Kanye West Says "DONDA" Was Released Without His Approval

Kanye West calls out Universal for apparently releasing the album without his stamp of approval and blocking "Jail Pt. 2" ft. DaBaby.

BYAron A.Aug 29, 202116.9K Views

Over the past few days, there have been promising signs that DONDA would finally drop. Though Saturday came and went without the album in sight, most were baffled to see the album in its 20+ song glory on streaming services. It's only been out for a few hours but fans are convinced that it's Album Of The Year-worthy. However, it seems that the album that was released without Kanye West getting the final say.

Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Kanye West is claiming that Universal released his album prematurely after putting Arnold Taylor and SCMG on blast for not signing off on DaBaby's verse. Kanye took to Instagram where he shared a message to his fans revealing that Universal dropped the album without his approval. He also blames them for holding up his collab with DaBaby now. "Universal put my album out without my approval and they blocked Jail 2 from being on the album," he tweeted.

While "Jail 2" ft. DaBaby does appear on TIDAL, Kanye West initially called out SCMG CEO Arnold Taylor this morning for preventing the song from being released. Kanye, who has since deleted the screenshots, said that DONDA wasn't dropping because DaBaby's verse on the song wasn't getting cleared. Ye explained that the North Carolina rapper had to be featured on the album because DaBaby was one of the few people who said they'd vote for Kanye in the 2020 election. Taylor later responded, claiming that he never received the song to approve of in the first place.

Check Kanye's post below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTK6NChoUIp

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Aron A.

Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.