Why Do Kanye West Albums Keep Leaking Online?

Kanye West albums keep on leaking, and no one knows where they’re coming from. 

Jesus Is King II, the Dr Dre produced follow-up to 2019’s Jesus Is King, wormed its way online on Tuesday night, making it the second Kanye album to mysteriously appear in September. Just one week earlier, a 35-minute long visual album named Donda: With Child – featuring alternate versions of songs from Ye’s 2021 album Donda – appeared on Vimeo (now removed). 

Ye confirmed Jesus Is King II with a tweet in 2019, marking the first and last moment that much of the public will have heard of the record until this week. But it’s among several albums of his that keep leaking. Yandhi, West’s rumored follow-up to Yeezus, is online in various forms, while rough tracks from So Help Me God, TurboGrafx, the original Donda with the psychedelic art, and collaborative Cruel Winter, are all available if you know where to find them, despite being scrapped by West in much of a similar fashion (AKA tweeted about once).

Ye appears to be getting to the bottom of the leaks and in September sued an Instagram user for uploading unpublished material. According to legal documents seen by Billboard, it’s alleged that the individual or individuals behind @DaUnreleasedGod_ leaked more than 20 previously unreleased tracks between March and August 2023. How? It’s not known what relationship the leaker has to him or how they accessed confidential material, nor whether they’re the same leaker responsible for the hundreds of Kanye tracks to leak over the years.

When it comes to the past decade of rap, leaks have become increasingly commonplace. Some of this is due to the industry. Guest verses are zipped across continents, samples are swapped and vocalists traded out – the latter sometimes only in place as a reference track to help guide a lead artist’s vocal through potential pockets. These sessions result in multiple versions of the same track.

They’re why – in West’s oeuvre – there are a number of versions of The Life Of Pablo tracks with verses by artists who never appeared on the final release. Chance the Rapper has a demo version of “Waves”. In August, a Kendrick Lamar guest spot on an early version of “Father Stretch My Hands Part 2” reworked itself back into view. Presumably, it’s one of the rumored “40 songs” the pair made together in the run up to TLOP’s release in 2016. 

Will Ye release official new music in the near future? Sources report that he’s on the verge of dropping a new album by surprise, after working from Italy all summer – specifically, a $16k-a-night Four Seasons hotel in Florence, with walls that look like they’re from the Uffizi gallery. Meaning any fan boys still hanging on for dear life will presumably be hoping for high-tier maximalist art as seen on the peak album of West’s career, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, as opposed to as opposed to the barely finished, extremely bloated and largely disappointing Donda.

Stay tuned!