Donda, the rapper’s tenth studio album, contains songs in which Kanye West discusses his breakup with Kim Kardashian for the first time.
After months of anticipation and three listening parties, Donda was finally released on Sunday to much fanfare.
And six months after filing for divorce, Kim appeared with her former husband on stage at the third and final listening party on Thursday, wearing a Balenciaga couture wedding dress.
Donda’s lyrics hint at major dissatisfaction behind the scenes of the couple’s seven-year marriage, with Kanye talking about trust issues, furious conflicts, and regret in the song.
Kim’s commitment and loyalty during their marriage is hinted at in Kanye’s song “Lord I Need You,” where the lyrics read: “Three hours to go back from Palm Springs, huh?/ Who you know spent an hour in Walgreens,huh?”
The song’s lyrics imply that Kanye was doubtful of Kim’s story regarding where she’d been. Despite Kim’s frequent trips to Kris Jenner’s Palm Springs home, which is only a 90-minute drive from Los Angeles, the two have had an on-again, off-again feud in the past.
He tells her to “shut up” after expressing his anger with her “continuous complaints” about their marriage.
With lyrics like “We used to do the freak like seven days a week / It’s the best collab since Taco Bell and KFC,” Kanye hints to the end of their sexual relationship.
The fact that Kanye mentions Kim as a “prom queen” and uses the same terminology as he did in his 2013 tune “Bound 2,” which brutally discussed their sex relationship and included a naked Kim in the video, makes the reference to their lack of physical closeness all the more noteworthy.
This was perhaps an attempt to show how much their physical relationship has deteriorated since then by using identical words.
During other parts of the song, he sings about their fights and how Kim “doesn’t talk to [him] politely” and “comes [at] loud.” He suggests that their disparate upbringings may have contributed to their differences before demonstrating his refusal to compromise or comprehend her point of view with the line, “How you gon’ try to say sometimes it’s not about me?”
During one of their fights, he confesses to her that he “cussed” at her.
In other places, Kanye talks about Kim and Ye’s growing separation, which she discussed on the last season of KUWTK in June.
For a long time, Kim permitted Kanye to live in different states — the “freedom” he talks about in this song — but she eventually realized that their marriage was suffering because of the distance.
“I’m still in this place where I’ve been stuck for years,” she said. “He goes and moves to a different state every year, and I have to be together so I can raise the kids.”
“He deserves someone that can go and support his every move, and go and move to Wyoming,” she added. “I can’t do that. He should have a wife that supports his every move and travels with him, and I can’t.”
The other time we see Kim, she expresses her frustration at feeling alone in the world.
“I feel like I’ve worked so hard in life to achieve everything that I’ve wanted to, and I’ve lived up to my expectations and achieved 10 times more than I even thought was humanly possible,” she said. “But I don’t have a life to share that with.”
“I used to think that [living apart] was when we were getting along the best, but to me that’s sad and that’s not what I want,” she added. “I don’t want a husband that lives in a completely different state.”
As also, in the tune, “Hurricane,” Kanye shows sorrow for not nurturing both his marriage and his family enough to truly build a home for them.
In addition, this song depicts a dialogue in which Kim appears to have revealed to him that her feelings have evolved.
It’s revealed in “Jail” that they frequently quarrelled over text as well as in person.
Kim’s decision to divorce him is also decried by Kanye, who adds that single life “ain’t so bad.”
And, finally, in “Believe What I Say,” he appears to call Kim out for not appreciating what she had with him and criticizes her for having “family secrets.”
“I ain’t never question what you was askin’ for,” he raps. “I gave you every single thing you was askin’ for / I don’t understand how anybody could ask for more.”
“I be goin’ through things I had to wrote / Celebrity drama that only Brad’ll know / Too many family secrets, somebody passing notes,” he adds.
In the meantime, Kim has showed her continued support for her ex-husband by sharing Instagram screenshots of her favorite tracks from the album.
Donda’s release coincides with Kim opening up about her divorce on KUWTK, where she confessed she’d grown tired of Kanye’s costly gestures and wanted to find a meaningful partnership.
“It’s the little things that I don’t have,” she explained. “I have all the big things. I have [everything] extravagant you could possibly imagine. And no one will ever do it like that [again]. I’m grateful for those experiences, but I think I’m ready for the smaller experiences that I think will mean a lot.”
“I didn’t come this far to come this far and not be happy,” she added.