Kanye West's New Donda Media Site: Is It For Real?

Some enterprising impostor launches a website in the rap star's name

By Josh Grossberg Mar 29, 2012 6:45 PMTags
WhoDat, Kanye WestMarion Curtis/Startraksphoto.com

If you ask Kanye West, it's a beautiful dark twisted phony.

There was a lot of buzz this week about the launch of Whodat.biz, a website for new tech firm DONDA, which the  rapper, fashion designer and entrepreneur named after his late mother, Donda West.

Problem is West had nothing to do with it!

On its front page, Whodat advertises itself as "Donda Media Presents Whodat.biz, 'The Facebook of Websites,'" whose declared mission is to help internet users find out who's behind their favorite websites with the simple click of a button.

It all sounds legit, especially after Kanye announced plans for DONDA back in January during interviews and in an epic series of tweets in which he said he hoped to "pick up where Steve Jobs left off" by designing and creating products that could one day change the world. Whodat also includes links to a Donda Media site featuring the MC's likeness, a newly created Twitter feed and a Donda Media Tumblr.

But all of that, it turns out is bogus, at least as far as West's affiliation goes.

It didn't take long before the mogul's camp got wind of the site and suggested that it was the work of a prankster trying to capitalize on his rep.

"If a site existed it'd be obvious that it was real," Kanye's creative director, Virgil Abloh, tweeted in response to the hubbub.

While WhoDat may be in the domain info business, the site doesn't sound like something that came from West's feverish imagination considering his past statements regarding his vision for Donda Media. Add to that the fact that the 34-year-old Grammy winner, a notorious self-promoter, hasn't uttered a word about WhoDat on Twitter or anywhere else, it's more than likely he hasn't heard of it.

Lastly, Gizmodo reports that WhoDat's Google Analytics ID, which is frequently used to identify a website's owner, has been hidden in the site's source code.