DONDA

More than a year after he first announced the project, Kanye West finally revealed when the world would receive his tenth album, Donda. The rapper announced the project would arrive this Friday, July 23. As expected, fans all over the world quickly built up their excitement for its release. To build up the anticipation for Donda, Kanye also announced a huge listening event for the project set to take place at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the 75,000-capacity venue that’s home to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

The event was slated for an 8 p.m. kick-off time, but to the surprise of no one, the event did not start at its intended time.

Thankfully, nearly two hours later, Kanye kicked things off for the night. The show began with what seemed to be a recording of Kanye repeatedly singing, “We gonna be okay,” as an organ played loudly in the background. The camera panned out to show him rocking a red bubble jacket while moving all across the stage, which was essentially the full stadium floor covered in some type of white material.

Prior to the show, Kanye was spotted backstage at the stadium putting the final touches on the album. This includes sequencing the project’s presumed tracklist, making last-second tweaks with producer and engineer Mike Dean, and apparently inviting acts like Playboi Carti and 2 Chainz to record additional verses for Donda.

Rumors of the arrival of Donda first began when Kanye and Tyler The Creator were spotted in the studio together, presumable working on the album together. Shortly afterward, the album was confirmed for a release through a Beats By Dre commercial featuring track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson that also featured his currently unreleased track, “No Child Left Behind.”

You can watch a livestream of the listening event for Donda here.

The way things have gone with recent Kanye West albums is that ahead of their release, West goes from completely off the radar to drumming up unreal amounts of hype. Well, the latter step seems to be taking place now. He apparently hosted a listening event for Donda over the weekend, and an associate declared the album is dropping this week. Now, another listening event is on the way, and it’s a big one.

Some West associates, including Pusha T, shared a minimalist flyer for the event, which is scheduled for July 22 at 8 p.m. at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a 75,000-capacity venue where the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons play their home games.

The reported cover art for the album has also surfaced, and it’s an abstract painting that looks like a woman, painted in red on a gray background. The art was made by the late French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (and not West’s daughter North, as some have speculated), who died at 98 in 2010.

A couple days ago, what may be the tracklist for the album also leaked. Furthermore, a post on the Kanye West subreddit r/WestDayEver collects information from users who were supposedly at the first listening party. The thread indicates that the album will feature appearances from Lil Baby, Post Malone, Griselda, KayCyy, Travis Scott, and Baby Keem.

Of course, West has famously not released albums on their expected street dates — he previously said Donda was coming in 2020 — so only time will tell if this week actually brings new music from West.