Responding to The Ringer’s Donda Exit Survey
How The Ringer’s Donda Exit Survey Questions Should Have Really Been Answered
If you’re a millennial and you don’t know The Ringer, Bill Simmons’ creation, then you probably don’t have a finger on the pulse of the intersection between sports, media, music, and pop culture. So, this read might strike you as odd. That’s ok.
One recurring gag on The Ringer is what they call an “Exit Survey.” It’s basically a Q&A format where several questions are posed on a certain topic and writers and editors answer them. Exit Surveys are generally amusing reads because they do them on everything from movies to reality shows, and also music. But they stop being amusing when the group answering the questions are clueless about the topic. And The Ringer staff is ninety percent of the time wholly clueless when it comes to rap and hip hop.
So, I wasn’t surprised when the Donda Exit Survey answers were terribly uninformed and mostly incorrect. I usually tweet at their official twitter account to let them know how I think, but this time I decided I’d respond to their Exit Survey questions the way a Real Hip Hop Head would answer them.
As your resident Real Hip Hop Head, I give you the answers to The Ringer’s Donda Exit Survey as a Real Hip Hop Head would answer them:
- What is your tweet-length review of Donda?
allow me:
2. What is your favorite song off Donda?
Calling any song off Donda a favorite is too generous. What I will say is that the song I can tolerate the most off Donda is “Jesus Lord” only because of its guest appearances (more on this later). But the intro to the song is too long, and Kanye’s rapping is frantic and off-beat most of the time. He tries to tell a story in the vein of other classics like “Brenda’s Got a Baby” and “Da Art of Storytellin’ (Pt. 1)” but misses badly. Jay Elec-entendre-nica saves the day, though.
3. Least Favorite?
This is too easy. But, I’m going to disqualify “Donda Chant” from consideration because there’s no actual music or lyrics beyond repeating “Donda” and only “Donda” for 52 seconds straight. But the real answer is that this is probably harder to pick than the actual best song because so many of Donda’s songs are mediocre or just plain bad that it’s difficult to settle on just one. I am going to settle on “Junya” though, mostly because he repeats himself so much (a common practice throughout), only yells out nonsensical phrases as verses, and generally communicates no discerning coherent thoughts. Probably the most disappointing thing about “Junya” is that the beat is one of the better ones.
4. Was Donda worth all the antics of the rollout?
This question isn’t a very good one. There isn’t a universe in which any sane human would answer yes. Even if Donda were actually good it still wouldn’t be worth all the antics. At this point, nothing that Kanye produces (whether it be music or products) is worth his antics. Not when it comes at the cost of his deteriorating mental health and family life.
5. Who had the best feature on Donda? Who had the worst?
Ok, This is probably the best question so far because it actually has a lot of room for debate. So debate with myself I shall.
To me, there is one clear runaway as the best feature, but before I name names, I want to consider some of the major features. And I say major features instead of major artists featured because The Weeknd is featured in “Hurricane” but I can’t say that’s a major feature because he’s singing a chorus in the same song that Lil Baby is dropping a verse, and his verse is dope.
So, here are what I deem to be the major features in no particular oder: The Lox on “Jesus Lord,” Jay-Z on “Jail,” Lil Baby on “Hurricane,” Travis Scott on “Praise God,” Lil Durk on “Jonah,” Lil Yachty on “Ok Ok,” Kid Cudi on “Moon,” Jay Electronica on “Jesus Lord,” Pop Smoke on “Tell The Vision,” Playboi Carti and Ty Dolla Sign on “Junya Pt. 2,” and finally, Da Baby on “Jail Pt. 2.”
After giving the entire album a listen, I can narrow down the top major features to (in no particular order): Jay-Z, Lil Baby, Durk, Jay Electronica, The Lox, and Da Baby. This is based off significance, content, delivery, and overall cohesion. The more significant features are obviously Jay and Da Baby, but also The Lox. Jay because it’s a reunion. Da Baby because he’s been embroiled in controversy over homophobic comments. The Lox are just legends and they perform as such. Lil Baby delivers on cohesion as his verse really ties into the song he’s featured on, as does Durk to be honest.
The bottom features are the ones left off the previous list by default. And I can’t even break down why these features are bad like I did with the major features and why they’re good. The bad features are a mix of laziness, lack of creativity, and insignificance of content. To that end, Travis Scott doesn’t add anything to “Praise God” apart from his already well know and overused ad libs. Lil Yachty’s flow and delivery miss the mark. He goes for a smooth and suave flow but that’s not really his style. Yachty is better off in the fun dude mold or the Juice WRLD type vibe. Not what he delivered on Donda. Pop Smoke shouldn’t even be considered a feature since it’s just a repurposed vocal from a track on Pop’s own posthumous release. Kid Cudi does his best with what he’s given to work with, but it’s boring and uninspired, if you ask me. And, finally, Playboi Carti and Ty Dolla Sign’s features are wasted on a trash song.
So, really, the answer to the best feature is the name I left off the best features list: Jay Electronica and The Lox on “Jesus Lord.” But Jay Electronica’s verse in particular is the absolute best moment on all of Donda. He flows with the beat, drops knowledge, is intentional and forceful as well as coherent. His verse gets me hyped. Each member of The Lox hold their own and deliver memorable verses but they’re just not as potent as Jay Electronica. So, he gets best feature.
Worst feature: a tie between Yachty and Playboi Carti. Sorry dudes.
6. How do you rate Kanye’s rapping on Donda?
Honestly, this is his worst rapping, by far.
Kanye has never been a great rapper, let’s get that out of the way. But it takes some talent and dedication to rap on beat over something like “Through The Wire” with his mouth wired shut. His flow has been bad since Yeezus and he’s never been able to recover his pre-Yeezus form. His start-stop stutter flow does him no favors, nor his non-sequitur one liners that he’s now so fond of. My rating: 3/10.
7. If you’ve been following the evolution of this album at the listening events, is this the best possible version of the album? Which changes do you like? Which do you disagree with?
Didn’t follow the evolution of the album through the listening events, to be honest. But as an avid Hip Hop listener I can honestly say this is not the best possible version of the album. That’s clear to anyone who listens to it.
But since I didn’t follow the changes in real time (I’ve, since, read up on them) I won’t comment on that.
8. If you’re coming to this album cold, does the end result sound like it was worth all the public A/B testing?
I definitely came cold into the album even though I knew of the listening events and the snippets of the album that were floating around online, I didn’t listen to a single note before listening to it and I can safely say: no, whatever A/B testing Kanye was doing was not worth it because it didn’t make the album better. It’s too long, incoherent, and undisciplined for it being the end result. I haven’t mentioned Kanye’s current arch-nemesis up to this point, but you can be sure that Drake’s production and overall album will be much tighter than Donda.
9. How does Donda compare to the rest of Ye’s post-Pablo output?
People who call The Life of Pablo Kanye’s last great album are mistaken. That honor goes to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. We’re not counting Watch the Throne as Jay-Z was involved in that so Kanye doesn’t get solo credit for that.
All that to say that Donda is pretty much in line with Kanye’s post-Pablo output. $10 to anyone who remembers anything off Ye. So, that’s a wash. That leaves us with Jesus is King and while that album had a clear theme and the production was better, his lyrics and some song concepts were just as incoherent as what we find in Donda. And what I mean by that is that Kanye will rap something that on the surface sounds ok, like on “New Again” he raps that he repents for everything he’s gonna do again, which is nonsensical because it goes against the nature of repenting. Meaning, the act of repentance is the outward expressing that we will try to not do that thing from which we’re repenting. So, to say that we already know we’re going to do that thing in the future from which we’re repenting means that we’re not actually repenting. In that scenario, he’s merely apologizing since repenting involves a change of heart. And in the same song he repeats “what they vandalize, He’ll evangelize,” which also doesn’t make sense. It feels like he’s using that phrase to say “what people soil, he’ll make new” but that’s not really what evangelism is. Renewal is what makes anew what has been soiled. Evangelism is the sharing of the Gospel with someone, which leads to renewal, but isn’t renewal in and of itself.
This type of nonsensical lyricism has been present since Yeezus, so it’s definitely in line with what he was putting out on Pablo and Jesus is King.
10. Why do you think we continue to pay Kanye West the attention that we do, and what would it take to change that?
This is the million dollar question, because Kanye long stopped deserving the attention he receives. But I suspect he still receives as much attention as he does because at one point he was a lightning rod that deserved the attention. You didn’t know what he was going to say or do but 9 times out of 10 there was a payoff. For every tantrum we got a “Jesus Walks” or “Diamonds from Sierra Leone.” For every wild interview we got Nike Yeezys or Adidas Yeezys. But we as consumers need to re-assess the cost of the attention we pay him, because it really is the currency that keeps him in the zeitgeist. But it comes at the cost of his mental health and his family, that much is clear, and it’s clear because of how clearly it’s reflected in his musical output.
Long gone are the days of ‘Ye poignantly making social observations about consumerism like on “All Falls Down” or speaking about the vapid nature of celebrity on “Gold Digger.” Instead, we’re left with a frantic, frenzied, and frazzled Kanye desperately seeking reprieve from his inner demons that seem to be winning the battle more than he is. Billions of dollars won’t save him from himself. Most of us have the luxury of anonymity to figure things our and find peace, but the more attention we give him, the less opportunity he has to do what we take for granted, and that is find rest as our souls rest in Him. To me, Kanye has a weary soul that needs rest. Why else would someone buy land in the middle of nowhere? I hope he finds it, and if it means that I should stop paying attention to him so he can spend some quality time with God as he raps about, I’ll gladly ignore him.
