@therealmikedean you are literally the coolest person on music Twitter, fuck those kids who can’t get off of your back, you make dope shit, they don’t pic.twitter.com/PU5249yM33
— Caught Between Space & Time (@TheslothSidd) August 15, 2021
Update 15/08: Legendary producer and longtime Kanye West collaborator Mike Dean has confirmed that he is still working on DONDA.
I haven’t quit anything. The album continues. Lol. People read too much into tweets. Lol
— MIKE DEAN! #MWA (@therealmikedean) August 15, 2021
Original Post: Fans noticed that Dean had tweeted “fuck it” and “glad to be back at the house” before replying to a thread about his involvement in West’s album, “Toxic. That’s it.”
Based on his recent tweets, it appeared Dean had returned to LA and was no longer working on DONDA in Atlanta. The producer, who has won five Grammys with West, returned home between listening parties one and two, so it shouldn’t be cause for alarm. However, in a since-deleted tweet, Dean wrote “I left Monday. Secretly. Had to get away.”
Further implying the bad blood between West and Dean, Ethan J. Castle tweeted, “Mike Dean seems to have done all the best work on it though. this all feels toxic. It definitely isn’t healthy on either party to be stuck in a stadium for weeks. This is the weirdest rollout ever,” to which Dean replied, “Toxic. That’s it.”
You might recognize Dean from the recent DONDA livestream. He’s also popped up on the Kanye West Discord, appealing to fans about which version of the track “Hurricane” they liked best.
“Hurricane” was the only DONDA song listed on Apple Music and it was rumored to drop this week. Given the fact that the track never dropped as a single, and that Dean bounced shortly after, many fans have begun to speculate that “Hurricane” was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Check out Kanye West’s week in review for more details on the elusive new album.