Producer and longtime Kanye West collaborator Mike Dean has reportedly pulled out of the rapper’s long-delayed new album, Donda. Dean posted a series of tweets, including “fuck it” and “good to be at the house,” before replying to a comment about West’s album rollout, “Toxic. That’s it.” Various social media comments appear to confirm that Dean is no longer involved in the project and has returned to his Los Angeles home, as NME points out. “I left Monday. Secretly. Had to get away,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet.
The follow-up to 2019’s Jesus Is King was originally slated for release after the first livestream event at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on July 23, but no album materialized. West reportedly ended up staying in the venue to finish the album and launched a second livestream event at the stadium on August 5, which featured an appearance from Dean. Release dates for the album have since been announced and then scrapped; a pre-order page for Donda currently shows an August 20 release date.
good to be at the house!!!
— MIKE DEAN! #MWA (@therealmikedean) August 14, 2021
Helping myself. Thx
— MIKE DEAN! #MWA (@therealmikedean) August 15, 2021