American rapper, Kanye West has finally released his much-anticipated album, Donda, and decided to use the name of Lionel Messi to push more attention to it
For a couple of months now, the fans of the American rapper have been expecting him to drop the album but he decided to delay it for no known reason.
However, it is being speculated that he delayed the release of the album because of his plans to include Messi’s name in the lyrics of one of the tracks.
Before Kanye West released the album on Sunday, August 29, 2021, he organized three different listening parties for the album, one of which was held on Thursday, August 27, at Soldier Field stadium in his home state of Chicago.
During the listening party, he performed one of the tracks on the album titled: “Off the Grid”, in which he mentioned Messi. The line on the track that got the whole crowd bubbling was: “I talk to God every day that’s my bestie / They playing soccer in my backyard, I think I see Messi.”
That line didn’t only catch the attention of the crowd at the listening party, it almost crashed the internet on Sunday. Most fans of Lionel Messi believed that the mention Kanye West gave Messi has ended the rivalry between him and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi and Ronaldo are regarded as career arch-rivals. Their fans, both online and offline hardly miss the opportunity to troll themselves on behalf of the two soccer stars.
The fans are always looking for points to call one the greatest soccer player of all time. Hence, Kanye West’s reference to Messi went a long way to ignite the “G.O.A.T.” debate between Messi and Ronaldo’s fans.
Aside from the debate, Kanye West’s line has ignited among the fans of Messi and Ronaldo, the line has been a successful strategy for the American rapper to draw more attention to the album.
It is believed that the “Off the Grid” track on the Donda album was one of the tracks Kanye West revised before the album was launched. It is also believed that the rapper included Messi’s name on the track after the soccer star had moved from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint Germain.
Recall that when Messi could not get a new contract at FC Barcelona due to financial complications at the club, he had to move to French Ligue 1 side, PSG on August 11.
His move to the French side made him the most talked-about personality in the world for days because he has never played for any club aside from Barcelona for the past 17 years.
Hence, Kanye West who has been in the music business for over 20 years strategically decided to perform the track in which Messi’s name was mentioned three days before the release of Donda.
Indeed, the strategy worked for Kanye West because the fact that he mentioned Messi’s name on Donda made more platforms to give the album more unsolicited publicity which might lead to more streams and sales in the coming days.
