Kanye West’s new album rumoured to drop this week following Las Vegas listening event

West allegedly played the album for internet personality Justin Laboy and basketball player Kevin Durant over the weekend

Kanye West is expected to release a new album this week following rumours that an exclusive listening event for the record was held in Las Vegas.

Speculation surrounding the rapper’s next release has grown since internet personality Justin Laboy claimed that West played the album for himself and basketball player Kevin Durant over the weekend.

He wrote on Twitter: “Kanye played his new album for me & @KDTrey5 last night in Vegas.”

Laboy went on to applaud the album, writing: “The production is light years ahead of its time, and the bars sound like he’s broke & hungry trying to get signed again.”

He warned that “any artist who [planned] on dropping soon should just push it back”.

Laboy followed up his original tweet with two more posts, in which he alleged that West’s new album would be arriving at some point this week.

“Kanye West album is really done,” he wrote. “When it drops this week, we probably not going to listen to anything else for a while.”

Rumours of an exclusive album listening event taking place in Las Vegas on Sunday (18 July) appear to corroborate Laboy’s claims.

Photos emerged on social media of people allegedly waiting in line outside the venue where the listening party was reportedly taking place on Sunday night (18 July).

Producer Teddy Walton has since tweeted about the forthcoming album, which he appears to have contributed to.

“Honestly can’t wait till @kanyewest drop. & i’m glad to be apart of history. See y’all soon,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday (19 July).

Although no collaborations for the forthcoming record have been confirmed, footage of Tyler, The Creator in the studio with West circulated widely on social media over the weekend.

In July last year, West announced that a new album – titled Donda – would be arriving that week, also sharing a 12-song tracklist. The record, however, never materialised.