Kanye West’s 10th album, DONDA (named so after his late mother) has been supposed to arrive for a while now.
Despite a cancelled launch last year, the record has remained something of a mystery, until its release was announced last week by Ye’s label.
The follow-up to 2019’s gospel record Jesus Is King, DONDA has still yet to appear, but in the interim between its actual announcement and drop, a lot of information has come to light about the LP, even if we still don’t have it physically yet.
So from playback events to surprise guests, here’s everything we know about Yeezy’s new album, in anticipation of it (hopefully, please) dropping soon.
When is DONDA being released?
The LP was originally announced to be dropping last Friday (July 23) in a press release by Kanye’s album, Def Jam. A new track – “No Child Left Behind” was also previewed in a Beats advert starring US athlete Sha’Carri Richardson.
But as some feared…Friday came and went with no appearance by DONDA on streaming services. Since then, it’s really been anyone’s guess when the record was going to drop.
Many speculated that DONDA was still being worked on last-minute by Kanye, after he debuted most of the album during a playback event at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium which was even streamed on Apple Music.
According to TMZ, Ye and his team have now set up shop in the stadium, erecting a recording studio where the rapper is putting the “finishing touches” on his tenth album.
Who features on the album?
During Friday’s playback, Kanye unveiled several tracks from DONDA, although it’s still unclear is they still have a place on the album. He previously shared a partial tracklist for the album, but it’s unknown if this still stands.
The biggest news by far from the live event, however, was that Ye had reunited with his long-time collaborator Jay Z on what’s assumed to be the album’s final song. Jay’s guest verse is the first time he’s featured on a song with Kanye since Drake’s 2016 track “Pop Style”. The duo previously released the joint album Watch The Throne in 2011, which Jay references on the new song.
Other previewed tracks at the events included guest appearances by Roddy Ricch, Kanye’s former mentee Travis Scott and Playboy Carti.
So what happens now?
Well…we basically just have to sit and wait. Neither Def Jam, G.O.O.D Music or Kanye himself have commented on the missed deadline for the album release.
One unverified source of information comes from internet personality Justin Laboy, who tweeted out that DONDA had been pushed back by two weeks, and would drop in early August.
Has this ever happened before?
Why yes, yes it has. Ye fans will know that the artist has something of a history of leaving us waiting and waiting and waiting a bit more for new material, even when a release date has been announced.
DONDA itself was also supposed to drop last year in 2020 but didn’t materialise. Jesus Is King – Kanye’s 2019 gospel album – missed two earlier release dates before its actual drop and 2016’s The Life of Pablo was originally titled SWISH and due to be released in 2015, which didn’t happen either.
Kanye also famously took 2013’s Yeezus to producer Rick Rubin 15 days before its release to strip the entire album’s production back and re-working several tracks entirely to fit in with a minimalist approach.