In news that will surprise absolutely no one, Kanye West’s new album, Jesus is King, may not, in fact, come out tomorrow, Variety reports.
Less than a month ago, West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, announced the album via Twitter with a handwritten tracklist of extremely biblical song names (“God Is”, “Sweet Jesus”, “Baptized”, etc) and a September 27 release date. West himself later confirmed this on his website. The album was rumoured to be inspired by his recent Sunday Service performances.
But now, according to a source “close to the situation” (Variety’s words, not ours), the album won’t be out on Friday. They have not made it clear what the cause of delay is, or what will happen to the album next.
Confusingly, Kim Kardashian is still tweeting as if the album is due tomorrow as planned, recently retweeting an account that said “2 more days” until Jesus is King. At the same time, that account said that they “know as much about Kanye’s album as every one else here” and that they are not an insider in any way.
Jesus is King is not the first Kanye West project to be axed at the last minute. Last year, he announced his album Yandhi – again, via his wife’s Twitter account – with a September 2018 release date, before being pushed back to November 23, and then never arriving. And let’s not forget when he announced an album called Turbo Grafx 16 back in 2016.
Around the time of Yandhi’s delay, West tweeted that “the new album I’ve been working on isn’t ready yet. I’ll announce the release date once it’s done. Thank you for understanding.” Eventually, tracks presumably intended for the album leaked online.
Reports state that Jesus is King’s delay coincides with a meeting between West and his label, Def Jam, in Wyoming, where he recently held a Sunday Service. It’s also where he bought a ranch, presumably for the cult compound – sorry, low-income housing – that he’s trying to build.
We’ve reached out to representatives for Kanye West for comment.