Scorecard: 3.7/10 · Poor
How we score- Writing(25%)
- 3.0
Half-mumbled reference lyrics and unintelligible verses riddled with self-pity and bitter threats toward Pete Davidson, lacking the specificity or insight that once defined West's pen.
- Production(25%)
- 5.5
See-sawing synth patterns and orchestral flourishes show flashes of the producer who made Yeezus, but most beats sound like unfinished demos abandoned mid-session.
- Delivery(15%)
- 4.0
AI-generated verses on Pablo and Happy eliminate any performance credibility, while West's actual vocal takes are often Auto-Tuned mumbles that lack the conviction or cadence of his best work.
- Cohesion(15%)
- 2.5
The album staggers through sixteen tracks without pacing or sequencing logic, jumping from ballads to drill to trap with no through-line beyond West's divorce anger.
- Originality(10%)
- 3.5
The Stem Player exclusivity gambit and the divorce fixation recall 808s & Heartbreak, but the execution is too incomplete to build on either idea.
- Replay value(10%)
- 2.0
Released unfinished and left to rot for three years before a 2025 update that added AI verses and producer disputes, the album has aged poorly and offers little reason to return.
Kanye West Donda 2 — The Unfinished Monument to a Collapse
Donda 2 is not an album. It is a collection of half-written demos released as ransom for a two-hundred-dollar audio device, updated three years later with AI-generated verses and promptly sued over by the producers who built the beats. The claim that it ranks among West's worst work is not controversial; the 2022 Stem Player version was universally described as incomplete, and the 2025 streaming release added AI vocals to Pablo and Happy, replacing the human performance with algorithmic approximation.
What remains is a document of creative collapse: sixteen tracks of bitter divorce grievances, unintelligible mumbling, and see-sawing synth loops that sound abandoned mid-session. Where 808s & Heartbreak channeled heartbreak into a coherent sonic statement, Donda 2 wallows in self-pity without structure, purpose, or finish. The production shows flashes of the mind that made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but those moments are drowned in repetitive bloat and half-baked ideas that never resolve.
The thesis is simple: this is what happens when the editorial process disappears entirely.
West directed insults at Pete Davidson across multiple tracks, pleaded for sympathy while showing none for anyone else, and released the result as performance art. The album leaked immediately, was heavily pirated, and spent three years in limbo before Digital Nas livestreamed updates on Twitch in April 2025. It remains ineligible for Billboard charts due to product bundling rules, and critics gave it a Metacritic score of 48. The question is not whether Donda 2 is West's weakest album—it is whether it qualifies as an album at all.
The Sound of a Session Abandoned Mid-Take
The production on Donda 2 operates in two modes: the flashes of brilliance that remind you who West used to be, and the unfinished sketches that dominate the runtime. Security rides a jagged, aggressive beat built by Digital Nas and Lenny Wee, chopping Mica Levi samples into a noisy backdrop for West's threats to fight Davidson. City of Gods layers Brooklyn drill drums under a sweeping hook from Alicia Keys, with Fivio Foreign delivering the most engaged verse on the album. Sci Fi opens with orchestral production and a Kim Kardashian Saturday Night Live monologue, creating a visual frame for West's divorce narrative.
These moments show the attention to detail that defined Yeezus and Late Registration, but they are isolated peaks in a tracklist that rarely commits to any idea long enough to develop it. Too Easy features production from Beach House and Dem Jointz, applying heavy Auto-Tune to West's self-love mantra over electronic elements, but the track never moves past the initial loop. Get Lost is a cappella Auto-Tune singing about marriage memories, two and a half minutes of vocal processing with no instrumental foundation. Happy opens with a Future verse, then hands the mic to three AI-generated Kanye verses that plead "Do I look happy to you?" — the use of artificial intelligence to perform sadness is a creative dead-end, and the decision to keep those verses in the 2025 update suggests no one in the room understood the problem.
Pablo features fast-moving production from ATL Jacob and FnZ, with Travis Scott delivering a solid hook and Future contributing energy, but the 2025 streaming version replaces West's original verse with an AI take, stripping the track of whatever human performance it once had. The album credits Beach House, the Chainsmokers, Dem Jointz, Digital Nas, DJ Premier, Hit-Boy, Mike Dean, Sean Leon, Theophilus London, and Wheezy among others, with Future serving as executive producer. That list of talent makes the lack of polish more damning: these are world-class beatmakers given unfinished reference tracks and told to build around mumbles.
Broken Road is a ballad with Don Toliver that lasts one minute and forty-one seconds, ending before it begins. Lord Lift Me Up is solely Vory vocals over orchestral production, no West verse at all. True Love samples Pete Rock and CL Smooth, opens with a posthumous XXXTentacion feature, and finds West lamenting childcare arrangements, but the drum break from Runaway is the most memorable element.
The writing is where the album collapses entirely.
West's lyrics are often unintelligible, half-mumbled reference tracks left in the final product. When the words are clear, they are bitter and self-pitying: he threatens Davidson on Security, references Julia Fox and Kim Kardashian gift exchanges on Flowers, and conveys anger without insight across most of the runtime. Selfish features XXXTentacion posthumously and finds West analyzing how his flaws led to the divorce, but the track was removed from the 2025 streaming release entirely. First Time in a Long Time embraces new beginnings with a Soulja Boy verse, but the sentiment feels unearned after fifteen tracks of grievance.
Eazy is the most direct: West and the Game trade verses over an Eazy-E sample, with West threatening to beat Davidson's ass. The track charted at number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100, proof that the audience will show up for controversy even when the music is weak.
The production has moments, but the writing and performance are failures.
An Album with No Arc, Just Sag
Donda 2 has no sequencing logic. The album opens with a drum break and a dead rapper's hook, then lurches into a one-minute ballad that ends before establishing anything. The first stretch offers a cappella Auto-Tune, a self-love mantra, and gift exchange references — there is no build, no escalation, no reason these songs are in this order.
The album peaks early in the middle section with its most aggressive beat and its Brooklyn drill drums, then sags into AI verses and orchestral production without momentum. The length is not earned: sixteen tracks of half-ideas, most under three minutes, still feel bloated because nothing resolves. The back half has energy in spots, but it is followed by a Virgil Abloh tribute that ends with a Jack Harlow verse and no clear purpose. The tracklist reads like a session folder exported without editorial judgment.
The Stem Player version released in February 2022 had a different tracklist than the 2025 streaming version, which added new songs like Mr Miyagi, 530, City of Chi, Suzy, Burn Everything, and Maintenance while removing two tracks entirely. That means the album changed shape three years later, but the new version is not more coherent — it is longer and more scattered. The only consistent element is West's divorce anger, but that is a theme, not a structure. The album does not flow, it just stops.
Dead Last in the Catalog, and It's Not Close
Donda 2 ranks as the weakest album in Kanye West's catalog, a title it earns through incomplete execution, unintelligible writing, and the decision to replace human verses with AI-generated ones in the 2025 update. Where ye and Donda were messy and overlong but still showed flashes of the producer who made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, this album shows a creative process with no quality control. The Stem Player exclusivity was a business decision that led to heavy piracy and a three-year gap before streaming release, during which the album received no major updates despite promises to finish it. The 2025 version added AI verses and sparked producer lawsuits, proof that the chaos never ended.
The album is for Kanye completists only, and even they should lower expectations. Security and City of Gods are the only tracks worth isolated plays, and both are available as singles. If you want West channeling heartbreak into coherent music, listen to 808s & Heartbreak. If you want unfinished Kanye with stronger production, Donda is the better mess.
Donda 2 is a document of collapse, not a statement, and it has aged poorly in the three years since the botched Stem Player launch. The Miami listening event was plagued by technical failures, the album leaked immediately, and West threw his microphone after calling the event performance art that was reduced to a "performance." That frustration is audible in every half-mumbled verse.
Start with Security if you must hear it, skip everything with AI vocals, and do not expect the album to cohere. It never did, and the 2025 update proved no one involved believed it could.
Track Listing
True Love
●The album opens with a Pete Rock and CL Smooth drum break lifted from Runaway, a callback that promises more than the track delivers. XXXTentacion's posthumous hook sings about lost love, and West follows with verses lamenting childcare arrangements post-divorce, referencing the late rapper's son Gekyume in the second chorus. The production from West, John Cunningham, Mike Dean, Ojivolta, and Twisco is solid, but the writing is vague and self-pitying. The track was released as a standalone single in May 2022 and peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the album's biggest chart success. It sets the tone for the divorce grievances that follow, but it does not establish a strong thesis or hook the listener with anything beyond the sample.
Broken Road
●A Don Toliver feature that lasts one minute and forty-one seconds, ending before it develops any momentum. West delivers introspection and declares his freedom, but the brevity makes it feel like an interlude rather than a full song. The production from West, AllDay, and Theophilus London is minimal, and the track serves no clear purpose in the sequence.
Get Lost
▼West singing a cappella with heavy Auto-Tune, recalling memories of his marriage to Kim Kardashian over no instrumental. The production credit lists West, AllDay, and Ojivolta, but the track is essentially a vocal sketch. Two and a half minutes of processed singing with no beat is an experiment that does not justify its runtime.
Too Easy
●A self-love mantra delivered over electronic production from West, AllDay, Beach House, and Dem Jointz. The vocal technique is repetitive, and the track never moves past the initial loop. The idea of championing self-love after fifteen tracks of bitterness feels contradictory, and the execution is too thin to carry weight.
Flowers
●West references his relationship with Julia Fox and alludes to birthday and Valentine's Day gifts for her and Kim Kardashian. The production from West, Digital Nas, Ojivolta, and Twisco has melodic elements, but the track was the subject of a lawsuit from Ultra International Music Publishing over an unauthorized sample of Marshall Jefferson's "Move Your Body." The lawsuit was settled in May 2023, but the 2025 re-release added the sampled portions back before removing them again in 2026. The legal drama is more interesting than the song itself, which is a minor entry in the divorce narrative. The streaming version retitled the track "Keep the Flowers."
Security
▲The most aggressive track on the album, with West angrily threatening to fight Pete Davidson over a noisy, jagged beat built by Digital Nas and Lenny Wee. The production chops Mica Levi samples into a harsh backdrop, and West proclaims "I ain't got enough security for this" with real venom in his voice. The streaming version originally featured a DJ Akademiks monologue that was removed in a June 2025 update. This is one of the few tracks where the anger translates into energy rather than self-pity, and the production matches the hostility. Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times called it a highlight, and it is one of the only songs on the album that justifies its existence as a standalone piece.
We Did It Kid
●Baby Keem and Migos contribute guest vocals over a brass trap beat produced by West, Digital Nas, Ojivolta, BoogzDaBeast, FnZ, Jahaan Sweet, Scott Bridgeway, and Tom Levesque. The lyrics about friendship are generic, and the track feels like a leftover from the Donda sessions despite being recorded separately. The streaming version retitled it "We Did It," but the content is unchanged. Filler.
Pablo
●The most energetic track on the album, with a fast-moving beat from ATL Jacob, FnZ, Ojivolta, Cunningham, and Ryderoncrack. Travis Scott delivers a strong hook, and Future contributes a verse with real momentum. The problem is the 2025 streaming release: West's original verse was replaced with an AI-generated one, eliminating the human performance that gave the track its edge. The decision to use artificial intelligence to complete a song three years after the fact is a creative failure, and it undermines what could have been a highlight. The Stem Player version with West's actual verse is the better take, but it remains unavailable on streaming. Marilyn Manson contributes additional vocals on the streaming version, another chaotic addition to a track that did not need more complications.
Louie Bags
●A tribute to Virgil Abloh, West's late friend and collaborator, with production from ATL Jacob, Digital Nas, John Cunningham, JW Lucas, Gavin Hadley, and Kid Krono. West states he stopped buying Louis Vuitton bags after Abloh's death in 2021, a gesture that feels sincere but underdeveloped. The track ends with a Jack Harlow verse and an excerpt of a Kamala Harris phone call ("We did it, Joe!"), neither of which adds meaning. The production is minimal and electronic-backed, and the track runs over five minutes on the streaming version without earning the length. The sentiment is genuine, but the execution is scattered.
Happy
▼Future opens the track with a verse, followed by three AI-generated Kanye verses that plead "Do I look happy to you?" The use of artificial intelligence to perform sadness is absurd, and the decision to keep those verses in the 2025 update suggests no one involved understood the creative or emotional problem. The production from West and Wheezy is competent, but the AI vocals are a disqualifying failure. This is one of the worst creative decisions on the album, which is saying something.
Sci Fi
●Lush orchestral production from West, Ojivolta, Sean Leon, Aaron Paris, Cvre, 905Luca, and Dessi, opening with a monologue from Kim Kardashian's 2021 Saturday Night Live appearance where she applauds West's achievements. West tells the story of their divorce and claims he heard Morgan Freeman's voice during intercourse, a bizarre detail that undermines the emotional weight. The production is cinematic and shows the kind of ambition that made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy work, but the writing is too scattered to match the sound. The streaming version retitles it "Scifi." Brief flashes of brilliance, but not enough to save the track.
Selfish
●A minimal ballad featuring XXXTentacion posthumously, with West analyzing how his flaws led to the divorce. The track was removed from the 2025 streaming release entirely, making it exclusive to the Stem Player version. One minute and thirty-nine seconds of introspection that never had a chance to land with listeners.
Lord Lift Me Up
●Orchestral production from West and BoogzDaBeast, consisting solely of Vory vocals with no Kanye verse. The track samples "Just Out of My Reach" by Sam Dees, and the arrangement is pretty, but the absence of West's voice makes it feel incomplete. Two minutes and ten seconds of guest vocals is not a song, it is an interlude.
City of Gods
▲A Brooklyn drill track serving as an ode to New York City, with Fivio Foreign, Alicia Keys, and Playboi Carti contributing vocals. The production from West, Ojivolta, AyoAA, Hemz, Lil Mav, the Chainsmokers, Tweek Tune, Tommy Rush, Dem Jointz, Mike Dean, BoogzDaBeast, Bordeaux, Non Native, and Scoop is layered and energetic, with drill drums under Keys' sweeping hook. Fivio Foreign delivers the most engaged verse on the album, and the track has the polish that most of Donda 2 lacks. Released as a single in February 2022, it peaked at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100. This is one of the two songs on the album that works as a finished piece, and it is wasted in a tracklist that cannot support it. The streaming version retitles it "City of God."
First Time in a Long Time
●West embraces new beginnings with a Soulja Boy guest verse, produced by West, AllDay, Ojivolta, Twisco, and Prodysgroup. The sentiment of moving forward feels unearned after fifteen tracks of grievance, and the execution is thin. Three minutes of optimism that rings hollow in context.
Eazy
●The most direct track on the album, with West and the Game trading verses over an Eazy-E sample, threatening Pete Davidson explicitly. The production from Mike Dean, Big Duke, Cash Jones, DJ Premier, and Hit-Boy is hard-hitting, and the song works as a pure diss track. Released as the album's first single in January 2022, it peaked at number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100. A music video released in March 2022 featured West kidnapping and burying a clay version of Davidson, escalating the real-life conflict. The track was removed from the 2025 streaming release, likely due to the ongoing legal and personal fallout. As a standalone piece, it is effective; as part of an album, it is one more piece of evidence that West had nothing to say beyond his anger.
