Kanye West’s new album, ‘DONDA 2’ has been ruled ineligible for inclusion in the Billboard charts.
- READ MORE: ‘Donda 2’: Kanye West’s ego is scuppering these half-baked, dashed-off sounding songs
As West, who is now officially known as ‘ye’, decided to sell his album exclusively via his Stem Player device, it violates Billboard’s merchandise bundle policy. As per an article in Billboard, albums sold with merchandise are ineligible for inclusion.
The album – West’s 11th, and a direct follow-up to last year’s ‘Donda’ – is only available exclusively via the platform and unique to the $200 (£150) device made by the rapper’s Yeezy Tech enterprise.
Four songs from the record – ‘Security’, ‘Pablo’, ‘Broken Road’ and ‘We Did It Kid’ – were made available to Stem Player owners on Wednesday (February 23), following a listening party and live performance in Miami the night prior. Four more songs followed the next day, then a further 12 more songs on February 25.
Over the weekend, West said he had made over $2.2million (£1.6m) in Stem Player sales in the 24 hours following his announcement that it would be the only way to listen to ‘Donda 2’.
Last year, ‘DONDA’ debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard 200, with 309,000 units sold in its first week of release. West became one of only seven artists in chart history to release 10 chart-topping albums.
Yesterday (March 6), West appeared to address the backlash he faced over the music video for his track ‘Eazy’, which was shared last week.
The clip featured a claymation version of SNL comedian Pete Davidson – who is currently dating West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian – being kidnapped and buried alive.
“Everyone lived happily ever after, except Skete you know who – JK he’s fine,” a series of title cards read at the end of the video. The track itself also includes the lyric: “God saved me from that crash / Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass”.
In his latest Instagram post, the rapper appears to have responded to the criticism he faced for the visuals. “Art is therapy just like this view,” he captioned an image of what looks like a church on fire. “Art is protected as freedom of speech.
“Art inspires and simplifies the world. Art is not a proxy for any ill or ham. Any suggestion otherwise about my art is false and mal intended.”
After West shared the ‘Eazy’ video, The Suicide Squad director James Gunn spoke out on Davidson’s behalf. “For the record, Pete Davidson is one of the nicest, sweetest guys I know,” he tweeted. “A truly generous, tender, and funny spirit, he treats everyone around him with respect.”
Davidson worked with Gunn on The Suicide Squad, where he had a small role as mercenary Richard “Dick” Hertz.
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