Kanye West’s frequent collaborator Mike Dean has apparently pulled out of the DONDA recording sessions after several successive weeks of delays.
Initially supposed to drop after its first listening party on July 21, Kanye’s tenth album has yet to appear.
Both Ye and his producer – who have collaborated together closely on albums like Yeezus, The Life of Pablo and ye – were said to be holed up in the Mercedez-Benz Stadium putting the finishing touches on the record.
But now it appears that Dean has left Atlanta and by the looks of it has pulled out of DONDA’s production entirely.
Taking to Twitter, the producer said it was “good the be [back] at the house,” following a now-deleted tweet where he said, quite simply, “fuck this.”
He also left several comments on tweets asking about the status of the album drop, before replying to a comment suggesting that the roll-out of Kanye’s 10th album was becoming “toxic.”
“Toxic,” he replied, although the tweet has now been deleted, “That’s it.”
This is just the latest in a series of setbacks for DONDA’s rollout, which is now nearly more than a month behind its anticipated release.
Despite Yeezy debuting several new tracks featuring the likes of The Weeknd, Kid Cudi and even Jay-Z no concrete news has ever been confirmed about the album’s actual, proper drop date.
If you were to glance on Apple Music and iTunes right now, you’d see that the LP is scheduled to appear on streaming services August 20, but considering Kanye’s previous track record in this arena, it’s safe to say don’t hold out hope for that just yet.
Mike Dean has yet to officially comment on the status of DONDA and his involvement in the project, while no one has heard from Kanye since his appearance at the second listening party on August 5.
The event broke streaming figures on Apple Music for a second time, as well as featuring a special in-house vaccination centre for everyone who had a ticket to the show in Atlanta too.
You see, if Kanye were still married to Kim Kardashian West, you just know that Kris Jenner would be personally mixing the DONDA masters as we speak. All we can hope for at this point is that music prevails and we finally hear what Ye, Dean and everyone involved in the long-gestating project have been working so hard towards.