Last month, Kanye West started teasing his upcoming album Vulturesthe artist's first release after a series of controversies in which the Grammy-winning musician aligned himself with far-right ideologues and was booted from Twitter (now called X) after declaring that he intended to go “DEATH 3 TO THE JEWS.”
Kanye spent much of 2023 out of the spotlight, recording the album in various locations with collaborator Ty Dolla $ign. Besides Ty, Vultures reportedly includes features from Lil Baby, Bad Bunny, Nicki Minaj, James Blake, Kodak Black and Freddie Gibbs. The album also features a verse from Ye's daughter North West.
Ye premiered the album at a party in Miami during Art Basel in December. also launched a mobile-only platform called “Yews”, a portmanteau of Yeezy and News, which he reportedly applied for trademarked in October.
In 2022, Rolling rock reported that sources close to West remembered him speaking favorably of Hitler during the making of his 2004 debut album, Dropping out of college. Last December, Ye appeared on the Alex Jones show for an interview that lasted more than three hours during which he praised the Nazis and Hitler. “I see good things about Hitler,” West said. He also falsely credited the Nazi dictator with the invention of freeways and microphones.
Ye used his recently launched “Yews” platform to announce that disgraced fashion designer Gosha Rubchinsky had been appointed creative director of Kanye's fashion brand Yeezy. In 2018, Rubchinsky screenshots appears to ask a 16-year-old boy for illegal photos via DM on Instagram has surfaced online. Rubchinskiy released a statement at the time saying the screenshots had been “altered and taken out of context.”
Ye seems to be taking lightly accusations of anti-Semitism on his new album. On the title track, featuring Lil Durk and Bump J, he raps, “How am I anti-Semitic? I just fucked a Jewish bitch.” He has since apologized for his comments about the Jewish community. “It was not my intention to offend or disparage, and I am deeply sorry for any pain I may have caused,” Ye said in a December Instagram post written in Hebrew. “I am committed to starting with myself and learning from this experience to ensure greater sensitivity and understanding in the future. Your forgiveness is important to me and I am committed to making amends and promoting unity.”
After months of teases and false starts, it's still unclear when, if Vultures will be released. Here's everything we know so far.
Controversial cover
The Vultures The album artwork shared by Kanye features works by German romantic landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich, whose work was embraced by the Nazis in the twentieth century. Additionally, the cover typography appears to refer to the Norwegian Black Metal project Burzum, run by convicted murderer and notorious Nazi sympathizer Varg Vikernes.
Father-daughter time
During Kanye's Art Basel listening event, North West made an appearance on a track reportedly titled “It's Your Bestie, Ms. Westie.” The track arrives as North's star power continues to rise, thanks to her often viral appearances Keeping Up With the Kardashians. (On the show, she frequently teases her mother, Kim Kardashian, whose split from Kanye in 2022 inspired a flood of jabs and song lyrics from Ye.)
Old friends
Ahead of the first official release date for vultures, Kanye appeared to have patched things up with longtime collaborator Kid Cudi, who has clashed with West more than once — most recently in 2022, during the artist's multiple public attacks on various members of the music industry and Hollywood. including Cudi. At that time, Cudi said Advertising sign that Kanye was “fucking my sanity” and that he had to “deal with your own stuff like any man in this life.” In the Vultures event, the two hugged each other and played an unreleased collaboration.
Attribute cleanups
Before the same event, Kanye tweeted that he was still working on getting last-minute permission to use a verse from Nicki Minaj on an unreleased track called “New Body.” Ye tweeted a screenshot of a text thread between him and Nicki in which he asks “Can I call you about clearing the new body on the new album.” Nicki Minaj went on Instagram Live later that afternoon and respectfully declined. “Now as far as Kanye is concerned, that train has left the station,” he said. “No disrespect by any means, I just put out a brand new album. Why would I release a song that's been out for 3 years? Come children.”
Extended delays
Just before Christmas, a rep for Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign said Revolution that the album would be released on January 12, 2024. Fans speculated that the delays were caused by clearance issues for lyrics such as Nicki Minaj's, which were reportedly several years old, as well as interference from the Backstreet Boys single “Everybody,” which is featured in a song that Ye previewed on social media. As the January 12th release date approached, a representative for the two artists confirmed it Forbes that he had again been repulsed. currently Vultures it has no official release date.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/kanye-west-vultures-album-release-1234929320/