Rapper Kanye West is setting aside thousands of tickets for HBCU students to his Atlanta listening party for his new album Donda, according to PageSix.
Faculty, staff and students of Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Spelman College, Morris Brown College and ITC can receive one of 5,000.
Those seeking tickets can give their information through their schools and will receive them electronically.
The listening party will take place this Thursday at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The listening event is sold out, according to Def Jam Recordings. The album, his tenth, is titled after West’s mother Donda, who died in 2007. It is set to release Friday.
Over the weekend, RevoltTV host and internet personality Justin Laboy claimed to have heard the completed album in a private listening party in Las Vegas alongside Kanye and Kevin Durant.
“The production is light years ahead of its time, and the bars sound like he’s broke & hungry trying to get signed again. Any artist who plan on dropping soon should just push it back,” he tweeted.
So far, one song from the album has debuted in a Beats commercial during game six of the NBA Finals, featuring track star Sha'Carri Richardson, who captured the nation’s attention when she dominated the 100 meter race at the Olympic Trials and became the fastest woman in America, as Blavity previously reported.
.@itskerrii doesn't need you to let her do anything.
Scored and edited by @kanyewest
Featured track is “No Child Left Behind”
DONDA is officially out in 48 hours! ⏲ pic.twitter.com/9eZN6XJM41— Beats by Dre (@beatsbydre) July 21, 2021
The one-minute ad features a snippet of the song, showing Richardson on the track. The song is a nod to his latest gospel fixation. West’s 2019 album, Jesus Is King, won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Album.
At the end of the commercial, the words “Live Your Truth” flash onto the screen, before the announcement of a Donda listening event livestream on Apple Music at the same time that the listening party is set to take place in Atlanta.
This is not the first time West has brought his music to an HBCU. After being booed off the stage at Howard University’s Yardfest in 2003, he returned in 2019, bringing his Sunday Service to the campus.
