Kanye West is gearing up to release his tenth studio album DONDA, and fans are anxious to hear something from the project, especially after Kanye’s busy weekend giving his celebrity friends and some lucky fans an early sampling.
Since his listening event in Las Vegas, rumors abounded that Kanye might debut a new song in a commercial during Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Fans were skeptical, given Kanye’s track record of empty promises and changing his mind. But lo and behold, there it was before the end of the first half: a Beats By Dre commercial featuring U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson.
The commercial opens with Richardson preparing for a race while Kanye’s new song “No Child Left Behind” blasts through her pair of red Beats Studio Buds. Although the clip on the broadcast was short, Beats By Dre treated fans to an extended version of the visual online that featured slightly more vocals from Kanye rapping about God holding him down despite people constantly turning their backs on him.
“Back again, I use my back against the wall, Never caught on y’all, never count on y’all, always count on God,” Kanye rapped before repeating the line “He’s done miracles on me” four times. This tracks with reports from attendees at the Las Vegas event, who said that the new music was still primarily faith focused.
Beats By Dre closed the ad telling viewers to tune into the live stream of Kanye’s DONDA listening event on Apple Music Thursday (July 22). It’s unclear if this live stream is for Kanye’s listening in Atlanta at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium,
In a perfect, very-Kanye bit of promo energy, Kanye reactivated his Instagram account at the same time, posting a full-on outfit grid and flexing some new Cuban link gold chains bearing his children’s names, and another mask covering his face. For the last several weeks, Kanye’s been signaling that he’s in a new era with an all-black uniform that includes his new Yeezy Gap puffer and a face mask covering his entire head at all times.
So, now that Kanye’s put it in a commercial, can we count on this to be his first album that arrives on time in at least five years? There’s still a lot of time between now and Friday, but fingers crossed.