Less than a month ago, Kim Kardashian announced, via Twitter, the impending release of Kanye West‘s ninth solo album with a snapshot of a handwritten tracklist and a September 27th release date. West later confirmed the cryptic tweet with a post on his own website. Jesus Is King was expected to be heavily gospel-influenced, following West’s touring Sunday Service performances and its extremely Biblical tracklist. However, according to sources close to the situation, it will no longer be released this Friday. It’s unclear what will happen to the project next.
Jesus Is King is the second project from West to face a last-minute shelving in less than a year. Yandhi — which was also announced by his wife on Twitter — was expected to be released last September, before being pushed back to a November 23rd release date. It never arrived. West eventually addressed the situation personally, tweeting, “I realize the new album I’ve been working on isn’t ready yet. I’ll announce the release date once it’s done. Thank you for understanding.” Jesus Is King has been understood to be a completely new project after unofficial versions of songs presumably intended for Yandhi leaked online earlier this year.
According to reports, the decision to delay Jesus Is King happened concurrently with a meeting West had with executives from his label, Def Jam, in Wyoming. On Sunday, West held one of his signature, Christianity-themed Sunday Services near Cody, Wyoming, where he recently purchased a ranch.
