We have our first taste of Kanye West’s new music, thanks to a Beats by Dre ad starring track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson, who found worldwide support when she was suspended from Team USA ahead of the Olympics after testing positive for marijuana.
The new commercial, which debuted during Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday (July 20) and was scored and edited by West, includes one minute of the rapper’s “No Child Left Behind” track from his upcoming album Donda. The ad confirms that West’s 10th studio album will be released on Friday and also announces that his Donda listening event, set for Thursday in Atlanta, will be livestreamed by Apple Music at 8 p.m. ET.
Following the news earlier this month of Richardson’s 30-day suspension from the U.S. Olympic team, music stars including Drake and Dua Lipa took to social media to show their support. “They know she woulda ATE,” Drake captioned a photo of the star athlete on his Instagram Story, while the “Levitating” singer wrote, “Let her run!! This is stupid.”
Richardson wears Beats Studio Buds in the commercial, which shows the runner in her element on the track as the organ chords of “No Child Left Behind” play. “He’s done miracles on me,” West repeatedly sings in the song, as the ad’s “Live Your Truth” slogan hits the screen. Donda will be West’s first album since his back-to-back 2019 gospel projects Jesus Is King and Jesus Is Born, the latter of which is credited to the Sunday Service Choir. It remains to be seen what the new project — named after his late mom, who died in 2007 — will sound like, but the first taste of “No Child Left Behind” both lyrically and sonically recalls West’s gospel work.
Tickets for “Kanye West Presents A Donda Listening Event,” set for Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, went on sale Monday at Ticketmaster.com for $20 and $50.
Watch the new Beats by Dre commercial below:
