Todd Rundgren claims Kanye West rushed Donda release because of Drake: ‘There’s so much junk in that record’

‘In the end, Drake ate his lunch anyway,’ 73-year-old musician said

Maanya Sachdeva
Wednesday 15 September 2021 09:44 BST
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Todd Rundgren has claimed that Kanye West rushed the release of Donda to outrun Drake but ended up with an incoherent, protracted album instead.

Speaking to Ultimate Classic Rock, the 73-year-old multi-instrumentalist and producer condemned the amount of “junk” on the record, which he said was due to West being “too afraid Drake would one-up him”.

As a consequence, Rundgren said West ended up releasing “what is obviously really raw, unprocessed stuff”.

“In the end, Drake ate his lunch anyway,” Rundgren added.

Drake’s Certified Lover Boy was released the weekend after Donda, but out-streamed West’s 26-track album in the United States in just three days, according to data released by Rolling Stone.

Rundgren, who isn’t listed among the long list of collaborators that West worked with on Donda, branded West a “dilettante” and “a shoe designer”.

He also criticised West’s over-the-top listening parties ahead of the album launch, along with his habit of inviting multiple artists to collaborate then not including them on the final project.

He said, “Nobody would regularly make records like that unless they had stupid money to throw around. Nobody rents a stadium to make a record in. Nobody flies in the entire world of hip-hop just to croak one syllable, just so you can say that everybody was on it.

Rundgren revealed hat producer 88-Keys reached out to him to to contribute to the album, but said he exited the project a year later over a lack of clear feedback from West.

He claimed to have “three albums worth of Kanye stems” on his computer but said he reached his breaking point in July this year, when the buzz around Donda began to intensify.

“I’m still a producer, and I don’t just want to be like driftwood in the process,” he said.

Rundgren is set to be inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next month. Read our review of Donda here and our review of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy here.

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