Despite Kanye West’s ongoing divorce troubles, things are looking up in the other parts of his life. Although fans can’t officially get his new album Donda 2 without buying the $200 stem player, it looks like the new album’s discourse dominance combined with the social media success of the Netflix Jeen-Yuhs documentary have helped propel some of the rapper’s catalog classics to new heights.
Billboard reports a huge resurgence on the Billboard 200 album chart for the first two albums in Kanye’s iconic discography, with The College Dropout reaching a 15-year peak and Late Registration returning to the chart for the first time in five years. The College Dropout, which contained the hits “Through The Wire” and “Slow Jamz” — both of which were highlighted in Jeen-Yuhs with footage from their respective recording sessions — jumped from No. 109 to No. 36, the highest it’s been since March of 2005. Meanwhile, Late Registration, which helped cement Kanye as a cultural force, returned to the chart at No. 184.
.@kanyewest‘s ‘The College Dropout’ rises 109-36 on this week’s #Billboard200.
It marks the album’s highest ranking on the chart since March 2005.
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) March 1, 2022
.@kanyewest‘s ‘Late Registration’ re-enters this week’s #Billboard200 chart at No. 184.
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) March 1, 2022
Meanwhile, those fans who did dish out the double-Benjamin down payment on Donda 2 received 16 tracks last week in addition to the four that hit just days before. Those who wanted to get the album by other means have done so with the help of a stem player emulator a Redditor shared on the forum shortly after the album’s release date, while others found themselves downloading a similarly-titled album by someone named Wanye Kest on Apple Music.