Here we go again. It’s not exactly deja vu, but it does feel like we’re stuck in a loop. Kanye West has once again announced a listening party for his (supposedly) upcoming album, DONDA. The gathering, taking place on Aug. 26 at Soldier Field in his hometown of Chicago, is the third such event in the last few weeks and follows a string of promised release dates that have come and gone with nothing to show for. Throughout this stretch, the rapper has played multiple versions of the album, literally camped out in a prison-like room inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta — where the first two listening parties took place — invited star guests to visit, and live-streamed himself sleeping. And yet, DONDA remains a figment of the imagination to the broader public.
It is hard, in turn, to feel anything with this most recent announcement, outside of incredulity, indifference, or perhaps a combination of excitement and the self-loathing that follows for being naive enough to be pulled back in. How much longer will fans be strung along? For years, West’s M.O. around album releases — the ones that happened and the ones that ultimately didn’t — has been full of antics, empty promises, and controversies. Yet when DONDA’s release was quietly announced earlier this summer without a word or public maneuver from West himself, some people (more specifically, let’s just say when I look in the mirror I may or may not see someone in clown makeup) thought he had shifted his inclinations and would simply let the music speak for itself.
