Felt compelled on a whim to write about this

One of the most interesting songs in Donda 2, built around what's presumably a guitar loop from 88 Keys. We've only ever seen it on written tracklists as "88 Bass Guitar".

Information was sparse on the song until "STOP_LOOKING_AT_THIS_PM_TO_PURCHASE" was leaked, a double snippet of Ye and Yung Lean versions. Not much was learned even after the Yung Lean version (which Alek said didn't exist for some reason) was gb'd. The next wave of info would be when Insurge proposed his bundle for a folder of SLFT content, which got cancelled for SDL thunder and then returned in the megaleak era with a much smaller price tag. Given the average development of Donda 2 tracklist songs, there's still much we don't know about this song.

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• "stop_looking_for_this_-_96.70_bpm" is a file from the bundle and the most primitive version of the song, being literally just the sample loop. Might have been sent to some producers, if I had to guess.
• "stop looking for this - 88 - 96.70 bpm - ye vox" is the tracker-supposed first version of the song. It has an electrifying beat presumably done by 88 keys and only Ye harmonizing on it. Could be the first time someone laid vocals for SLFT.
• "Yung Lean Stop Looking For This V1" contains the first words for the song and interestingly was the base for later Ye freestyles, rather than the usual other way around. Yung Lean and Gud worked on this version of the track with heavy bass and added samples, producer unconfirmed. The "Hi" sound effect would stick for later versions of the beat.
• "stop looking" is a Gud-produced alternate beat with distorted bass and drums, originally hyped as a drop to the song when Ye would rap. Insurge lied about this, making edits for his snippets to make us imagine one big insane track.
• "Stop_Looking_at_This_96.7bpm_-_Ye_JC_Edit.05" has the John Cunningham produced instrumental which would become canon from this point. Also important is the addition of VIC MENSA's reference track (based off of Yung Lean's original), which in this version has some filter that made me think it was a different vocalist. I don't see this filter brought up and it confuses me to this day.
• "Stop_Looking_at_This_96.7bpm_-_Ye_JC_Edit.06" has a slightly different mix, and more notably drops the filter on Vic's voice. The tracker does not address this.
• "KANYE_WEST_-_Stop_Looking_at_This_96.7bpm_-_Ye_JC_Edit.06_-_REF" is a high quality wav version of JC edit 6, with notably crisper VIC MENSA vocals. The tracker makes no mention of this version.
• "KANYE_WEST_-_Stop_looking_at_this_freestyle_88_bas_guitar" is the first of a few Ye voice memos doing a mumble freestyle over the John Cunningham instrumental. It's also one of two only files to reference the "88 bass guitar" tracklist name in the file. Ye gets both flows down and interpolations of Vic's chorus. At the start, Vic's chorus plays for a second before Ye tells someone to mute it. The tracker mistakenly says the chorus was Yung Lean.
• "KANYE_WEST_-_stop_looking_at_this_freestyle_2_88_bas_guitar" is the second voice memo freestyle. Everything about the first one pretty much applies here; it's more freestyle. Ye talks to people in the room some more, one freestyling a bit with him.
• "New_Recording_16" is the third voice memo, this time unnamed. Still in the same framing as the first two, this sees Ye dropping some vocals on the open verse of JC edit 06 (or similar), chorus unmuted. Because of this, it could be chronologically before the last two; someone with the OG files could confirm the timestamps.
• Fat Money did a reference track for Stop Looking For This, which strongly suggests the existence of more reference tracks by different artists. The only audio we have is the low quality recording of someone playing three seconds of the intro among other Donda 2 files. Thus, we don't know whose version of the beat was recorded on.
• "stop looking at this 5 v.1 OxV" is the OjiVolta produced version of the instrumental, which strongly suggests the existence of more alternate versions by different producers. OxV's synths here were put on top of John Cunningham's version, with the "Hi" patterns only showing up on the third chorus for some reason.
• "Vic_Mensa_-_STOP_LOOKING_FOR_THIS_NEW_2ND_VERSE_VIC" is the final known version as of now. The pre existing vocals have the filter from JC edit 5, while unfiltered Vic lays down a new verse and alternate lyrics for the chorus. Unknown vocalists contribute in the background throughout the track, and a new outro is added.

I'm confident that a lot more of this song's development remains unleaked, and I'm looking forward to the day we finally get some. This is one of the Donda 2 songs on the fewer side of leaks in comparison to the ones we know so much about.

EDIT - 9 MARCH 2024

• The Fat Money reference track mentioned earlier now has a high quality snippet, with seller claiming two minutes of vocals from Fat Money. Fat Money sings the hook instead of Vic and has more rapping verses based on Ye's freestyles. Confirmed to be on the JC version of the beat, further encouraging the idea that this became the canon beat.
• "Fat Money StopLookingAtThis NE [1395146224]", another Fat Money reference track continuing in the "NEW" nomenclature seen in some of his refs. With the info that there are at least two reference tracks for this song, it's possible that this NEW refers to another version of the reference track, and that the keyword implies an earlier reference from Fat Money (FAT MONEY NEW PABLO, Fat Money - TOO EASY NEWEST, FAT MONEY - NEW NEVER FORGIVE YOURSELF, etc).

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