DONDA

Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Listening Event Merch Reportedly Brought In $7 Million

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Two Kanye West listening events for his album Donda have come and gone with no album yet, but according to Billboard, perhaps the music wasn’t really the point of the events after all. Sources told Billboard that the official merchandise sales from the two events combined totaled $7 million — the same amount as the Yeezy x Gap down jacket Kanye dropped in the middle of the night on his birthday reportedly banked in that one night. Meanwhile, he’s likely set to double down — no pun intended — with a preorder link for the jacket he wore to the listening going live last week.

The listening event also broke Apple Music records for viewership, dragging in well over 5 million eyeballs, making it one of the most-watched livestream events within the past year. The album, which is tentatively set for release this Friday, was apparently recorded in the same venue in which Kanye held his listening events, as he had a room set up in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium where he slept, recorded, and streamed his activities leading up to the second listening event last week. That stream also featured a quick shot of Kanye in his underwear, prompting a minor frenzy among fans on Twitter.

The Donda era is already turning out to be both lucrative and expensive for Kanye, but will it pay off for fans as well? Hopefully, we’ll find out on Friday.

Kanye West’s Second Listening Event For ‘Donda’ Broke A Record On Apple Music

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It’s been almost three weeks since Kanye West meant to — but didn’t — drop his tenth album, Donda. The rapper previously said the album, which he first announced last summer, would arrive on July 23, 2021, following a listening session at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. While the event went as planned, the album was not released — and still hasn’t been, even after a second listening event. Donda currently has a tentative release day of Friday, August 13, but fans will have to wait until that day to see if it actually drops. But it seems that the project has been a success, at least for him, even though he has yet to even release the album.

According to Billboard, West’s second listening event for Donda, which occurred on August 5, set a new livestream record on Apple Music, garnering 5.4 million viewers. That number is still short of the 6.1 million people that watched the 2020 Primetime Emmys last September, which makes the second Donda listening session one of the most-watched livestream events within the past year. The second livestream also amassed some $7 million in revenue thanks to in-person purchases made at the stadium.

In the meantime, it’s been reported that “Hurricane,” a track from Donda with The Weeknd and Lil Baby, could arrive as the first single for the album.

It Looks Like Kanye West May Not Be Moving To A New Stadium To Complete His ‘Donda’ Album After All

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Among other things, Kanye West has a reputation for not releasing albums on time. His upcoming LP Donda, named after his late mother, was delayed until last Friday but has still yet to be released. The rapper is currently holed up at a stadium as he finishes the album and a collaborator seemingly gave an update on its delay, saying they planned on moving arenas. But it now looks like that may not actually be the case.

West hosted a first Donda listening party at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium last month before he decided to make it his temporary home while putting the finishing touches on his release. But shortly after Donda didn’t arrive as planned last Friday, West’s collaborator KayCyy took to Twitter to say, “We moving to another stadium.”

The tweet was swiftly deleted, but not before it made the rounds on the internet. KayCyy has now issued an update, saying the original tweet was posted by hackers. “4 of my tweets were hacks … I will not be on twitter anymore for the rest of the week,” he wrote.

KayCyy then informed his followers that he and West were not moving to another stadium after all.

The exact date that fans can finally expect to hear Donda still remains unclear, though streaming services now report that it can be heard on August 13. The rapper did seem to have an excuse as to why it didn’t drop on Friday, however. Apparently, West had noticed a mistake in the album’s mixing during his last listening party, which may have contributed to yet another delay.

Kanye West Is Apparently Moving Into Another Stadium To Finish ‘Donda’

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After his first Donda listening event at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Kanye West confirmed the rumors that he was temporarily living in the venue while he finished work on the album. Now, it appears he’s moving out, but not back into a more traditional sort of home. Instead, it appear he’s relocating to another stadium.

This news comes via West collaborator KayCyy, who noted in a now-deleted tweet (as XXL reports), “We moving to another stadium.”

As the publication notes, other stadiums in the Atlanta area to which West could move include State Farm Arena, Truist Park, and Russ Chandler Stadium. Of course, there’s also the possibility that West will land in a stadium in a different part of the world entirely.

As for when Donda will be released, that remains unclear. West apparently noticed a mixing mistake during his second Donda listening event, so there’s still work to be done. As it stands now, streaming platforms like Apple Music say the album is set for this week, August 13, although neither West nor anybody from his team have made that announcement. Even if there was a confirmed release date, though, West has proven, with this album and previous efforts, that these deadlines can’t necessarily be treated as gospel.

Kanye West’s ‘Hurricane’ With The Weeknd And Lil Baby Appears To Be The First Single From ‘Donda’

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Late last month, Kanye West announced a listening session at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for his tenth album Donda, leaving many to believe that it would arrive shortly afterwards. Two weeks and one additional listening session later, fans are still waiting. At this point, Donda could be released any day now, but until then it seems like he’s shared the album’s first single.

Image via Apple Music

“Hurricane,” which features Lil Baby and The Weeknd, is one of the many tracks that Kanye premiered during his most recent listening session for Donda, and it could possibly arrive as soon as midnight EST in the United States. As of Sunday morning, “Hurricane” was listed as track 2 on Apple Music’s pre-save page for the album. HipHop-N-More also reported that the single is already available in select international streaming markets, like Russia’s Yandex and Japan’s Line Music.

Moreover, according to Complex, KayCyy, who is credited as a songwriter on the track, teased its impending release in a now-deleted tweet, writing, “Y’all ready?” before adding shortly thereafter, “Ok I won’t say anything anymore.”

The upcoming single will be Kanye’s first track with Lil Baby, while it’ll be his third with The Weeknd. The duo first collaborated on the singer’s track “Tell Your Friends,” a track Kayne produced, from his sophomore album Beauty Behind The Madness. The second track together came a year later with Kanye’s “FML.”

Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Could Have Been Delayed Because Of An Apparent Mixing Mistake

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For the second time this year, the world gathered together to watch a livestream listening session for Kanye West’s upcoming tenth album Donda this past Thursday. Whether it was from home with conversations on social media or inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, fans watched the rapper share promising music from the unreleased album with the hope that it would arrive on August 6 as it was widely reported. Yet, once again, Friday came and went without Donda and fans were left to wonder what caused the delay this time around and when they could get their hands on the album.

While a new release date hasn’t been confirmed, we may have learned one reason Donda didn’t come out as scheduled.

On Saturday, a fan posted a screenshot from the August 5 livestream that shows Kanye speaking on the phone as the music blares from the stadium. The image was captioned, “Make Sure Mike Dean locked up in that room. We not finished yet,” and soon enough, Mike Dean himself caught wind of the tweet and offered a response.

“He was actually calling me from [sic] a mix mistake! Lol,” the producer replied.

For what it’s worth, the mixing error may not be the lone issue with the current album that is Donda, but it’s clear that it won’t be released until Kanye deems it ready for the world. For now, fans could expect the project to arrive on August 13 as the pre-save page for Donda on Apple Music revealed this weekend.

You can read the fan’s and Mike Dean’s tweets above.

Kid Cudi Said Even He Hadn’t Heard The Final Mix Of His ‘Donda’ Collab Until Last Night

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Kid Cudi and Kanye have been friends and collaborators for years now — even recently releasing a whole joint album together as Kids See Ghosts — so it’s no surprise that Cudi would show up on Kanye’s new project, Donda. And though plenty of artists trust Kanye with creative freedom, it seems the last-minute preparations for the album are so down to the wire that Cudi hadn’t heard the final version of the pair’s collaboration on the record. “Havent heard the final this is new to me too!!” he wrote on Twitter as fans were excitedly posting clips from the live streaming event.

He later clarified that he knew he was on the album, just hadn’t heard final mixes of the track. “I knew!” he reassured a fan. “Just didnt hear final mixes.”

The song is reportedly called “Moon” and also includes vocals from Don Tolliver, although it seems like even those details might be subject to change before the album is actually finally released. Check out some clips and snippets of the song below and keep an eye out for the ever-shifting Donda release date. Hey, there’s always the Round Jacket pre-order aka the red jacket Yeezy wore at the first listening to hold the super fans over if needed.

Yeezy Fans Can Now Buy A Red Jacket Like The One He Wore At The First ‘Donda’ Listening

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For years now, Kanye’s clothing designs have been just as important to the rapper and producer as his music, and he cut a striking figure at a recent Donda listening event in a bright red jacket, which is part of the Yeezy Gap collection. Retail expert, Mickey Drexler, who formerly worked at Gap, raised eyebrows when he said in an interview he thought the partnership was a risky one, and actually advised Gap against partnering with Kanye. But perhaps Gap saw something Drexler didn’t, because the jacket reportedly sold out, racking up over $7 million in one night, presumably the first night of the Donda listening.

For those looking for a similar style to the jacket that sold out a pre-order link for another Yeezy jacket is now live, dubbed the “Round Jacket” and available for the surprisingly reasonable price of $200, is right here. This is a pre-order link with a slated ship date for 2022. At a second listening event last night, Kanye played a revised and refined version of the Donda album he shared in late July, but despite promises the project would be available for fans today, it’s still not quite live on streaming services. An Apple Music pre-order for a 24-track version of the album now has a date of tomorrow, August 7th, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that. Either way, it seems new music is finally going to be in fan’s hands soon. And in the meantime, they can order the jacket to tide them over.

Kanye West’s Long-Rumored Giant Dong Made A Cameo On His Livestream And People Can’t Stop Talking About It

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While Kanye West has had his fair share of headline-making antics over the years, the rapper now has the internet talking for a very different reason. Kanye has been holed up in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz stadium for some time in order to complete his long-awaited LP Donda. To celebrate the album’s impending release, Kanye began a 24-hour livestream from his tiny room. He appeared in his underwear at one point, confirming to the world a rumor that has been circulating for years: The rapper is quite endowed.

Talk of Kanye’s massive member has been floating around for a few years now. The rumor actually goes all the way back to the MySpace days, according to Jezebel, when the rapper allegedly had no problem sending a NSFW photo to any woman who inquired. Of course, a few of the photos circulated the internet like wildfire, where they were gawked at for weeks before eventually being deleted.

Kim Kardashian wasn’t shy in speaking about Kanye’s sizeable schlong, either. The rapper’s now-ex addressed Kanye’s anatomy on an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which went relatively under the radar at the time. A pregnant Kim had been undergoing an ultrasound to reveal the gender of her baby. The doctor mentioned they were trying to look to see if Kim’s child had a penis, to which she cheekily responded: “It would definitely take after the father, so you would see it.”

Little, errr, Big Kanye’s cameo may have been brief, but the internet definitely noticed — and definitely had a lot to say about it. People flocked to Twitter to discuss the dong, with some saying they were more impressed than others.

Kanye Launched A ‘Countdown To Donda’ Livestream On Apple Music Previewing His Second Listening Event

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The music world has been anxiously awaiting the beginning of Kanye’s new era, and his first album to drop since his divorce from Kim Kardashian was finalized. Entitled Donda after the rapper’s late mother, whose tragic death has had an ongoing impact on the rapper’s life, he previously previewed the new album in a massive stadium show in Atlanta that was live streamed on Apple Music. But in true Kanye form, the album wasn’t exactly finished, so he’s been holed up in Atlanta finishing the album, and announced that a second listening event would be held once it was done.

Now, Apple has debuted a live stream leading up to the second event, which shows Kanye hanging out with friends and collaborators, pumping himself up for the event. Fan accounts have captured high-profile visitors like Chance The Rapper, Ye’s weight-training moments in a Donda vest, and what looks like a new Balenciaga suit for tonight’s stream.

Excitement for the follow-up is definitely high, even if plenty of fans were disappointed in his Pro-Trump era, the strange follow-up that was his own presidential campaign, and didn’t think Ye was his best work. But with Kanye, a potential comeback is always in the works. Check out the live stream via the Apple Music link above.