Kanye West captivated the world without actually releasing an album. It's the power of his celebrity, and artistry, especially as one of the few artists in the world who can directly call up DSPs and let them know that they'll need to upload his album whenever he says so. That's why there's been widespread frustration over the delays of DONDA -- an album that's gone through three listening parties but up until a few hours ago, wasn't on streaming services.
Thursday night's listening party included a revamped version of "Jail" where DaBaby, who has been battling the effects of cancel culture, replaced Jay-Z. DaBaby's verse largely addressed recent controversies but fans, in general, were disappointed that Kanye West went from building anticipation for Watch The Throne 2 to making some sort of shitty statement about cancel culture.
Thankfully, when DONDA dropped this morning, "Jail" came in its original form, including Hov's verse which he apparently recorded hours before the first listening session. However, it turns out that it was DaBaby's verse that prevented the album from dropping earlier. 'Ye shared a screenshot of a text conversation he had with his manager revealing that DaBaby's manager wasn't clearing "Jail." "So we won't be able to upload unless we take him off," reads a message sent to Kanye West.
"I'm not taking my brother off. He was the only person who said he would vote for me in public," Kanye responded.
'Ye later shared another screenshot of an exchange he had with DaBaby directly. The beginning of the text reveals Kanye explaining to DaBaby that his album isn't coming out because of the verse not getting cleared before asking, "Did you know about this?" DaBaby said he had no idea and was about to message his manager.
"Yo manager cap. They tried to stop you from coming in. The people next to you trying to destroy you. But God gotta bigger plan," 'Ye said.
Thankfully, at least for the rest of us, Jay-Z's verse is still on "Jail" while DaBaby is not. However, this is Kanye West we're talking about and it would not be surprising if he quietly removed Hov to accommodate DaBaby.