Thousands of Kanye West Donda fans filled the Mercedez Benz stadium for the second time for the scheduled album release date of Aug. 6. There has been immense anticipation and buzz around his 10th album Donda named in honor of his late mom Donda West who passed away in 2007 at age 58. Would this be the night West would confirm the final release date at 2 a.m., 2 hours past Aug. 6 midnight deadline?
Kanye took to the stage at 10:27 p.m. standing next to a bed which was a small part of the production on the stage. There were black cylinder fixtures with lights, and candles present. This staging appeared grandiose in comparison to the plain concrete floor of the arena at the first pop-up listening party one week ago. The crowd cheered and screamed when the music began as some folks started running from their places in line at the concession stand to their seats so as not to miss one moment of West on stage.
As opposed to playing the music with no audience participation, Kanye bopped his head to the beat standing alongside his bed and the audience was very receptive to the music, beats and lyrics they had all been waiting for. After the second song, hundreds of people rushed the floor dressed in all black balaclavas surrounding the stage dancing around in circles for pretty much the remainder of the performances.
The album tracklist appears to have some new additions to the features. Jay Electronic and the Lox appear on the new song track 15. Yung Thug and Kid Cudi have been added to a song fans were calling “Remote.” There also seemed to be some new songs including track 20 featuring The Weekend.
Towards the final performances Kanye was lifted into mid-air all the way to the ceiling; just dangling there at one point. Finally, he descended back to the ground and ran around the stage a little. Before you knew it the night just ended out of nowhere. It was as if Kanye had a special bond with his audience and they knew by his gesture that it was over. There was no goodbye from Kanye, no hiked-up food prices at the stands and still no announcement to confirming the album drop.
As of the time of this writing, there is still no word on the release of album 10. I guess we will see what this weekend has in store for fans. In the meantime, we can assume Kanye is continuing his residency as he stated he was committed to living at the Mercedez Benz stadium until the album is completed. Check out some photos courtesy of the Yeezy PR team after the break.
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