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.