Has Kanye moved into Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium?

Kanye West’s 10^th studio album, DONDA, named after his late mother, was supposed to be released last week, with Ye inviting thousands of fans to his birth city for a special listening event at Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium. But while Kanye did turn up, clad in a skintight mask and red Yeezy Gap jacket, DONDA failed to materialise on streaming services.

It’s pretty well-known by now that the rapper is famously, shall we say, elusive about his album release dates, and has no qualms about pushing them back by a few weeks. As it turns out, his upcoming 10^th release isn’t quite ready to be put out into the world yet.

Instead, a source told TMZ that the rapper was so exhilarated by the atmosphere at last week’s event that he wanted to stay in Atlanta to finish the job – in the actual Mercedes Benz stadium, itself. That’s right: Kanye has temporarily set up shop in the stadium’s visitor’s locker room, complete with a newly-constructed studio space, living quarters and private chef. On Saturday he attended an Atlanta United football match, still in his listening party get-up. He even cancelled his performance at Rolling Loud Miami over the weekend, in favour of working on the album that little bit further.

Fear not, though, DONDA hasn’t been pushed back by too long. TMZ also reports that Kanye is now aiming to get the album out on 6^th August, as hinted by his friend and collaborator Malik Yousef via Instagram.

If last week’s listening session is anything to go by, collabs on the highly anticipated album are a real who’s who, with DONDA featuring the likes of Pop Smoke, Travis Scott, Pusha T, Baby Keem, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, and even Jay‑Z. Whew.

Sounds like it’ll be well worth the wait. Let’s just hope it’s not too long.