As Kanye West preps his forthcoming album God’s Country, the eccentric rapper is back with what appears to be another teaser, this time for the song “Donda.” On June 12 — what would’ve been Donda West’s 71st birthday — Kanye shared a snippet of the new song with his 29.7 million Twitter followers.
The brief soundbite features Ye’s late mother reciting several lines from the KRS-One classic “Sound of Da Police.”
He wrote in the caption, “In loving memory of my incredible mother on her birthday. My mom reciting KRS1 lyrics This song is called DONDA.”
In loving memory of my incredible mother on her birthday 🕊 My mom reciting KRS1 lyrics This song is called DONDA pic.twitter.com/YWKhqYYu2E
— ye (@kanyewest) July 13, 2020
Visually, the nearly 2:20-minute clip shows several different images. From a young Black boy herding steer to a baptismal ceremony in a river. But toward the end, home video of Ye and his mother start to pepper the visual as he raps, “Mama, I need you to tuck me in/I done made some mistakes and they rubbed it in/(Boy!) I know you and grandma had enough of them … I’m doing this one for y’all/So we can end racism once and for all.”
Donda West passed away in Marina del Rey, California after suffering a heart attack on November 10, 2007. Kanye has addressed his mother’s death in his music before. In 2014, he teamed up with Paul McCartney for the song “Only One,” which was dedicated to his daughter North but written as if Donda is speaking to her.