Donda: Kanye's Forthcoming 10th Studio Album

Many people may know Donda as Kanye West's expected forthcoming album for which he has held two listening parties, had two different album covers and given multiple release dates but in typical Kanye fashion hasn't had an actual release. Many people also may know Donda as Kanye's late mother. Some may recognize it as the company Kanye started in 2012 that promised to "pick up where Steve Jobs left off" and made short films and music videos until 2016. The point is Kanye has used his mother's name for various projects and she has clearly inspired much of his work and has affected him greatly evidenced by the creation of 808s and Heartbreak shortly after she died.

Donda was officially announced as Kanye's forthcoming album on July 18, 2020 and the public was told it would release July 24. Anyone who has followed Kanye for even a short period of time would not be surprised when the album didn't come out on that date. Many interviews and tweets from sources close to Kanye such as Consequence, Cyhi the Prince, KayCyy, and more would hint at the album being amazing and coming out very soon for the next couple of months. However, the album didn't come out around this time and many fans lost hope that they would ever see this album come out after seeing Yandhi completely scrapped.

It wasn't until a Beats commercial during the NBA Finals that fans started to think this was a serious album rollout. This commercial featured a short snippet of a song from Kanye. Two days later Kanye held a listening party for the album in what has now become synonymous to this album, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. After the first listening party promised, the album was supposed to drop but Kanye being Kanye the album did not drop that night. Kanye did not only hold one listening party instead he lived in the stadium for the next two weeks and held a second listening party and again the album was supposed to come out later that night but never did. 

The album's true release date is mostly up in the air. Many fans were convinced the album was dropping August 9th after Apple Music's pre-save for the album listed the album as releasing August 9th. It has now been updated, however, to say it is releasing August 13th. With Kanye's track record that is simply just  a number. While many music fans are begging for the album to come out, ultimately, the final decision is down to Kanye and we'll see if this album ever comes out on streaming services.