Kanye West's recent Donda 2 has made way for the prevalence of his Stem Player device. The Stem Player, which allows users to isolate drum, vocal, instrumental and other steams of a song, has been out for a few months already, and is priced at $200. For the new Ye album Donda 2, which includes features from Future, Migos, Travis Scott, Jack Harlow Baby Keem, XXXTENTACION, Don Toliver, Fivio Foreign, Soulja Boy and more, West has only released it on Stem Player, and is continuously updating songs over time, approaching his album like software.
This device is meant to give more autonomy to Kanye when releasing music, so he can make more money than the cents per stream that digital streaming platforms offer. Perhaps this idea has caught on with other artists, particularly Rich The Kid. On Friday (Feb. 25), Rich The Kid posted a video of him using his Stem Player to play an unreleased song where he collaborates with Kanye West.
With electric trap drums, the snippet shows Rich The Kid sliding in his portion of the song that takes up half the 40 second video. Then, Kanye ushers in is verse with a show-stopping "Is it real? It can't be real" bridge.
In the caption for the video, Rich asks his followers if he should drop the song exclusively on Stem Player, just like Ye did with the ever-evolving Donda 2: "Should I drop me & @kanyewest new song on the stem player !?!"
Kanye is potentially starting a new wave for his adjacent artists releasing music on his new device.
How do you feel about rappers dropping music solely on Stem Player?