Kanye West kicked off his Donda 2 listening party on Tuesday evening, and like most things Ye-related, it was not without controversy. 

During his performance, Ye was joined by a number of guests, including rapper Jack Harlow, Pusha T, Alicia Keys and Migos.

And while the star-studded event saw the likes of tech magnate Elon Musk, French Montana, Diddy and Rick Ross in attendance at the show in LoanDepot Park in Miami, it was the listening party’s less-than-stellar sound quality that had social media talking.

The first hitch became evident when Kanye began to perform some tracks of his Donda album, namely ‘Hurricane’ featuring The Weeknd and Lil Baby, during which he seemed to have issues with his in-ear monitors and was unable to find his place on the track.

However, some social media users have suggested that Ye simply forgot the words.

Love Hip Hop?

Get the latest Hip Hop news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more

https://twitter.com/AirIanes/status/1496344291463278592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1496344291463278592%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.xxlmag.com%2Fkanye-west-throws-microphone-donda-2-concert-sound-issues%2F

Things only continued to go pear-shaped for the rapper, as ‘Jail 2’ featuring Marilyn Manson and DaBaby began to play, only for Ye to throw his mic on the ground in frustration. He then spent the remainder of the Donda 2 show mic-less.

As expected, this lead to a flurry of memes joking that Kanye would be going on a firing spree following the catastrophic performance.

“The audio team is going to jail tonight #DONDA2 #KanyeWest #ye go ahead and throw that mic again,” one person wrote.

https://twitter.com/FewMv/status/1496360027342442503?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1496360027342442503%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.xxlmag.com%2Fkanye-west-throws-microphone-donda-2-concert-sound-issues%2F

Another fan even joked that ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s new boyfriend, Pete Davidson (whom Kanye is now referring to as ‘Skete’) was behind the audio issues.

To add to the ever-growing mess, one of Kanye’s sound engineers soon took to social media to defend himself amid the madness – and the inevitable trolling from Ye fans  – simply posting, “wasn’t me” on his Instagram page.

To add the cherry on top of the dumpster fire, after all that, Donda 2 also failed to materialise on schedule after it was supposed to be released on the 22nd.

All we can say is… Yikes.

For more on this topic, follow the Hip Hop Observer.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine