At what time will Kanye West's "Yandhi" be released?

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Kanye West rapping on stage.

Tonight, Kanye West releases his ninth studio album Yandhi. West announced the album last week and confirmed via Twitter that he would fall at some point during his appearance on Saturday Night Live. "We throw Yandhi Saturday night," he wrote. The episode starts at 11:35 pm Eastern time on NBC and continues until about 1:05 am

This is an irregular release time, given the commercial stature of an artist like West. Generally, big studio albums fall around midnight eastern time on Friday when they are available on platforms like Apple Music and Spotify. This was the case for recent albums like Lil Wayne Tha Carter V and logic Young Sinatra IVbut West has proven in the past that he does not always follow a normal exit schedule.

The album will be abandoned during West's performance on SNL

Take his latest studio album, you, for example. The outing was originally scheduled for June 1 at midnight, Eastern Time, but it was only made available the following afternoon, during which West added the ### ### ### ############################################################## Illustration and some last-minute changes. A similar event occurred with Children see ghosts, West Collaboration with Kid Cudi album. It was originally scheduled to debut via livestream on the WAV application on June 8, but it was delayed by three hours when traffic volume caused connection problems.

In addition, Yandhi is not West's first album to have links with Saturday Night Live. In 2013, he appeared in the show to electrically interpret the songs "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves". The pieces came from the album. Yeezus, whose Yandhi is said to be a spiritual sequel. Both albums share a minimal cover design and derive their title from the combination of West's nickname, Yeezy, with Jesus and Gandhi, respectively.

West reportedly brought several stars on stage with him

West has several invited guests ready to appear on SNL with him. Sources told TMZ that the rapper was working with director Spike Jonze to refine his performance, and that GOOD Music artists Teyana Taylor, Kid Cudi and 070 Shake, as well as West Compil's recent collaborator, Lil Pump, will join on stage the broadcast.

Sources add that the atmosphere surrounding the performance is "relaxed" and that the West gets along well with regular actors in the series. Thursday, West posted a photo of him with SNLKenan Thompson and his guest, Adam Driver, during the rehearsals.

West addressed the fact that Yandhi is dropping the same weekend as a rap icon and his colleagues, Lil Wayne, released his album Tha Carter V. "We know he will come to number 2 of my brother Lil Wayne and it's lovely," he wrote on Twitter. "The universe needs music from Ye and Wayne at the same time."

Check out the original tweet from West above. West also posted a series of simulated billboards before the album's arrival. Simplistic ads have an iMessage bubble with Yandhi title and release date.