Kanye West Launches ‘Countdown to Donda’ Livestream Before Tonight’s Event in Atlanta

In the wee hours of Thursday, Apple Music launched a livestream via an in-app takeover before Kanye West’s second livestream of his delayed new album, “Donda,” again at Mercedes Stadium in Atlanta.

Two weeks ago, West — who has held similar listening events for his last two official albums — held a similar livestreamed session in the stadium ahead of the album’s originally planned release date of July 23. However, as he has done many times in the past, he skipped the deadline to do more work on the album, with the release date bumped to August 6. West apparently took up residence in the stadium to work on the album; time will tell whether he actually makes this release date.

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The livestream is featured on the front of Apple Music’s page, however, viewers apparently must sign up for the streaming service in order to watch.

However, a link to a livestream of the actual event, listed as beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET, is available on West’s official website. The previous event was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET but did not actually start until nearly two hours later. https://www.kanyewest.com/

The livestream is somewhat reminiscent of Frank Ocean’s similar “event” on the service in advance of his “Endless” album five years ago, where fans found themselves watching virtually nothing for long stretches of time.

According to Complex, the livestream was at first focused on what seems to be West’s living quarters inside the stadium with a countdown clock affixed to the wall. At various points, Chance the Rapper was seen stopping by, as were Vic Mensa, co-producer Mike Dean, Steve Lacy, Fivio Foreign, and others. West appeared at several points, including once doing push-ups.

At around 11 a.m. ET, the livestream featured footage of West sleeping.

As Apple Music has explained, audio for the stream has been “intentionally muted,” at least for the moment. How long fans can expect to be deprived of hearing the tantalizing sounds of West doing push-ups remains to be seen.

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