Fans are still eagerly anticipating the release of a new album DONDA from Kanye West that he initially announced would arrive on Friday morning, following its debut at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The rapper’s latest body of work was apparently incomplete at the time of its premiere but many feel it’s Kanye’s most compelling body of work to come out in the past few years. It’s an odd rollout, even for Kanye West. He stood in the center of the arena with a mask on, without a word being said, and allowed the music to play front to back.
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The Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where Kanye West has temporarily set up his living quarters to finish the album, was sold out for ‘Ye’s listening party. However, beyond the 40,000+ people that were physically present, millions more were hovered over their laptop or smartphone tuning in to hear what ‘Ye’s been cooking up this whole time. According to TMZ, the DONDA listening party shattered Apple Music’s Global Livestream record with upwards of 3.3M viewers. The record was previously held by Gucci Mane and Jeezy’s “Verzuz” last year who had 1.8M viewers on Apple Music in total.
Though DONDA isn’t on streaming services yet, fans received an update from Justin LaBoy who said Kanye West’s new album is set to drop on August 6th. Let’s hope that the release date holds up this time.
