(October 25, 2019). Or is it he announced his eleventh album on eve of the tenth album, a year after the ninth album was scrapped?
It’s hard to keep track anymore.
The only constant with Kanye West – aside from his love of the current US president and his penchant for going off the rails – is his newest mind trick: keep his fans guessing…and waiting.
And if his consistent inconsistency ultimately pays off, Kanye West is in for a huge return on his artistic investment come October 20-something, or November umpteenth, or whenever Jesus is King or Yandhi or Jesus is Born – the latest in the announced series of new albums – comes out.
Earlier this month, West and his wife Kim Kardashian-West announced through a series of Sunday Service performances and tweets, respectively, that Kanye would release new album Jesus is King on Friday midnight – which has now come and gone in all U.S. mainland time zones.
It was the latest Joker moment for West as the album had been slated for an even earlier September release, then pushed back after it was announced that it would be accompanied by an IMAX film of the same name highlighting the rapper’s new Sunday Service pop-up concert series.
Then on Thursday, October 24, the day before Jesus is King was due, West announced that his studio follow-up album, Jesus is Born, would be released on Christmas Day, and that it would contain Christian-themed music. In fact, that was in keeping with the rapper’s earlier pronouncement that he would no longer be performing secular music, something that caused confusion when it was thought that he had said he would no longer be rapping at all because it was the “devil’s work.”
That was later clarified to mean that he would only be rapping about the Lord going forward.
All of this is more than a year after Kanye (and Kim) had announced that his ninth album would be Yandhi (you know…a portmanteau of Ye and Ghandi). The album – originally slated for September 2018 – never came but some of its purported tracks have now surfaced as ringtones on iTunes (remember those?).
The next coming of Jesus – Ye-style – has yet to happen, which is in itself something of a religious metaphor. But West has gotten more convincing in his pronouncements involving new releases. Of all the announced dates, it certainly felt like Jesus is King dropping on October 25 would be a reality based on the accompanying IMAX concert film and the leaked track listing, as well as a surprise live album preview event at Detroit’s Fox Theatre last month (although the tracks were reportedly still a “work in progress” at the time).
And it still may happen. As of this typing, the 25th isn’t over yet (although he did say midnight), unless he meant midnight going into Saturday, which would make it less likely to have a No. 1 Billboard début with only six days of sales in their tracking week versus seven (and we all know Kanye is gunning for a No. 1 début).
While none of the albums have yet surfaced, there have been some funny memes and tweets that fans have generated out of frustration, which shows that 1) any new Kanye album(s) is(are) still heavily anticipated, and 2) people have gotten used to this new Kanye norm and are simply unfazed by it.
In fact, it may no longer be a question of whether or not he’ll release a new album, but what clever ways will he come up with next to lure fans into yet another anticipated release date, and have them believing it, only to be disappointed yet again.
But if nothing surfaces, we’ll at least still have 2004’s “Jesus Walks” to feast on, or if Kanye reneges on the Jesus is Born album we’ll have Kurtis Blow’s original holiday hip-hop tune “Christmas Rappin’” to play on repeat (on its 40th anniversary this December).
Check out these funny Twitter captures about Ye’s latest tease:
DJRob
DJRob is a freelance blogger who covers R&B, hip-hop, pop and rock genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Twitter @djrobblog.
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