Kanye West pays tribute to his mom in new song ‘Donda’

Donda West died in 2007.
July 13, 2020 1:13 p.m. EST
July 15, 2020 2:51 p.m. EST
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Yesterday would have been Dr. Donda West’s 71st birthday, had the mother of rap legend and potential presidential candidate Kanye West not passed away from post-surgery complications back in 2007. In honour of his late mother, Kanye posted a new track to his Twitter account titled simply ‘Donda.’ The song features Kanye’s mother reciting the lyrics to ‘Sound of da Police,’ a 2000 KRS-One protest song that likens police officers to plantation overseers.At the top of Kanye’s new recording, Donda’s confident voice can be heard reciting “Yeah, officer from overseer/ You need a little clarity?/ Check the similarity!/ The overseer rode around the plantation/ The officer is off patrolling all the nation.” Listening to the former professor of English rhyme for a full minute and a half makes it instantly obvious where Kanye’s massive rap talent comes from.[video_embed id='1989882']RELATED: Kanye announces 2020 presidential run[/video_embed]The track is the rapper’s second musical ode to his mother, following 2005’s ‘Hey Mama.’ A sweet throwback video of Kanye and his mother singing to the track was posted to Instagram by West’s wife Kim Kardashian yesterday in her own tribute to Donda.In the new song, Donda’s voice fades out about halfway through the clip and Kanye takes over, rapping heartfelt and timely lyrics addressed to the mother he clearly misses. “Mama, I need you to tuck me in/ I done made some mistakes and they rubbed it in,” he raps. “I know you and grandma had enough of them/ Why I gotta be so stubborn then/ I’m doin this one for y’all/ So we can end racism once and for all.” The new song snippet is paired with vintage archival footage, plus the same home movie-esque scenes that Kardashian posted, and has so far been viewed over three million times. Kanye’s most recent full-length album, Jesus is King, was released last October.[video_embed id='1978317']Before you go: Kanye West is launching a Yeezy cosmetics line[/video_embed]

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