Marilyn Manson, who featured on Kanye West‘s ‘Donda’ track ‘Jail Pt 2’ and appeared at one of West’s album listening parties in Chicago last year, is reportedly working heavily with West on the album’s forthcoming sequel, ‘Donda 2’.
- READ MORE: Mourners, merch and… Marilyn Manson: on the scene at Kanye West’s ‘DONDA’ event in Chicago
‘Donda’ producer and West collaborator Digital Nas, speaking to Rolling Stone, said that he sees Manson in the studio frequently. “Every day I go to the studio, Marilyn is in there working on ‘Donda 2’,” he said.
“He doesn’t want Marilyn to play rap beats,” Nas added. “He wants Marilyn to play what he makes, and then Ye will take parts of that and sample parts of that and use parts of that, like he did [generally when making] ‘Yeezus’.
“He has some producers from ‘Yeezus’ working on ‘Donda 2’ this time around, [as well as] Marilyn, me, [and] a bunch of producers from ‘Donda 1’.”
Digital Nas had previously spoken with the publication about working on both ‘Donda’ and ‘Donda 2’, claiming that West wants the new album to sound “more monk-like”.
West drew backlash last year for collaborating with Manson – real name Brian Hugh Warner. The musician has been accused of sexual and physical abuse by multiple women, including his former partner Evan Rachel Wood, who publicly made allegations against him in February of last year.
After Wood publicly accused Manson last year, other women came forward with their own allegations against the musician. Among them were Game of Thrones actor Esme Bianco – who is suing Manson for alleged sexual assault, physical abuse and human trafficking.
His former assistant Ashley Walters is suing him for alleged sexual assault, battery and harassment, and model Ashley Morgan Smithline is suing Manson for alleged sexual assault, sexual battery and unlawful imprisonment, among other charges. In total, Warner is facing four different civil suits from women accusing him of sexual assault.
Following the allegations being made public, Manson was dropped by his label Loma Vista, as well as his agent, manager and publicist. He was also axed from scheduled appearances in TV shows, including American Gods and Creepshow.
Manson has denied all allegations, claiming that his accusers were “cynically and dishonestly seeking to monetize and exploit the #MeToo movement” by launching a “co-ordinated attack” against him.
In documents filed in July, he labelled the women “co-conspirators” who are “desperately trying to conflate” Manson’s stage persona with “fabricated accounts of abuse”.
In September of last year, one of the lawsuits was dismissed after Warner’s lawyers argued the woman’s complaint fell outside the statute of limitations. However, the judge in the case gave the plaintiff 20 days to refile the suit with additional details, which she did.
Regarding West’s decision to continue working with Warner despite the multiple allegations against him, Digital Nas said: “Ye is coming from a standpoint of like, ‘We all make mistakes.’ I think that’s maybe why he had DaBaby and Marilyn at that one show.
“I’m just assuming it is from a standpoint of like, ‘We’re all sinners. We all make mistakes. We shouldn’t point the finger at someone for the mistakes they’ve made’, or something like that.”
Back in November, West defended collaborating with Warner along with DaBaby, who was dropped from several festival lineups last year after making homophobic comments onstage during a performance at Rolling Loud in Miami.
“When I sit next to Marilyn Manson and DaBaby right after both of them got cancelled, for five songs, you know, it’s like they can’t cancel us all,” the rapper said while appearing on the Drink Champs podcast. “They’ll hit you with the accusations of somebody who you was with 10 years ago.”
Last year, Warner was nominated for a Grammy for his contribution to ‘Jail’, which was shortlisted in the Best Rap Song category. The Recording Academy later confirmed he was no longer nominated in the category, but Warner is still up for his work on ‘Donda’, which is nominated for Album of the Year.
Last month, West revealed that ‘Donda 2’ is being executive produced by Future, and that it will arrive on February 22.
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