Marilyn Manson Is Working With Kanye West on Rapper’s ‘Donda 2′ Album

As Marilyn Manson continues to face several lawsuits stemming from allegations of sexual assault, he has been in the studio collaborating with Kanye West on the rapper's sequel to last year's Grammy-nominated Donda album.

In the latest development in the series of allegations made against Manson by numerous former partners, actress Evan Rachel Wood claimed in her Phoenix Rising documentary that Manson had "essentially raped" her on the set of the music video shoot for "Heart-Shaped Glass," which Manson's lawyer denied in a response statement.

This claim is one of many in a long line of unsettling accusations against Manson, levied by multiple women in recent years and a timeline of the events can be viewed further down the page.

Amid the legal entanglements and the disturbing reports that have continued to surface, West (who legally changed his name to Ye in the fall of last year) seems to have developed a friendship with Manson. The disgraced shock rock musician appeared onstage at Ye's Donda listening party in late August, alongside embattled rapper DaBaby. Shortly after, it was uncovered that Manson's voice appeared on the album track "Jail, Pt. 2."

Then, in November, Manson was spotted at Ye's 'Sunday Service' religious gathering, leading some to question the aims of the musician who had long been outspoken against religion and, in particular, Christianity. After this sighting, Ye quickly addressed his relationship with Manson in a bizarre statement about cancel culture and the iconic George Orwell novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The relationship between Manson and Ye has now spilled over into 2022, as Donda 2 producer Digital Nas told Rolling Stone. "I see Marilyn a lot in the studio. Like, every day I go to the studio, Marilyn in there working on Donda 2," he said.

The goal, however, is not for Manson and Ye to create songs together in a traditional sense. "He 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 [generally when making] Yeezus," Nas explained, "He has some producers from Yeezus working on Donda 2 this time around, [as well as] Marilyn, me, [and] a bunch of producers from Donda 1."

Speculating about why Ye has welcomed Manson, the producer suggested, "I think it's more-so that Ye is coming from a standpoint of like, 'We all make mistakes.' I think that's maybe why he had DaBaby and Marilyn at that one show. I'm just assuming it is from a standpoint of like, 'We're all sinners. We all make mistakes. We shouldn't point the finger at someone for the mistakes they've made or something like that."

Donda 2 is slated for a Feb. 22 release.