Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Kanye West’s new album rumoured to drop this week following Las Vegas listening event

West allegedly played the album for internet personality Justin Laboy and basketball player Kevin Durant over the weekend

Annabel Nugent
Monday 19 July 2021 04:30 EDT
Comments
Kanye West debuts his new album at listening party in Wyoming

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Kanye West is expected to release a new album this week following rumours that an exclusive listening event for the record was held in Las Vegas.

Speculation surrounding the rapper’s next release has grown since internet personality Justin Laboy claimed that West played the album for himself and basketball player Kevin Durant over the weekend.

He wrote on Twitter: “Kanye played his new album for me & @KDTrey5 last night in Vegas.”

Laboy went on to applaud the album, writing: “The production is light years ahead of its time, and the bars sound like he’s broke & hungry trying to get signed again.”

He warned that “any artist who [planned] on dropping soon should just push it back”.

Laboy followed up his original tweet with two more posts, in which he alleged that West’s new album would be arriving at some point this week.

“Kanye West album is really done,” he wrote. “When it drops this week, we probably not going to listen to anything else for a while.”

Rumours of an exclusive album listening event taking place in Las Vegas on Sunday (18 July) appear to corroborate Laboy’s claims.

Photos emerged on social media of people allegedly waiting in line outside the venue where the listening party was reportedly taking place on Sunday night (18 July).

Producer Teddy Walton has since tweeted about the forthcoming album, which he appears to have contributed to.

“Honestly can’t wait till @kanyewest drop. & i’m glad to be apart of history. See y’all soon,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday (19 July).

Although no collaborations for the forthcoming record have been confirmed, footage of Tyler, The Creator in the studio with West circulated widely on social media over the weekend.

In July last year, West announced that a new album – titled Donda – would be arriving that week, also sharing a 12-song tracklist. The record, however, never materialised.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in