No Buju Banton Feature On Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Album

Anyone expecting to see Buju Banton or any other Jamaican artist featured on Kanye West’s Donda album will be left disappointed.  Last night, Kanye had his third listening session for the album at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta Georgia along with 29 features. An official tracklist was released earlier today and among the features are his Watch The Throne collaborator and mentor Jay Z, Jay Electronica, The Lox, The Weeknd, Lil Baby, and others.

The anticipation for the album has attracted media attention from all over the world as West spent the last two weeks living at the stadium in preparation for the release. Prior to last night’s show, West had live-streamed his activities on Apple Music which saw several celebrities visiting his small quarters, a workout session, recording sessions, and the stream filmed West’s full night of sleep in his makeshift living quarters with no audio.

West had visited Jamaica last year and was seen in studio with Buju Banton along with Rocafella records co-founder Kareem “Biggs” Burke. Shortly after the studio visit, it was announced that the Billionaire Yeezy founder teamed up with the Buju Banton Foundation to donate computers and chairs to the Sunbeam Children’s Home and the Mount Olivet Boys Home in Jamaica.

Over the years, West has used Jamaican dancehall and reggae music as inspiration to make some of his biggest hit records. Most notably in 2012 on his Cruel Summer album he sampled two dancehall hits; Dust A Sound Boy by Super Beagle and Reggie Stepper’s “Cu Unuh” with vocals from the late Fuzzy Jones for his grammy-nominated hit Mercy.

Mercy went to number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number one on both the US Billboard Hot Rap Songs and Hot R&B/HipHop Songs Chart, and has since been certified quadruple platinum. Both Complex and Spin Magazine named Mercy the best song of 2012. Mercy also won record of the year at the XXL awards, Ascap and BMI awards, and Best Hip Hop Song at the Soul Train Awards.

Kanye’s tenth studio album Donda was scheduled for release today, but Apple Music now lists it for August 15.