YEEZUS TALKS

Kanye West’s Delay Of Jesus Is King Is… Well, Unsurprising

Yeezy has delayed the release of his ninth studio album once again.

Oct. 25, 2019

Taylor Hill/Getty Images

The long, long wait for Kanye West‘s newest album should have ended by now.

After teasing the release date for months, West gave a revealing interview to Zane Lowe as part of his promotional tour for his ninth album, Jesus Is King, where he admitted to wishing he had Virgil Abloh‘s job as the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear division (“It was supposed to be me. I was the Louis Vuitton Don”) and revealed that he did, at one time, style his daughter North West (“to out-dress Rihanna”).

An interview with Lowe is a big deal—one would think that if West opened up on the Beats One radio show, he was indeed ready to finally drop the album that was initially promised earlier in 2019, and eventually slated for an October 25 midnight release, in concurrence with an experimental concert film of the same name.

West has been walking around in Jesus Is King album merchandise, too, appearing on LA-based radio shows to talk about everything from his association with Donald Trump to the pitfalls of social media. He also surprised Jimmy Kimmel to further discuss Jesus Is King.

Then, after attending the Fashion Group International Night of Stars with Kim Kardashian West (and Rick Owens and Michelle Lamy in tow) on Thursday night, the rapper appeared at the World Trade Center’s Oculus Mall around 2 A.M. to give a crowd of bleary-eyed stans a signature Sunday Service performance. West’s gospel-inspired Jesus Is King was supposed to be released on streaming platforms the moment he began filming his Sun-… err, Thursday Service. We’re as confused as you are.

But it turns out everything—the months of Sunday Service performances, the handful of recent radio interviews, and the Oculus appearance—was all for naught, as West revealed on Twitter that he is still in the process of “fixing mixes” on three of the album’s tracks.

It might be said that we, ever-hungry for more pop content and material, put too much pressure on our stars to release albums in rapid succession (just look at how everyone treats Rihanna every time she goes anywhere—ask for an album and you shall receive a career-spanning photo book instead), but West did say he was planning to release Jesus Is King on Friday, only to take back his promise… once again. It’s not the first time he’s gone back on his word, though: in 2016 he made a handful of post-release updates to The Life of Pablo. (That album, too, faced uncertainty—particularly with a number of name changes beforehand.)

Fans might be able to take solace in the fact that Consequence, a rapper formerly under West’s’ GOOD Music banner, tweeted that the album might still drop midday. And if that doesn’t work out, there’s always the theoretical Christmas album West promised—titled Jesus Is Born—only two months away.