
Outside of almost losing his life in a car crash, West’s most significant impediment in Jeen-Yuhs is the lack of funding from his label. For a control freak who updated his 2016 album The Life of Pablo like a Google doc for over a month after its release, the Stem Player finally gives West the control over his music he tirelessly fought for from his label in Jeen-Yuhs. West had to rely on its co-director Chike Ozah to give West and his team access to MTV’s equipment at its New York City headquarters after-hours to edit the video that would change his life. He vociferously lamented about having to spend $33,000 of his own money to shoot the music video for “Through The Wire,” the song that launched his career. He records The College Dropout track “Slow Jamz” at Jamie Foxx’s home studio because Roc-A-Fella wouldn’t give him a budget for recording. The Stem Player may have entered the world in 2021, but it more than likely lived in West’s heart since 2002, the year most of the second act of his three-act Jeen-Yuhs docuseries chronicles.įor more than an hour of the 98-minute episode titled “PURPOSE,” West stretches himself thin to get enough attention from his label Roc-A-Fella Records for them to want to put out his debut album. It’s time to take control and build our own.”
#STEM PLAYER SPEAKER FREE#
“It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. “Today, artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes," West wrote on Instagram announcing the DONDA 2 release. The Stem Player gives West complete control over when he releases his music-yet West managed to disappoint fans by not releasing the album at midnight on February 22 as he promised.īut, he still plans for his Stem Player to be a disc-shaped middle finger to the music industry. It initially shipped pre-loaded with DONDA, but West shattered the musical paradigm with the release of DONDA 2 by eschewing traditional digital service providers like Spotify and Apple Music and choosing to release the album on the Stem Player exclusively. The device also allows people to upload music to the Stem Player by plugging their player into their computer and uploading their music to, where presumably West will also make DONDA 2 available for Stem Player owners.


(If you wanted to hear West ramble on about beating up Pete Davidson on West’s song “Eazy,” you’d simply have to press on the vocal light slider to mute out the others.) Named after the individual audio tracks that make up all the song recordings you love-“stems”-the disc-shaped device allows users to adjust the volumes of the vocals, bass, melodies, and drums via touch-sensitive light sliders. Originally released on August 25, 2021, the Stem Player is an audio device allowing users to tinker with songs in unprecedented manners. Why on Earth would Kanye West think releasing his latest album DONDA 2 on a $200 Stem Player most people don’t have, is a good idea? The second act of his three-act Netflix docuseries Jeen-Yuhs might have some clues as to why.īefore we go into the past, let’s first grasp the future West is forcing us to follow.
