The road to Kanye West’s tenth album Donda was a long and eventful one. After hosting three listening sessions, two that were in Atlanta and one in Chicago, West finally released the album, which offered nearly two hours of music across 27 songs, with guest appearances from Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, Ariana Grande, DaBaby, Marilyn Manson, Lil Baby, The Weeknd, Young Thug, Roddy Ricch, and many more. While opinions on Donda vary, it easily topped the charts.
West’s tenth album reached the top of the Billboard 200, selling 309,000 units in its first week. This number is comprised of 272,000 streaming equivalent album units thanks to 357.39 million on-demand streams of the songs. It also posted 37,000 pure album sales. It’s the rapper’s tenth consecutive album and eighth straight solo project to do so, a streak that dates back to the 2005 release of his sophomore album, Late Registration.
Kanye’s also joined The Beatles, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Eminem, and Elvis Presley as the only artists in history with ten or more chart-topping projects. Donda also earned the biggest first-week sales figure across all genres in 2021.
You can revisit our review of Donda here.
Donda is out now via GOOD Music/Def Jam. Get it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.