While Kanye West has been holed up in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium finishing his album Donda, TMZ reports the extravagant producer may be planning to use the stadium once again for a listening event for the album. However, since he already did that to somewhat mixed reviews (without releasing the album, no less), TMZ’s sources say Kanye is working on ways to make the experience substantially different from that last one at the behest of Live Nation and Creative Artists Agency, which fear they won’t sell as many tickets to a redux.
Options on the table include a new stage or musical arrangement but because Kanye has been so mercurial, often changing critical details of his projects at the last minute — such as mixing his new reunion song with Jay-Z the day of the last Donda listening — no one knows quite what he’ll do. At the previous listening, he walked around the arena floor dressed in an all-crimson outfit wearing a stocking mask as the album played — something many fans both in attendance and online questioned.
Fans also poked fun at the snack menu in the suites, believing (somewhat inaccurately) that Kanye was charging listeners $50 for chicken tenders (it was actually the group price). However, given his living situation at the arena and his new release date for the album, maybe the listening should take a backseat to actually finishing the thing for the time being.