YZY SZN is in full swing.
During Game 6 of the NBA finals, Beats by Dre premiered a commercial starring American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson that featured a new track from Kanye West titled “No Child Left Behind.”
But that wasn’t all.
Also in the clip, Kanye revealed that his DONDA album will drop later this week on Friday, July 23. A listening event for the album, which will go down on Thursday, July 22 at 8 p.m. ET in Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium, will be livestreamed via Apple Music.
The Beats spot debuted about a month after 21-year-old Richardson punched her ticket to the Tokyo Games by winning the women’s 100-meter race in Oregon. The athlete’s Olympic dreams were ultimately put on hold, as she was hit with a one-month suspension after testing positive for marijuana.
But rather than focus on the controversial ban, the Beats by Dre ad celebrated Richardson’s undeniable athletic prowess, highlighting her strength on and off the track, while Kanye’s new song served as the soundtrack.
The audio manufacturer teased the spot on social media Tuesday afternoon, simply tweeting: “Tonight. Game 6. @itskerrii. @kanyewest.” Shortly after, Complex confirmed the brand’s Richardson-starring ad would debut during the game and would include a snippet of a new Kanye joint.
Kanye recently hosted a Las Vegas listening party for his long-awaited studio album DONDA. The multi-hyphenate, as previously mentioned, will bring a similar event to Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium this Thursday that will be livestreamed by Apple.
The pro-basketball player-turned social media personality praised the effort for its forward-thinking sound and hard-hitting lyrics, tweeting: “… The production is light years ahead of it’s 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.”
A day after the Beats commercial debuted, Kanye shared an IG post that seemingly features a tracklist for his DONDA album.
But that’s not all. Kanye’s jam-packed weekend will also include a performance at Rolling Loud Miami on Sunday, July 25, Billboard reported a source as saying. Consequence previously said that the Jesus Is King artist will be at the event in a post made to IG.
You can check out the Beats by Dre commercial via YouTube above. And be sure to check back as more details about DONDA become available.
