Kanye West’s fans are hoping third time’s the charm.
The notorious rapper postponed the release of his 10th studio album DONDA — named after his late mother — for the second time on Friday, over a year after he first tweeted it would be out in late July 2020.
Now, fans have a third release date to look forward to: August 6, according to Justin Laboy, internet celebrity and host of the podcast Respectfully Justin.
“KANYE WEST WILL MOVE THE RELEASE DATE OF DONDA TO AUGUST 6TH. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE…HE WANTS TO GIVE HIS FANS THE BEST POSSIBLE PRODUCT WITHOUT RUSHING ANYTHING. HE LOVES YALL WITH ALL OF HIS HEART. GOD BLESS,” Laboy tweeted.
This isn’t the first time West has made his supporters wait for an album. The popular Twitter account @HipHopNumbers, which compiles facts and figures about hip-hop music, said that West’s 10 studio albums have been almost five years late combined.
“Kanye West Albums have been 1,808 days late in total (4.95 years),” the account tweeted.
West gave fans a preview of the project on Thursday, playing the album for a completely full crowd at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The event was live streamed on Apple Music. Among the over 10,000 people in attendance were stars such as rapper Rick Ross, Khloe Kardashian and Kim Kardashian West, who came to support despite filing for divorce with West in February.
The event was not exactly a concert, as West remained mostly silent allowing fans to hang onto every word of each new song as they blared through the speakers. Instead of a traditional performance, the 44-year-old rapper listened along with everyone else as he meandered about a white stadium flooring the size of a football field, wearing a bright red outfit with orange sneakers.
Despite no official tracklist, fans instantly recognized some of the featured artists on the album by their voices alone — causing speculation that rappers including Pusha T, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, Lil Baby, Roddy Ricch, Lil Durk, Pop Smoke, Baby Keem, Don Toliver, Vory and even Jay-Z have guest verses on the project.
The potential reunion between West and the Brooklyn-born rapper, also known as HOV, caused headlines as the pair, who frequently collaborated in the past, have not been on great terms lately, last appearing together in 2016 on Drake’s hit song “Pop Style.” A big reason for their falling out was West’s public support of Donald Trump since 2016 which Jay-Z criticized in a 2018 guest verse on Meek Mill’s song “What’s Free.”
“No red hat, don’t Michael and Prince me and Ye / They separate you when you got Michael and Prince’s DNA / I ain’t one of these house n***as you bought / My house like a resort, my house bigger than yours / My spot—c’mon, man—my route better of course…” he rapped.
Now, the two may be on better terms as Jay-Z was heard saying on his DONDA feature, “I told him stop all of that red cap, we goin’ home” and referenced their 2011 Grammy-nominated collaborative album Watch The Throne, saying “This might be the return of the throne.”
Despite continued excitement surrounding the album’s release, fans are of course still bombarded the rapper with messages of frustration via social media.
“Kanye still trolling y’all,” tweeted Jamil “Mal” Clay, former co-host of the Joe Budden Podcast.
User @giozxx tweeted a photo of a clown sitting in front of a computer alongside the caption “how i looked thinking i was going to wake up to kanye’s new album, stayed up till 12 yesterday and nothing dropped #DONDA.”
“kanye was the mf who lived right next to his school but was always late #DONDA,” tweeted @SamKingg_.
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