Marilyn Manson has confirmed that he is once again collaborating with Kanye West, this time on the rapper’s upcoming album, Donda 2, which is expected to be released later this month. The embattled shock rocker previously appeared on Ye’s 2021 album, Donda, guesting on the track “Jail pt 2.”
Reports recently surfaced that Manson was back in the studio with West when producer Digital Nas told Rolling Stone, “Every day I go to the studio, Marilyn is in there working on Donda 2. [Kanye] doesn’t want Marilyn to play rap beats. He wants Marilyn to play what he makes, and then Ye will take parts of that and sample parts of that and use parts of that, like he did [when making the album] Yeezus.”
Industrial musician and producer Tim Skold, who’s been a member of Manson’s eponymous band and KMFDM, among others, also added weight to Manson’s new collaboration with Kanye by posting a picture of himself on Instagram in a studio with the hashtags “#marilynmanson #kanyewest #dondasplace.”
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Now, Manson himself has confirmed that he and Kanye are indeed in the studio together, with his spokesperson telling Newsweek, “Manson is continuing his creative collaboration with Ye.”
News of Manson and Kanye continuing to collaborate comes nearly one year to the day that Evan Rachel Wood named Manson as her abuser, setting off a bevy of allegations against the rock singer by multiple women in the ensuing months. Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco and others have alleged horrific accounts of sexual abuse at the hands of Manson, who has argued that he is the victim of a “coordinated attack” and that the relationships in question were “consensual.”
Most recently, Wood revealed in the new documentary Phoenix Rising that Manson “essentially raped” her on the set of the music video for his song “Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand).” Manson’s lawyer dismissed Wood’s revelation as a “false claim.”
Other than his work with Kanye, Manson has remained quiet as a musician and actor since the initial claims of abuse surfaced last year. He was dropped from his record label and removed from a couple of acting roles in the wake of the allegations.
Ye, meanwhile, was recently announced as one of the headliners of Coachella 2022. He is also in the running for Album of the Year (Donda) at the upcoming Grammy Awards, which were recently pushed to April. Manson and scores of other contributors were also named as nominees for their work on the LP.