Who Makes Up Kanye West’s DONDA Creative Firm?

kanye-west-donda-1

Luckily (or not really, as you will see), VIBE had asked this very question…..in a recent feature centering on West, they made some respectable efforts to get some first-hand information on DONDA (who has made album artwork such as Big Sean’s Hall Of Fame, Lil’ Wayne’s I Am Not A Human Being 2 and both of 2 Chainz’ albums) and who exactly makes up the company:

Following West’s lead, the DONDA collective hasn’t done interviews regarding their affiliation. LinkedIn profiles and liner notes help piece together a rough masthead, but there’s no clear consensus on who’s involved. One source suggested finding Virgil Abloh because “he is DONDA.”

Abloh’s credited title has varied from head creative director to art director for DONDA. It’s easy to see why the Chicago native and former architect would be Kanye’s right-hand man when it comes to DONDA. Abloh has the holier-than-thou hipster vibe down cold. He’s a Birkin-bag-carrying dude who owns a clothing boutique that sells $200 T-shirts. He drops obscure style references, like waxing poetic about the genius of German industrial designer Dieter Rams.

The rest of the DONDA stable is virtually anonymous. And West has a tradition of cobbling together a rotating cast of collaborators, which makes it tough to distinguish who’s actually part of the core clique. Liner notes on Yeezus list Joe Perez as DONDA graphic designer and Justin Saunders as art director. Those who are believed to have worked with the company consistently include West’s longtime barber and style consultant Ibn Jasper, art directors Matthew Williams and Guido Callarelli and graphic designers Nathaniel Brown and Alex Milsom. Perez declined to be interviewed, and the others did not respond to requests. Before Abloh could even be contacted, he sent a pre-emptive refusal: “We appreciate the interest, but our staff is not doing interviews at the moment. If our stance changes, we will be in touch.”

You can read plenty more at VIBE.

Snoop Dogg & Fabolous Speak On Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Control’ Verse

This subject matter will not be going anywhere anytime soon. The original NYC feather ruffler spoke to Young Jack Thriller about Kendrick’s ‘Control’ verse and what it means compared to his classic ‘NY NY‘ video and standing up for the West Coast at the ’95 Source Awards.

In other news, New Yorker Fabolous also gave his take on the matter in The Source, mostly explaining why he hadn’t responded yet as we all expected him to, thanks to a post-‘Control’ tweet:

That’s a hot topic on the market, and when I first heard I was gong to address it on the surface of what it was, somebody from out of New York claiming they the “King of New York,” but I took my time and I spoke with some OG’s, I researched it a little bit and got some more history behind it. Also, how everybody jumped into it for an intention play would change the situation as well, so a lot of guys stepped in and said their peace, but you also saw a lot of guys who were mentioned on the song, or who you would expect to have responses to the song, really didn’t take that approach, but am gonna tell you one thing that an OG told me, he said “if you do respond, make it work for you, make it come on your time, and not just like you trying to feed the twitter fans with a freestyle.” So I got that in the back of mind, so you might hear something eventually…

Juvenile, Mannie Fresh & Turk Perform Cash Money Tribute With Birdman & Lil’ Wayne In Attendance

Looks like everyone is cool again! Birdman, Lil’ Wayne and Nicki Minaj scored BMI Icon Awards recently, and prior to accepting said awards, Juvenile, Mannie Fresh and Turk performed Cash Money classics for their former label family (other members, such as DJ Khaled, were also in attendance). Lil’ Wayne even joined in on the performance….definitely a dope site to see. Additional clips below (including Trina’s honoring of the aforementioned Nicki Minaj).

Maybe we’ll get those official Big Tymers and Hot Boys reunion albums after all.