Why you should listen to Donda.

You weren't expecting to see an article about Donda on LinkedIn but here you are.

10 reasons why listening to DONDA, Kanye West's new gospel album, helps you become a better founder:

1. Donda was built in public.

Donda was released on Aug 29. The first listening party was held in Atlanta, on Jul 22, and things sounded terrible. Verses were stitched together and the production felt unfinished.

So Kanye decided to stay in the stadium and rework the entire album, with a camera in his room. It was the epitome of building in public. At his third listening party in Chicago, the album sounded nothing like the one on Jul 22.

Kanye could have dropped the album in July. But by premiering in public, he was able to 'talk to his customers'. This helped build a tight feedback loop for his iterations.

2. It was shipped with minimal designs.

Donda's album cover design is a black square. It's simple and stripped back. Was Kanye unable to finish the cover design before launching? No one knows, but at least he shipped.

On the other hand, Drake is rumored to have paid millions for the world's richest living artist Damien Hirst to design the cover art for Certified Lover Boy (below).

Which approach do you think had a higher ROI?

3. Donda is about one thing.

Sonically, Donda sounds like 'Jesus is King' (Kanye's last album) fully realized. It's a gospel album dedicated to God, and Kanye didn't try to masquerade it as anything else.

Having a laser focus helped the album sound coherent. The story-telling and progression in Act I was supreme. The fact that Donda did not try to be everything for everyone made its message a lot more compelling.

4. There were multiple experiments.

In the 3 listening parties Kanye hosted before the album release, he levitated, took a nap, burned down his house and met his wife in a wedding dress.

He also invited the self-proclaimed satanist Marilyn Manson to join him, along with rapper Dababy, who recently came under fire for homophobic remarks.

These experiments were risky, and many of them didn't work out (people asked for refund after his first listening party). But some did, which helped build hype for the album.

5. Donda came with iterations.

In Act II, 4 songs from Act I had their alternative takes: labelled with a 'part 2'. These had different guest verses on. A quick browse through Genius suggests that there are just as many listeners who prefer the part 2's over the originals, as the ones who prefer the opposite.

By diversifying his bets, Kanye was able to hedge risks. Building a product studio is almost always better than releasing a single product.

6. It delivered.

Donda was a great experience. It has some of Kanye's best productions: check out the organs on 'No Child Left Behind' and the piano on 'Come to Life'.

The project delivered. The product spoke to Kanye's core fans and resonated with them. At the end of the day, Kanye is making good music again and with that came traction and success.

7. Kanye had an insane distribution.

Being one of the world's biggest artists, Kanye is good at leveraging his personal brand to build hype and distribute his work. He teased Donda's tracklist on social media and kept the crowd warm, despite delaying Donda's release for 18 months.

He also has great content-channel-fit through brand partnerships such as Beats by Dre (which premiered 'No Child Left Behind' in a commercial ad). Featuring A-list hip-hop artists and having them tweet out #DONDA helped solidify this even more.

8. Donda has personality.

You could tell Kanye had fun writing Donda. On the intro track, Syleena Johnson repeated the name 'Donda' 60 times for 52 seconds. On 'Remote Control', Kanye swapped out a feature from label talent Kid Cudi with a German meme Globglogabgalab.

Personality helps to sell the product. This appeals especially to an audience that is increasingly following people, not brands.

9. The album isn't perfect.

Donda was released with one track greyed out. Turned out its feature artist DaBaby wasn't able to clear the song 'Jail' in time.

Would it be better to take off the track, or wait for it to be done, to launch a perfect album? Probably yes. But how much does perfectionism cost?

The decision to ship without needing everything looking pretty is a good lesson to learn.

10. It's growing via word of mouth.

Why am I writing an article about Kanye on LinkedIn? I don't know; but I am many, who's lending our organs of influence to talk about Kanye and Donda. This is probably hurting my brand (due to Kanye's controversial character), but I am still going to hit 'Publish'.

What a great way to advertise. 0 marginal cost and an opportunity for viral growth. Add in some polarizing take and engagement will go through the roof.

A billboard ad is a clever way to incept an idea or a message, but it's a one-way channel. Giving people something to talk about is a much more clever way to grow.

Word of mouth is decentralized advertising and it's great.

Ending Notes

I love startups and music, and believe artists and founders have a lot to learn from each other.

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