Kanye West is expected to deliver his highly delayed Donda album at the magical hour of 12 a.m. EST on Friday (July 23), which will be a welcomed surprise considering so many of his album rollouts have ended in disappointment.
Prior to the project’s grand unveiling, Kanye held a listening event at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Thursday night (July 22), which was supposed to kick off at 8 p.m. ET but par for the course, it got rolling nearly two hours late.
However, the wait was presumably worth it. As Kanye blazed through the album wearing a full-faced mask and red jacket against a ghost white backdrop, a familiar voice suddenly came over the speakers and it was immediately recognizable as the one and only JAY-Z.
Of course, Kanye and Hov have collaborated numerous times, most notably on 2011’s Watch The Throne, but their relationship had been strained over the years. Many of their fans thought it was the end of an era but are now over the moon the dynamic duo is back.
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JAY-Z’s longtime engineer Young Guru confirmed Hov had come through to do the verse in the clutch, tweeting, “HOV did the verse today!!!! At 4pm.”
Kanye launched the Donda campaign earlier this week, when he announced the listening event alongside an Apple ad featuring a snippet of a new track called “No Child Left Behind” featuring Olympic hopeful Sha’Carri Richardson. (The spot debuted during Game 6 of the NBA Finals.)
The eccentric artist had originally scheduled Donda (previously titled Donda: With Child) for release in July 2020, soon after releasing “Wash Us In The Blood” with Travis Scott.
Kanye West Confirms 'Donda' Release Date With 1st Album Teaser 'No Child Left Behind'
But that announcement appeared to overshadow another Kanye album allegedly called God’s Country, but neither of them came to fruition. Instead, Kanye dropped “Nah Nah Nah” and the “Nah Nah Nah (Remix)” before embarking on his failed presidential campaign. The brief run wound up partially contributing to his divorce from Kim Kardashian.
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Donda is the follow-up to 2019’s Jesus Is King and marks his 11th official studio album. Now if the project arrives on time, maybe miracles really do come true.
Check out some of the reactions below.
