Is Kanye West Releasing a New Album This Week?

Kanye West once rapped on Lloyd Banks’ 2010 track “Start It Up,” “They say good thing come to those that wait/So I’ma be at least about an hour late.” How about a full year? Twelve months after tweeting that he was dropping his new album, Donda, on July 24, 2020, it now looks like ’Ye’s new album could be released on July 24.

’Ye has been tight-lipped on the effort since it failed to drop last year on the given date. But over the weekend, word started to get around that the Chicago billionaire may be on the verge of dropping a new project.

Last night (July 18), photographer and digital content creator, Nigel D. Presents, shared a play-by-play via a series of tweets of his experience at Yeezy’s album listening event, which was somewhat made known to the public after an “invite only” email for the event began circulating the net.

“So they took phones of course. Was about 10 feet from Kanye while Usher sat across from me,” Nigel began. “Came out with a full mask and gloves. Took off one glove to control the laptop and play music. Before the show started they played 2 commercials that will come on during the NBA finals featuring Sha’Carri Richardson. So for the first song they had 4 young prodigies play  pianos in the center. Featured some audio from his mother I believe.”

The famed photog continues: “Kanye then played a track with him and Pusha T rapping back and forth. Fireeeeee. Then he had a track with Lil Baby and I was ready to party. The music is still centered on God but there is a variety in sounds. Some slow, some trap, etc. Some songs could be played in a church, some in a club. So Kanye had a long ass playlist on his laptop he was playing from. So I wonder what songs will really be making the final version.”

Nigel also shares that Kanye’s upcoming offering will likely be a gospel album. He types: “So I think they had a lot members of the church there. So he has this track where the chorus goes ‘I know God breathed on this.’ Had a banging beat you wouldn’t expect from a gospel song. Had the church folks turnt. There was some interludes. One of them a woman just says Donda like 50 times. I like the versatility on the album. There was some tracks I wanted to scream run that back for but security might have Jazzy Jeff’d me.”

The photographer adds: “He mentioned paparazzi treating his marriage like an entanglement. He also said something about a ‘neighbor’ but I don’t know the exact words. I though the album would have no expletives. But there are some B’s and N’s. So Kanye tried to rush and lower the music when the B’s were flying because we were I’m a church. The album is really about having faith in God and overcoming adversity. Kanye speaks on personal struggles and struggles others face. Positive messages that you can turn up to.”

Internet personality Justin Laboy also hopped on Twitter Sunday evening to reveal that ’Ye had played the new album for himself and NBA star Kevin Durant in Las Vegas, teasing that the offering has been completed.

“Kanye West album is really done,” Justin Laboy says. “When it drops this week, we probably not going to listen to anything else for a while.. Let me go enjoy all the current artist I’m listening to until then. God bless #Respectfully. Kanye had Kevin Durant at 7 feet tall dancing while the album was playing. Shit was crazy. Ok I’m really out this time #Respectfully. Kanye played his new album for me & @KDTrey5 last night in Vegas.”

He also writes: “Man listen! The production is light years ahead of it’s time, and the bars sound like he’s broke & hungry trying to get signed again. Any artist who plan on dropping soon should just push it back #Respectfully.”

On Saturday (July 17), video of Tyler, The Creator and Kanye in studio surfaced online. On the wall in the background, what appears to be a tracklist for the Donda album is written on a dry erase board.

Then, the aforementioned purported e-mail invitation surfaced the internet for a private “special invitation only” album listening party taking place on Sunday (July 18). Others pointed to “All Falls Down” collaborator Syleena Johnson hinting about working on a new project in a recent cryptic Instagram post where she is decked out in Kanye gear. “Took my heart and voice to San Fransisco right quick to work on something OUT OF THIS WORLD,” she captioned the photo. “Went vintage @kanyewest on the outfit today with the College dropout original hoodie I got from him in 2004. Then Ofcourse the good Zebra yeezys.”

In the year since Kanye was initially supposed to drop the LP, he has been through a number of life-changing events including a failed presidential campaign and the backlash from it, and a much-publicized divorce. Now, it appears Kanye is ready to hit fans with album No. 10.