Kanye West isn’t just living in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium as he finishes work on his 10th studio album, DONDA, he’s also opening his front door to let fans watch the sausage being made. In advance of Thursday (August 5) night’s second listening party for the in-process album at his temporary home, ‘Ye turned on a camera in his cell-like home-away-from-home to provide a sneak peek at the room where the magic is happening.
Though muted, at press time the feed appeared to show a quartet of the rapper’s collaborators listening to tracks queued up on a laptop and bobbing their heads in the darkened, windowless room as they looked at a spot off-camera, seemingly for some direction. While West did not appear on screen in the period Billboard observed the feed on Thursday morning, he was expected to play the latest version of the album at tonight’s Kanye West Presents the Donda Album Release.
The planned start time for the event is 9 p.m. ET, with Balenciaga creative director serving as the night’s creative director. DONDA, named for West’s late mother, was originally scheduled for release on July 23, but is now expected to drop on Friday (August 6).
Fans shared a series of snaps from the livestream, in which someone who appears to be West posed in a now-signature face mask and a black Balenciaga spike-covered jacket, did push-ups in a DONDA bulletproof vest as his crew danced around him and invited Chance the Rapper to come chill in his spot as he sat on his twin bed laying down vocals; Vic Mensa and Steve Lacy also reportedly came through overnight as well.
At press time, West’s website featured a list of international cities and coordinates in Africa, Oceania, Asia, Europe, North America and South American in cities including Brazil, Toronto, Rome, London, Bangkok, Melbourne and Johannesburg, though it was unclear if they were locations for international listening parties; at press time a spokesperson for West could not be reached for comment about the significance of the latitude and longitude listing.
Check out the pics and tune into the livestream below.
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