This wasn’t always promised for Kanye West. Following a string of antisemitic remarks and controversy in 2022, plenty of brands and artists distanced themselves from the polarizing rap dignitary.
Yeezy laid low for much of the year and fled the States to discover a creative safe haven in Italy’s Tuscany hills for much of the summer with his wife Bianca Censori, where he linked up with Ty Dolla $ign and the idea of a joint album began to take form.
Diehard Ye fans may recall that West previously teased possibly doing a collab LP with Ty dating back to 2018.
A November trip to Abu Dhabi and Dubai saw Ye and Ty Dolla $ign reconnect along with the release of their debut single “Vultures,” featuring Chicago natives Lil Durk and Bump J, which sent a flare into the sky signaling an album was on the horizon.
West and Ty returned stateside to preview an early edition of Vultures at Art Basel with a Miami listening party where the embattled Chicago mogul assembled the rap Avengers and reunited with Kid Cudi among the star-studded guest appearances. Even Ye’s daughter North West made a cameo and stars on the album.
Most people would call Vultures 1 a comeback album for Kanye — his first without the backing of Universal Music Group or Def Jam — but nearly all of his projects are fueled by some form of plight he’s fighting against. Just think back to 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy following the Taylor Swift-MTV VMAs fiasco a year prior.
But it wouldn’t be a proper Yeezy release without some chaos as fans remained in the dark wondering if the project would arrive after several delays and listening parties inside Chicago’s United Center and Long Island’s UBS Arena in the Big Apple.
However, Yeezy season persevered as the first volume of Vultures 1 finally began to hit streaming services early Saturday morning (Feb. 10), which also marks the 20th anniversary of Kanye’s The College Dropout debut album.
Find all 16 tracks from Vultures 1 ranked below.
