UPDATED 5:20 p.m. ET: Music executive Bu Thiam shared an Instagram video of Kanye smiling and riding a three-wheel electric scooter alongside the message, "When you finally finish your album."
He also added the caption: "Album coming this Friday. OCT25th."
See original story below.
Early Monday (Oct. 21), Kanye West tweeted for the first time since Jan. 1 to announce that his new album, Jesus Is King, will be released on Friday, Oct. 25. A blue vinyl image accompanied the tweet, which can be viewed below.
Should the Oct. 25 date hold, Jesus Is King will arrive on the same day as the film that 'Ye made to accompany the project. Tickets for the film, which will be screened across the world in IMAX theaters, were made available last week. A trailer and behind-the-scenes clip tease what to expect.
Jesus Is King the album has experienced a handful of delays. It was initially expected to drop Sept. 27, which was the same day Kanye previewed it in Detroit alongside the film to attendees for his first Jesus Is King: A Kanye West Experience. That same night, Kim Kardashian West announced the project would come Sept. 29, which also happened to be the date for Kanye's NYC listening. Though the album didn't materialize for the public by that date, the announcement of the film's late-October release provided another possible time for 'Ye to share his ninth solo studio album. A visit to George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in mid-October fueled speculation that an Oct. 25 date was in the cards.
Kanye has made gospel music and religion a focal point through Jesus Is King and his Sunday Service series. During his Jesus Is King: A Kanye West Experienceevent in Chicago last month, he reportedly announced he would no longer be making secular music. According to Kanye's pastor, Adam Tyson, the Chicago artist even considered quitting rapping. "One time, he told me that he wasn't going to rap," Tyson said in a recent interview. "I said, 'Why not?' He said, 'That's the devil's music.' I said, 'Hey, man. Rap is a genre. You can rap for God.' I think he was already thinking about it a little bit, but I definitely said, 'Hey, bro. I think you need to use your talents that God's given you and use that platform for God.'"
