MUSIC

"Jesus Is King" Will Never Come Out: A List of Hip-Hop Albums That Never Dropped

With Jesus Is King's release date changed once again to this Friday, let's take a look at hip-hop's other infamous releases that never materialized.

Chances are October 25 will come and go without a new album from Kanye West.

We've come to expect being disappointed by Kanye. And despite his recent official "announcement" about the release of his album Jesus Is King via Twitter, fans were quick to troll and dismiss the tweet as a false promise. It's been a rough road for Kanye fans in the last year. His recent "Sunday Service" performances have disturbed the masses. Some believe they affirm Kanye's long-held God complex, while others view his latest post-MAGA obsession to be more of a manic episode. Some believe he's simply spreading the gospel and that he's truly been "saved." Regardless, it's all cast Jesus Is King in a puzzling light, and fans truly don't know what to expect, or whether to expect anything at all. The one thing we know for certain is that the guy is a total pr*ck to his wife these days.

Will Jesus Is King become the next Fear Inoculum? Probably. It would be quite like Kanye to be his own hype beast. In the meantime, let's take a look back at a few of hip-hop's other notorious unreleased projects, all of which are, honestly, more likely to be released in 2019 than Jesus Is King.

MC Hammer and 2Pac's ​"Too Tight​"

MC Hammer signed with Death Row in 1995, but his highly-anticipated label debut, Too Tight, never saw the light of day. The project was much anticipated because of Hammer's alleged collaborations with Tupac Shakur on the project. The former left the record company shortly after the death of the latter. He later explained in an interview his concerns over the circumstances surrounding Tupac's death. He spoke to the rapper right before he died, and he was in Las Vegas the night of the shooting. Hammer later released "Too Late Playa," which featured the late Shakur as well as Big Daddy Kane and Danny Boy.Too Tight probably would have been amazing.

CULTURE

Rihanna Just Saved Print Media

Rihanna has announced her first book, in the nick of time.

Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Today, Rihanna (mogul, fashion designer, superstar, icon) announced that she's going to be releasing her first book.

For a long time, it's seemed like books and print media were on a downward spiral, but fortunately Rihanna has arrived just in time to fill the physical book industry with new vigor and promise. Only someone with her kind of star power could achieve such a feat.

Enter Rihanna, a new "visual autobiography" that contains over 1,000 photos across 504 pages. Its images will span the early years of her childhood in Barbados to her world tours and everything in between.

Weighing about 15 pounds and costing about $175, the book will be released on October 10th. Its release will coincide with a party at the Guggenheim, hosted by Rihanna herself.

What is it about Rihanna that makes her so aesthetically pleasing to look at, which will ultimately make her photo book a surefire bestseller? It's possibly because she's beautiful inside and out—her company Fenty Beauty has made waves for its unprecedented diversity, and Rihanna herself has schooled Internet users on everything from trans rights to inclusivity. She's brashly sensual, super confident, entirely ageless, honest, and unashamed. She's given us eight exquisite pop albums. She continued to thrive after everything that happened with Chr*s Br*wn. She effortlessly avoids questions about her next album and remains unshaken by pregnancy rumors. She seems to exist in a slightly separate universe from the rest of us, evading most of the typical waves of controversy and shaming that surround most stars in our modern media landscape.

In many ways, Rihanna floats outside of our messy reality, shimmering in a dimension of her own and representing a sort of archetypal beauty, composure, and power that we all can't help but envy. It's kind of impossible to imagine her posting a mental health confession, as so many other celebrities have, or showing up anywhere looking less than angelic. (That's not an accident: She reportedly spends $38,000 a week on her beauty regime. Of course, she also operates several charities and hosts a multitude of benefit galas). She almost seems like a relic of the 2010s' vision of unattainable, impenetrable, perpetually camera-ready glamour, but her sway over our contemporary universe cannot be underestimated: Snapchat lost $800 million after she criticized an ad for making light of domestic violence. And have you seen her first selfie?

Sure, she's milking capitalism and her own image for all they're worth to great success—with a net worth of $600 million, she's the world's richest female musician—but it's hard not to worship at her altar. She's Rihanna, after all.