releasing Donda 2 on his platform stemplayer.com, made specifically for his Stem Player audio device.

Although this move severed ties with Apple who had a $2 million sponsorship with Kanye, it allowed him to retain 100% of all sales of his album as well as complete album control.

Apple and other streaming platforms weren’t the only targets in Kanye’s online tirade, the famous artist began his attacks with shots fired directly at his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her new love interest Pete Davidson.

Criticizing her parenting, berating her name, and even creepily sending a truckload of flowers to her house on Valentine’s Day, Kanye has done everything he could to get his ex and the world to pay attention to him and his tantrums.

Kardashian hasn’t spoken about the posts, but has recently urged to get her divorce finalized by her former husband, who has repeatedly declined the request. Kardashian and West are to have a 4th divorce hearing on March 2, 2022.

Despite Donda 2 being released solely on his Stem Player platform, as of February 27th, 2022, Kanye West is Spotify’s most streamed artist, and sales of his Stem Player have reached close to $1.3 million.

Egotistical maniac or mad genius, Kanye’s Donda 2 is certainly an album with quite the backstory and controversy revolving around it, making it automatically a memorable work of art.