Kanye West faces backlash for bringing DaBaby and Marilyn Manson on stage at Donda listening party
DaBaby, Kanye West and Marilyn Manson perform during the Kanye West Donda event on 26 August in Chicago, Illinois. (MEGA/GC Images/ Brian Prahl)
Kanye West is facing huge backlash for bringing DaBaby and Marilyn Manson on stage at his the listening party for his new album Donda.
Last month, rapper DaBaby sparked outrage with an offensive rant about gay people and those with HIV, before later skirting around an apology by insisting that his gay fans “don’t have HIV/AIDS” because they’re not “nasty” or “junkies”.
After several sponsors and festivals dropped him, he admitted that his comments about people living with HIV were “insensitive”, but also suggested his words had just been “digested wrong”.
Manson, real name Brian Warner, has been accused of “grooming” and abusing his former partner Evan Rachel Wood as well as four other women, although he has denied all allegations against him.
But despite the controversy surrounding both artists, on Thursday (26 August), at the third listening party for his tenth album Donda which is still yet to be released, West had them join him in the centre of Chicago’s Soldier Field stadium.
Even West’s fans were shocked by the bizarre decision, with one writing on Twitter: “I understand that Kanye is an absolutely brilliant music producer and musician, I love a lot of his work but at some point you have to hold him accountable for continuously associating himself with problematic people… Disgusting.”
streaming Donda will be homophobic and anti gay.
— ً (@kealey____) August 27, 2021
Why are people giving Kanye West the time of day when he's giving an audience to Marilyn Manson & DaBaby? Its not art. Its headline chasing. I won't even mention the fact there's no album.— Paul (@JayDillinger123) August 28, 2021
Remember when Ye told you he and Trump had the same “dragon energy”? What he was trying to say was that he, like Trump, is willing to be harmful in the name of headlines. To feign piety for profit. To do whatever it takes to get folks doing what I’m doing right now…— The N-Word: NUANCED. (@drose225) August 28, 2021
Wait so Kanye has Dababy and Marilyn Manson on the stage with him? A homophobe and an alleged abuser?!? I cannot. Should have stopped when he levitated out of the Mercedes Benz Stadium.— Danyell Peterson (@danyellpeterson) August 27, 2021
Some described his choice as “homophobic” and “a spit in our faces”, while another wrote: “Wait so Kanye has Dababy and Marilyn Manson on the stage with him? A homophobe and an alleged abuser?!? I cannot.”
DaBaby and Marilyn Manson will could even be featured on Kanye West’s Donda
To make matters worse, on the day after the listening party a representative for Marilyn Manson confirmed that the artist and alleged abuser would be featured on Kanye West’s upcoming album Donda.
The representative told People: “Marilyn Manson’s voice is featured on Donda, and he will continue to conceptually collaborate with Ye on the Donda project.”
It is also possible that DaBaby will be featured on the album, after a version of West’s song “Jail” was released that appeared to replace Jay-Z’s verse with a new one by the anti-LGBT+ rapper.
The listening party featured other bizarre moments, including West setting himself on fire, and Kim Kardashian-West, who this year filed for divorce, appearing in a wedding dress.
