Kanye West shared a sinister album trailer on Tuesday (Jan. 23) to tease the much-delayed Vultures collaborative project with Ty Dolla $ign.
West — who now goes by Ye — tapped Jon Rafman to direct the visual, which is filled with haunting scenes throughout and no appearances from Kanye, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Durk and Bump J.
The spooky clip finds citizens summoned by vultures as their souls are seemingly overtaken and controlled by a new host. Heading to battle, they vanish one by one as the city is the target of an explosive onslaught.
The trailer ends with a reveal of Ye’s master plan to break down Vultures into three different volumes, with the first arriving on Feb. 9, as previously confirmed, with the others following suit on March 8 and April 5. West later confirmed the dates and various album covers in a post to his Instagram Story.
Vultures was originally supposed to be released in October, but continued to get pushed back, first to December, and now into the new year.
Kanye could be facing sampling issues contributing to the album delay. For example, the last time Nicki Minaj spoke on “New Body” — which was originally intended for Ye’s Yandhi album in 2018 — she didn’t have any plans on clearing her vocals for Vultures.
“Now regarding Kanye, that train has left the station, OK?” she said in an Instagram Live in December. “No disrespect in any way, I just put out a brand new album. Now why would I put out a song that has been out for three years? Come on guys. You know?”
West responded to Minaj’s rejection at a December Vultures listening party, saying, “I made that girl rewrite her verse three times for ‘Monster.’ I supported her career.”
Barring another setback or change-of-heart from Ye, volume one of Vultures will arrive on Feb. 9.
Watch the trailer below.
