After making extremely controversial comments, Kanye “Ye” West took nearly a year long hiatus from releasing music and has since been involving himself in more fashion related controversies. However, when the clock struck Wednesday, Nov. 22, exactly 13 years after the release of his Grammy Award winning album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” West dropped his new collaborative song with Ty Dolla $ign and Bump J titled “Vultures.”
Similar to KIDS SEE GHOSTS, the supergroup made up of West and Kid Cudi, West’s upcoming album is expected to be released as a collaborative project with Dolla $ign and listed under ¥$’s own profile on streaming platforms as well as both artists’ profiles.
During my initial listen, I was somewhat disappointed. Besides the intro and outro, the song lacked the creativity and energy that fans of past albums had come to expect from West and seemed to fall flat. After nearly two decades of inventive uses of samples and wordplay, the production seemed relatively simple and the lyrics cheap.
Dolla $ign’s verse came out on top, being the most personal and actually showing some variety. After my fifth listen, Bump J’s verse about nothing in particular did start to grow on me though.
West’s verse, however, doesn’t really sound like him. While some of what West says in “Vultures” is relevant and on-brand (risky and unapologetic), I’ve heard AI-created songs that sound more like him. Hopefully, West just wasn’t bringing enough energy to this release and wasn’t actually cloned. For a comeback, “Vultures” did not fulfill expectations.
The initial release of “Vultures” on Chicago radio station “WPWX Power 92 Chicago” also featured Lil Durk, who had collaborated with West once before in 2022. The reason for Durk’s removal from the track is currently unknown and very unfortunate. Durk’s verse, which is still found on SoundCloud uploads of the song, brought more energy than Bump J and West combined.
Currently uncredited on Apple Music, 2 Eleven delivers arguably the most musically interesting twenty seconds of the song in the outro. While the lyrics themselves aren’t of much substance, the production and delivery of the outro is able to make it stand out.
Despite my dissatisfaction, I did not hate the song. It was simply not what I was anticipating and did not have much musical identity. I am optimistically awaiting the rest of the album and its hopeful recovery from this underwhelming preview.
