Singer Marilyn Manson has reportedly been working heavily with Kanye West on the rapper’s upcoming album, Donda 2.
Manson was part of Ye’s first Donda project released last year and appeared with him for several public events. He’s now said to be working closely with Ye to help him create the sequel album.
The reports of Manson’s heavy involvement with Donda 2 arrive days after the release of a documentary in which actress Evan Rachel Wood claimed that Manson “essentially raped” her on camera for a 2007 music video.
Wood is one of several women to have made allegations — including of rape and sexual assault — against the singer.
Producer comments on Marilyn Manson’s association with Ye
In a recent Rolling Stone report, producer Digital Nas told the outlet Marilyn Manson had been spending a lot of time in the studio working with Kanye West on the Donda 2 album.
“I see Marilyn a lot in the studio,” he told RS, adding, “Like, every day I go to the studio, Marilyn is there working on Donda 2.”
Digital Nas also spoke about what he described as the “crazy dynamic” that Kanye and Manson have. He said Ye “wants Marilyn to play what he makes” as they work together in the studio.
Ye reportedly uses that to build upon Manson’s excerpts for his upcoming Donda 2 album. It’s a process Digital Nas says that Ye also used for his 2003 album Yeezus.
“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. … He has some producers from Yeezus working on Donda 2 this time around, [as well as] Marilyn, me, a bunch of producers from Donda 1,” he told Rolling Stone.
As far as why Kanye has decided to work with Manson despite the allegations against the singer from multiple women, Digital Nas attributes that to religion, per RS.
“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,” the producer said.
Manson, real name Brian Warner, is credited as a songwriter on the song Jail Pt. 2 from the first Donda album. He also appeared alongside Ye for a Donda public performance event last year and alongside Justin Bieber for West’s Sunday Service event last Halloween.
Multiple allegations have been made against Manson
Several women have come forward with allegations in the past year of sexual, psychological, and physical abuse against the Manson, including Evan Rachel Wood.
A two-part HBO film called Phoenix Rising premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival last month. In the documentary, actress Evan Rachel Wood alleges that Manson “essentially raped” her on camera while filming the 2007 Heart-Shaped Glasses music video.
“We had discussed a simulated sex scene. But once the cameras were rolling, he started penetrating me for real. I had never agreed to that,” Wood said in the first part of the film.
Wood described filming as “complete chaos” and said she felt unsafe as the crew on set seemed “uncomfortable” and unsure of what to do in the situation.
“I was coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses. That’s when the first crime was committed against me — and I was essentially raped on camera,” Wood said.
Manson denied the allegations made against him via a statement from his attorney Howard King.
“Of all the false claims that Evan Rachel Wood has made about Brian Warner, her imaginative retelling of the making of the Heart-Shaped Glasses music video 15 years ago is the most brazen and easiest to disprove, because there were multiple witnesses,” the statement said, per E! News.
The statement also alleged Wood was “fully coherent and engaged during the three-day shoot” for the music video.
Wood first named Manson as her alleged abuser in an Instagram post last February, in which she accused him of abusing and brainwashing her during their relationship, alleging the singer “started grooming [her]” as a teenager.
More recently, Wood put up an Instagram post with a message reading, “Friendly reminder for the press. It not only ‘women’ or ‘former girlfriends’ of Brian that have come forward. Multiple men and former employees have also come forward with stories of witnessing or experiencing their own abuse. Please dont edit them out of the story.”
Wood and Manson began dating in 2007, and were engaged in 2010, but ended things seven months later.
A People article last May detailed allegations made by Manson’s ex Ashley Morgan Smithline who said she “survived a monster” in her allegedly abusive relationship with the singer. People said Smithline was one of 15 women who have accused the singer of sexual, psychological, and physical abuse.
Manson’s manager, booking agent, record label, and others ended their associations with him soon after the many accusations surfaced. He denies all the allegations against him.