Spirits Over The Horizon: The Kanye West Album That Almost Replaced Donda

kanye west's album donda underwent a drastic shift in terms of theme and sound from when it was first announced to when the record actually released the project was first promoted in 2020 with several snippets including uplifting beats and an overall positive vibe but after eight months of radio silence following a failed political campaign yay would return to the public eye donning a mask when donda finally did drop on streaming services in 2021 the record was very dark with an overall theme of grief and mourning gom was the colorful energy of 2020 and in were the eerie organs in all black attire but shockingly in between the evolution of yay's 10th studio album kanye actually left the donda title behind and began to work on an entirely new album in between yay's wild tweet storms and stadium packing listening parties was spirits over the horizon an album worked on from april to june of 2021 that saw the origins of many popular songs on donda so today we take a look at the mysterious project that bridged a gap between two entirely different albums under the same title we document the information we know about spirits over the horizon as kanye missed the release date for donda originally planned for july 24th of 2020 he would focus heavily on his rushed presidential campaign he planned to appear on jimmy kimmel and allegedly released donda on november 4th but would cancel the appearance after losing the 2020 election post-election loss kanye would leave social media and stay away from the limelight we know now with hindsight that yay was actually back in the studio and planning to release donda on december 25th christmas day however his musical focus would shift as he linked up with play bacardi in early december yay would take on the role of executive producer for cardi's upcoming album whole lotta red as an executive producer yay thought it would be a great idea to have wlr release on christmas day the album had a lot of gothic and satanic themes and the irony would add to the aesthetic as for donda its release would be pushed to new year's day january 1st but for whatever reason it would not drop on that date in late january news of donda's theme being drastically changed would hit the internet not only that but some people would say that the project yay was working on at that point in time wasn't even called donda anymore we know now that the album had transitioned into a concept titled spirits over the horizon being around play barcardi and working with the vampire character that cardi donned for whole lotta red undoubtably influenced yay to steer his upcoming project into a more darker and dramatic direction but another factor that could have influenced kanye to leave the donda concept behind was his marital issues with then-wife kim kardashian rumors of the two splitting would surface in early 2021 and be confirmed in february hearing snippets of songs that were created during the spirits over the horizon era many of them focus on splitting with kim and overall loss when yay would finally be seen in the public eye once again he would be wearing a mask the main idea behind wearing a face mask is to hide your identity you cleanse yourself of being recognized in a way you're killing your own ego and mystique certainly began to surround yay as he got back in the studio in march sai hi the prince one of kanye's most essential writers would participate in an interview in early 2021 and give some insight on kanye and his 10th records progress at this point in time i think he started working on it late last year so i think once november december january comes right he kind of takes a hiatus so you know vacation break get with the family so we're going we're back working that's why i'm out here too essentially saihai said that him and kanye began work on donda in late 2020 but as january february hit kanye kind of took a break from the studio which is around the time that he dropped the donda concept then they got back in the studio in march where they likely began to work on spirits over the horizon studio sessions for spirits over the horizon would occur from march to june 25th of 2021. over that four month period yay would link up with the likes of kc travis scott asap rocky future and playbar cardi although the locations for these studio sessions are relatively unknown one spot in los angeles would become infamous in the kanye community as fans gave the location the title of the green tile studio it is there that in may many famous artists and producers would be photographed by these green tiles signaling that they were likely contributing to yay's upcoming project in some form or fashion spirits has three main versions that are split up by month those being april may and june from what we have heard in leaked songs and snippets from this era kanye uses a lot of profanity which means spirits over the horizon saw the return of kanye making secular music for the first time post jesus's king many songs like 24 and this is the glory would still have an overlying theme of god but yay would also explore other themes such as sexual ones for the first time since 2018. for example one line in a leaked track sees kanye say ask the best milf what she had for lunch better put her breast milk in my captain crunch yay would even mention smoking a blunt and my main point here is that this era allowed kanye to step away from the limitations that non-secular music puts on an artist spirits over the horizon has been described to have sexual experimental and motivational themes yay experimented a lot during this era sonically to express his headspace be that regarding the divorce situation but also the many things that make him who he is today his faith in god and his mental health struggles at times the project sounds beautiful in other snippets it sounds depressing but through it all this arrow really set the seeds for what donda would be in 2021 the theme of spirits over the horizon would be dropped on june 25th as kanye would return back to the donda title although the reasoning behind the switch is unknown some believe north or cons were the main influences for yay to change his 10th studio album back to the donda concept now that we've covered the timeline of spirits over the horizon we have to talk about the tracks that were going to make up the project as i mentioned this unreleased album was really split up into three main eras april june and may so what i'm gonna do is essentially go by each month and talk about what tracks were on the track list for that month and at the end of this section essentially talk about the tracks that were worked on at this point in time but weren't on the track list so starting out with the april version of spirits over the horizon this was really the finished ideas from god's country combined with those from donda 2020. god's country was said to be a very political record spearheaded by the various accounts of police brutality in 2020 and we could see that that idea was going to be carried over into the april version of spirits as in one lyric kanye is quoted to say read your rights for the sake of the hype hold up hold me some ice i hold like the po lice popo read me my rights so the tracks that made it to the track list for the april version of spirits were 24 which actually just leaked and has different production but no kanye vocals i feel terrific palm springs featuring kc in god's country which was 100 finished backing up the gods country theme aesthetic for the april edition of this project uh fighting fires was worked on in march but it wasn't on the april track list but it was you know it was in the background let the spirit go wild which had finished kanye vocals and also god's test which potentially featured kc in two chains but the snippet people do have is of kanye's verse and it is very highly praised some going as far to say this is a top five kanye verse of all time which i don't know if i you know i haven't heard it i don't know if i believe it but the hype is there now on to the may version of spirits over the horizon and this would see a lot of those older concepts from 2020 actually put on the back burner as kanye would flow a lot of new ideas in this version is quoted to have yeezus vibes some describing it almost sounding like a yeezus sequel and it was this version of spirits that was said to have sexual experimental and motivational themes but because a lot of new concepts were flushed in here this is actually a very unfinished version of spirits over the horizon mix-wise many concepts would not make it past may as this version was basically all over the place onto the track list the intro track is a track title top and it has a lot of hype energy but you got dem joints doing the punch-ins because kanye didn't exactly finish his verse here like i said very unfinished you're gonna hear me say dem joins punch-ins a whole lot we also got hype which is likely my favorite unreleased track from the spirits over the horizon era this also has the dem joints punchins but it's just a really dark and gritty vibe with an insane beat it's like a prelude to pablo on donda 2. this track was also described to be a more evil sounding fade which i would agree with then we have going to jail which actually has no guitar and it's like a trap instrumental this is obviously the original version of the donda track jail but this has finished yay vocals and we've heard the snippet where instead of you know you made a choice that's your bad single life ain't so bad kanye saying i hate your mama so bad so again we got kanye kind of talking about the divorce situation likely talking about kim and chris john un but um speaking of donda tracks also we have the original version of pure souls which was titled soul de la this was highly praised but we don't have much information on it then we got a track called god got me we don't have much information on it other than it's mostly mumble then we have high wyd which is the original version of new again this has the versus kanye spit at the first atlanta listening party but a different instrumental then we have find out with dem joints punch ins go left which actually recently leaked with you guessed it dem joints punch ins then we have the track city of lost angels featuring don toliver you may remember at the first atlanta listening party for donda that the version of hurricane had a section where kanye was saying city of lost angels this is a different verse than that but these this is related to that atlanta listening party one hurricane and then finally the outro track for the may version of spirits over the horizon was run it up this has the same baseline and melody of no child left behind eventually kc would hop on the track and basically do the part of vori because this was created before kanye got in touch with vori now on to the june version of spirits over the horizon which is described to have pretty depressing and beautiful themes on the track list we have 24 and this version of the track actually just leaked it still features kc and the sunday service choir but it's a lot more eerie than the april version for spirits that we heard of this track uh you could tell kanye was kind of taking the song more in that direction we would eventually hear when the song would be released on donda where he would totally replace the instrumental with that organ and slow down the sunday service choir vocals and i think the evolution of this track actually is a great representation for what spirits was it was an era where kanye was able to experiment and get more comfortable with having a darker theme for a record then we got this is the glory you may remember that this was supposed to be the donda 2020 intro track around the time that donda 2020 was supposed to drop you may also know it from that shikari richardson beats ad that dropped right before the second atlanta listening party for donda but this actually has a different instrumental than the one heard in that ad we also got heaven and hell which was actually a lot of people mixed this up so i'll clear it up here being worked on at the same time as ultra sounds kanye was still messing around with future bounce but heaven and hell here had that atlanta listening party 2 mumble verse that we all heard back in july we also got welcome to my life which for those of you who don't know is a fully finished version of welcome to ucla which you guys might have also seen at the mercedes-benz stadium there was a whiteboard of the tracklist and welcome to ucla was on it that is welcome to my life another track on the june track list is keep my spirit alive and also south carolina but this version actually has no tony williams and no pusha t and kanye's verse on this track is an early version of his verse on lord i need you that was officially released on donda lord i need you was also on the track list but it has completely different vocals also on the track list is the song let go that yay talked about in his drink champs interview in november of 2021. i wrote this song that on fedonda that you know we're gonna bring out on the bonus album but it said if i let go if i let go let god and let go i gotta let it go i got it let's go right actually it had a next line but i like to open it up this features kailyn russo who was also on another track in this era and seems to kind of be like his spirit's over the horizon protege in a way jail was also on this track list this time just shortened to jail like we are used to seeing it and has two different features that were recorded and one is rumored to be played barcardi we don't know yet believe what i say was also on the tracklist at this point in time and actually interestingly enough it has different vocals and a different beat compared to what was released on 2021 donda which was very similar to the snippet we heard expected on the 2020 edition of donda and then finally we have a track titled a a yay which is totally finished with an unknown feature as for tracks that got their start in the spirits over the horizon era and later made it up on donda released on streaming platforms we have hovercraft which is the original version of remote control which is featuring kalyn russo and version one is actually known as ops block which was the name of the beat and it's a 12 minute freestyle god breathed also was worked on during this era come to life was also worked on it has a different piano version one was 13 minutes but it was later cut down to four and one later version features an unknown female artist jesus lord was worked on in june junia wantanabe which is an early version of junior was also worked on during this era and the early version of the track was titled god speed and would have a reference track done by lancy foe hurricane would be revived for the spirits over the horizon era it had the yandi instrumental we're all familiar with the yay hook the wave runners verse and little baby and kc features produced by digital nas so it's essentially the 2020 december version of hurricane that we all know just with digital nas production and finally as for the tracks that eventually made it onto donda moon got its start in the spirits era this was inspired by elton john and it's unknown whether kanye got elton in the studio and they recorded anything but we do know that likely rocket man was the root of inspiration for the track moon now on to some of the tracks in the spirits over the horizon era that weren't on the track list and have yet to be released and were not put onto donda in 2021 the tracks include he gave it all through the roof die del resto which features james blake travis scott and boney bear sun rays which would later be retitled daylight and expected to be released on vori's upcoming album christ is my friend which has reference tracks done by the sunday service choir and steve lacey dangerous liasons which is essentially kanye describing a situation where incest is occurring in vocalizing his disgust over the matter and then finally the track dreaming of the past while spirits over the horizon is a relatively unknown era its importance in terms of allowing yay to explore secular themes and laying the groundwork for what would be the grammy-nominated album donda is very clear it saw the origins of many hit tracks such as jail and likely sparked many of the concepts displayed at the very scenic 2021 listening events the donda trilogy is all about letting those who have passed on from this life live forever through music you have donda on many of the tracks you have dmx on the outro of life of the party xx tentacion on two main tracks on donda2 and even pop smoke with his own interlude the bridge between 2020 and 2021 donda is letting those spirits over the horizon leave their mark on generations of listeners

Channel: DIGITALxDWNLD

Views: 17,828

Keywords: Kanye West, Spirits Over The Horizon, SOTH, Top, Hype, 24, Kaycyy, Green Tile Studios, Ye, Yeezy, Gap, Donda, South Carolina, Going 2 Jail, Jail, Mask Kanye, Mask Ye

Id: 41R8daS9pQw

Length: 18min 53sec (1133 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022