Fans Are Going Wild for Kanye West and JAY-Z's 'Donda' Reunion

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Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, the wait began—or, for longtime Kanye West fans, continued. West's planned live listening event for his 10th studio album, Donda, itself anticipated for several years now, did, in fact, go live when it was supposed to, but more than an hour passed before music began to thump.

When it finally did, West emerged onto the field of Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz stadium wearing his now-signature full face mask and a red version of his YZY GAP Round Jacket (now available for pre-order in black), a color we hadn't yet seen. The rapper didn't speak a word throughout the entire event, but paced the entirety of the covered football field, dancing, posing, and sometimes pausing as tracks blasted through the speakers. The feature list was heavy: the late Pop Smoke, Travis Scott, Pusha T, Lil Baby. But those weren't the names that got fans really going Thursday night. When West played the last track of the album, before ceremoniously walking off the field, a familiar voice boomed throughout the venue: JAY-Z.

It's the surprise appearance any fan would have hoped for, if they were letting themselves hope at all. (They were, after all, likely channeling that energy into the album actually coming out. It still hasn't as I write this.) Even better than the general existence of a Hov feature though, might be one line Jay utters on the track, "This just might be the return of the throne." The dynamic duo's reunion, following a very public falling out, is, it marked, a real thing.

Fans, of course, were thrilled. Read on for some of the best reactions to the surprise reunion while you continue to wait for Donda to hit streaming platforms. Knowing that some features on the album recorded their voices just Thursday morning—and Jay's apparently being recorded at 4 p.m. that day, only West himself knows when that might actually happen.

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