With yet another deadline for Kanye West’s long-awaited LP Donda come and gone, the world is, once again, forced to give the rapper another extension. Not that we have much say in the matter. West, who is known in part for blowing past deadlines like so much bleach shot onto a t-shirt, will now release the record next week on August 6, per Pitchfork. Presumably, if college rules apply, teachers will deduct one point from his overall score for each day that the record is late.
Donda actually, kind of, sort of premiered last week. A listening party for the album at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, where fans could both listen to the return of the Throne and pay $40 for a hot dog, simultaneously streamed on Apple Music, giving fans the opportunity to eat hot dogs over the sink for much less money. TMZ reports that the album stream broke records for Apple, with more than 3.3 million people tuning in to watch Kanye stand in the middle of a stadium with a stocking on his head. While the album received praise online—well, after Kanye’s two-hour delay ended—, the rapper decided that it was time to go all Phantom Of The Opera and move into the stadium, where he’s currently finishing the album and haunting soccer fans.
Meanwhile, social media Justin Laboy, who has been Kanye’s unofficial hype man for the new record, says that the album will drop on August 6. “KANYE WEST WILL MOVE THE RELEASE DATE OF DONDA TO AUGUST 6TH,” LaBoy wrote in all caps on Twitter. “THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE ❤️ HE WANTS TO GIVE HIS FANS THE BEST POSSIBLE PRODUCT WITHOUT RUSHING ANYTHING. HE LOVES YALL WITH ALL OF HIS HEART. GOD BLESS.” It’s unclear whether or not Laboy thinks that using capital letters makes the release date any more believable, but we’re hopeful.
In a sentence that we’re getting pretty tired of writing, Donda was originally slated to come out last summer, before being pushed to last week. Is there any reason to believe that Kanye is sticking to his word this time We’ll find out next week. Though, it does feel like we should prepare ourselves for reports that “Kanye’s dog ate his laptop.”