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Kanye West performs at Rolling Loud on December 12, 2021.
Kadeem CobhamMuch intrigue has swirled around Ye‘s Donda Academy, and on Monday (Jan. 24), the prep school’s basketball team shed some light on the program in a new interview.
In a cover story for SLAM, the elite team talks about being recruited away from their hometowns to attend the prep school named after Kanye West‘s late mother — a professor at Chicago State University and the namesake of her son’s latest, Grammy-nominated album — in Simi Valley, Calif. (While he doesn’t comment in the story, West did pose with the hand-selected team for the cover shoot, wearing a black hoodie and dark sunglasses.)
“A lot of my teammates, when they left [their previous schools], they had some bad reactions,” 6-foot-8 forward Braeden Moore admits to the magazine. “People called them clout chasers and said the [school] offered them money.”
The profile reveals that the basketball team’s custom jerseys are produced by Balenciaga, they wear YEEZY 500s during games, and at one point had their meals prepared by Ye’s personal chef. They also live together in luxury apartments, use an online curriculum approved by the NCAA known as K12 Private Academy and aren’t surprised when the rapper swoops in to direct the team’s photo shoot or call players on the phone for one-on-one mentoring.
“I know how important education is and I have goals that surpass basketball,” adds Moore. “That’s another reason [why] I came here, like with Justin [Laboy] and Ye, creating these relationships not only sets me up for success in basketball, it sets me up for life.”
Meanwhile, vice principal and athletic director Shayla Scott says in the story that Ye’s goals for Donda Academy are only in their infancy. “When I have opportunities to talk with [Ye] about his vision for the school, it’s by no stretch of the imagination something that’s out of reach,” she says, later adding, “In actuality, anybody can do school this way. But, to know that we’re doing it because of the support we have from Ye and all the parents and players, I think is really, honestly, going to build for future years.”
Read the full SLAM cover story here and check out Ye’s Instagram post of the cover below.
NEWS
There’s a high probability that Jorja Smith has new music coming this summer. The British singer revealed plans for her What Are the Odds LP on Thursday (July 2), with the album set to arrive on Aug. 21 via FAMM.
Smith reunites with producer P2J — who served as a primary collaborator on her 2023 album Falling or Flying — for the entirety of the project. J Money and P2J will continue to build on the inventive U.K. garage sound Smith has been exploring, alongside a mix of grime and house.
“This album came together really naturally. There was never a big plan; it was just me making music that felt right in the moment,” Smith tells Billboard. “Working with P2J, we started experimenting with different sounds, pulling from U.K. garage, grime and house (funky house, Afro house) and it all grew from there.”
She continues: “The music feels uplifting, but the lyrics can be a bit sad at times. They’re about growing up, love, loss, friendships and figuring things out as I go. I trusted my instincts with this one, and I think you can hear that throughout the record.”
Smith kicked off the album’s rollout in May with the self-assuring “What’s Done Is Done,” and it continues on Thursday (July 2) with a second single, “Alive,” which finds the R&B singer joining forces with Afrobeats pioneer WizKid. The duo basks in the love-drunk euphoria of the honeymoon phase of a bubbling relationship and heads to Paris for the visual.
“Making this with P2J and WizKid felt really easy,” Smith adds of the collab. “We wrote and recorded it together in London. I think we captured that feeling when you’re at the beginning of something with someone and everything feels exciting. I’ve always loved WizKid’s music and the way he’s opened so many doors for Afrobeats around the world, so it feels really special and a big honor to have a song with him.”
What Are the Odds serves as Jorja Smith’s third studio album and contains 12 tracks. Outside of WizKid, the only other feature comes from grime artist Devlin.
When the project lands on Aug. 21, Smith will hit the stage later that night at London’s All Points East, as she’ll be co-headlining the Victoria Park show with Tems. 2026 has already been a busy year for J Money, who served as a musical guest on the debut season of Saturday Night Live UK in April.
The 29-year-old also collaborated with Mobb Deep’s Havoc for a remix of her “Blue Lights” classic and lent “Price of It All” to Amazon MGM Studios’ Bait soundtrack.
Find the What Are the Odds cover art and tracklist below.
What Are the Odds tracklist:
