Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy weren’t exactly the biggest fans of Kanye West’s new album “Donda.”
As the saying goes, everyone’s a critic — and the internet has made that more evident than ever before. While the relationship between artists and critics can be contentious at times, for the most part, a sort of harmony does exist between the two camps, though boundaries can certainly be crossed from time to time.
Of course, that tends to happen when a more prominent critic voices a negative response, as Charlamagne Tha God recently did when speaking on Kanye West‘s new Donda album during this morning’s Breakfast Club. Though he did enjoy certain songs like “Jesus Lord” with The LOX and Jay Electronica, Charlamagne wasn’t exactly impressed with the album as a whole.
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“On first listen, it was lackluster for me,” admits Charla. “It’s an hour and forty-eight minutes, and like Kanye West, it can be very exhausting. I like the joint with Westside and Conway, I like ‘Jesus Lord’ with The LOX and Jay Electronica. I think if he scaled the project down to twelve or thirteen records, it could be a great album. But twenty-eight songs with all the part-twos, hour and forty-eight minutes? It’s too long and it drags. And the music sounds kind of dated, man.”
DJ Envy, no fan of Yeezy, slides in with a jab off the bat. “Who wrote Kanye’s album this time?” he asks. “Do we know?” He reveals that he hasn’t listened to the album, explaining that his reluctance stems from Kanye West’s treatment of others.
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“I just don’t like the way he treats people,” says Envy, as he and Charlamagne allude to an incident that occurred behind the scenes. “You don’t speak to people with disrespect and expect them to support you,” he continues. “People are going to say he’s having problems, an episode, and there’s so many people around him who should be making sure he’s okay — and they’re not. That whole team and what they’re doing is clown work.”
Clearly, DJ Envy is no fan of the man at the center of Donda. And while Charlamagne actually took it a step further and listened to the album, it doesn’t seem as if he intends on diving back into Yeezy’s expansive musical odyssey anytime soon. On the other hand, many fans are standing behind the work, with some even suggesting it’s one of his best albums yet. Perhaps we’re looking at another divisive Kanye West album for the books — where do you stand?
WATCH: DJ Envy and Charlamagne discuss Kanye West’s Donda.