Corey Taylor has called Kanye West a “fucking moron” over the rapper’s decision to make ‘DONDA 2’ available exclusively through his Stem Player.
Released last month, West’s 11th studio album – a direct follow-up to last year’s ‘DONDA’ – can currently only be accessed via his $200 (£150) device, which was created by the star’s Yeezy Tech enterprise.
Four tracks from the record were made available to Stem Player owners on February 23 following a listening party and live performance in Miami the night before. An additional four songs arrived the next day, with a further 12 cuts landing on February 25.
During a recent interview with Metro.co.uk, Slipknot frontman Taylor suggested that West’s method of putting out ‘DONDA 2’ was out of touch with his audience.
“It’s like releasing all the parts for a car and sending them to people’s houses and going there, you got a free car, now you’ve got to figure out how to build the goddamn thing,” Taylor told the outlet.
“You’re assuming that the audience has the access and same technology that you have but you’re a fucking moron for doing that. Are you serious? It doesn’t work that way. The thinking that that’s a smart thing to do just shows you how convoluted and off the fucking property Kanye West really is.”
He added: “When you’ve got that much money and that much people around you telling you exactly what you want to hear, your concept of reality just goes right out the fucking window.”
As for the high price of the Stem Player, Taylor noted that inflation is “fucking batshit” worldwide. “People can’t afford their fucking apartments, for fuck’s sake,” he said. “It’s not right. It’s just so pompous and ridiculous.”
Taylor went on to say that Slipknot “would be fucking demonised” if they released music in a similar way: “But I guarantee people are looking at [West] like he’s a genius, and it’s, like, for fuck’s sake, pull your head out of your ass, put it on CDs and just fucking give it to people.
“If you want to do that, put it together in a way that people can actually listen to it. It’s such fucking horseshit.”
Last month, West said he had made over $2.2million (£1.6m) in Stem Player sales in the 24 hours following his announcement that the device would be the only platform through which to listen to ‘DONDA 2’.
The album has since been ruled ineligible for inclusion in the Billboard charts as it violates Billboard’s merchandise bundle policy.
Back in 2020, Corey Taylor expressed words of concern and support for Kanye West over the artist’s worrying behaviour at the time. “I just hope that he gets the help that he needs,” Taylor said.
Taylor previously hit out at Ye following the latter’s headline performance at Glastonbury 2015, where he told the Pyramid Stage crowd that he was the “greatest living rockstar on the planet”.