The ever-evolving Donda experience adds another layer this month with the arrival of the long-teased Yeezy Tech x Kano Stem Player.
The device allows for the customization of any song, including the ability to split any song into stems, facilitating a truly immersive listening experience wherein a fan can also tweak virtually any facet of the recording to their liking.
As still stated on the official Kanye West site, the device “ships with Donda,” though recently shared clips of the devices arriving in the fans of hands show that there’s much more to the story. The Stem Player retails for $200 and is still available to purchase.
Fans have already started tallying up the reported album tweaks over on the always-active WestSubEver subreddit. Of particular note here, and as heard in subsequently shared footage, is that a version of “Life of the Party,” which—as previously reported—features a verse from André 3000 that was immediately regarded as an all-timer.
Back in September, André shared a statement in which he explained that the version of the track he wrote to didn’t include Ye’s Drake-minded disses that (of course) made headlines. Reports on the Stem Player shipments, notably, suggest that those lines do not appear on the version that’s now received a quasi-official release. Contextually, this makes sense.
Also reported to have returned to the album in this iteration is Kid Cudi’s feature on “Remote Control,” which makes this version of the track sonically more aligned with what was heard in previous listening party/performance art events.
The familiar (but tweaked) “Never Abandon Your Family” and the long-teased “Up From the Ashes,” which fans might recall as also previously being referred to as “The Glade” or simply “Glade,” is also reported to be on the Stem Player-shipped version of Ye’s latest album.
Complex has reached to a rep for Ye for comment. Meanwhile, Donda was confirmed earlier this week to have topped a billion streams on Spotify.
