In the Italian night took place the second listening party of the long-awaited DONDA, at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, where Kanye West – in addition to having lived there for two weeks – has given a further taste of what will be his latest musical work with a really crazy show, without releasing the album or even give an official date of release.
This was not the only Ye-related event that upset the entire fan base and beyond.
Kanye has also released, through his official shop, a longsleeve celebrating the event of the launch of DONDA tonight. A longsleeve completely black but on the front has a dark gray print that represents a Star of David with a cross in the middle and the date and place of the event. The cost of the shirt is $100 and if you add an extra $5 you have the chance to pre-order a digital copy of DONDA, which for now appears with a total black cover. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the merch related to the album launch will be donated to the DONDA FOUNDATION.
The design of the entire merch has been curated by Demna Gvasalia, creative director of Balenciaga.
But that’s not all, because tonight on the site of YEEZY Gap started a countdown that hinted that, at the end of the same, it would be possible to pre-order the YEEZY Gap Red Round Jacket worn by Kanye during the first, and already iconic, DONDA listenting party held on 22 July.
Unfortunately now, as expected, the site is not reachable most likely due to the huge traffic generated and to be able to at least pre-order the red Round Jacket by YEEZY Gap will have to wait, but with Kanye wait is the watchword since we do not even know for sure when DONDA will be released.
As we said, Kanye wore the YEEZY Gap Red Round Jacket during the show a week ago, sporting a total red outfit that recalls that of Kaneda, the protagonist of one of the most important cultural landmarks for Ye himself, AKIRA by Katsuhiro Ōtomo.
AKIRA is an animated film of 1988, an absolute masterpiece of Ōtomo and based on his homonymous manga, an essential title and a global cultural phenomenon that made Japanese animation very popular in the West. Even today the film influences many aspects of our contemporary culture, from a certain type of cinema, music, fashion and much more.
AKIRA represents an apex from a productive and purely technical point of view, Katsuhiro Ōtomo was a perfectionist to the limits of obsessiveness – as was another giant of Japanese animation, the master Hayao Miyazaki.
I don’t want to say anything about the plot for two reasons, those who know what we are talking about know it very well, while those who have never had the pleasure of seeing AKIRA, will be able to recover easily and so I avoid any kind of spoilers but I leave you the trailer below.
It is not the first time that Kanye refers to Ōtomo’s masterpiece, just look at the video of Stronger, where Ye clearly impersonates Testuo, a member of the motorcycle gang headed by the leader Kaneda, in a succession of images all clearly inspired by AKIRA.
What for many, including myself, has been a generational and fundamental film, for Kanye is still a source of constant and continuous inspiration and for every creative work of the man who is currently at the center of the world.
