With recent apologies being given by Mr West and a seemingly reformed return to publicity and music making, his new album with Ty Dolla $ign ‘Vultures’ marks a very grey ground for listeners. Do we acknowledge his sudden antisemitic statements as an irrational unhinged episode from a mentally-ill man who is now looking to heal and change? Or has Kanye always held these views and simply showed his true colours? Can we acknowledge this album as its own art separate from the controversy? On Vultures, Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign go in quite an opposite direction to 2021’s Donda, showering us in a spectrum of distorted beats and contrastingly-simple brag rap cuts about wealth, sex and egotism. As an effort to land Kanye back on the modern music scene, this album goes with mixed results.
To some relief, there are flashes of Kanye’s old charisma and brash humour on tracks like ‘Back To Me’, with the song’s thunderously funky production and the hilariously-delivered ‘fall out the sky’ repetition. The master behind Pinata, Freddie Gibbs, also effortlessly slides in to give a verse that somehow strikes a balance between bloodthirsty and adherent to the song’s carefree nature. Kanye and Ty also bring more tranquil production and vocal moments on songs like ‘Good (Don’t Die)’ and ‘Talking’. These work to provide soulful human experiences feeling akin to a journey through cold winter snow to finally return home, the latter also having a very heart-warming performance from Ye’s young daughter North West.
It is on the more energetic cuts where Kanye’s creaky gears begin to unscrew. The songs ‘Carnival’ and ‘F*k Sumn’ have anthemic bass-driven beats which Ty and a now deep-voiced Playboi Carti thrive over in a sure way to get stadiums jumping. Then Kanye pulls a ‘Here’s Johnny’, breaks the door down with an axe and amputates the songs’ buzzing swagger with teeth-gratingly awful sex lines that are almost disturbingly-obsessive for a man in his mid-forties. Don’t get me wrong, Kanye has been well-known since the release of MBDTF for his ridiculous out-of-pocket lyrics. However, songs like Runaway and Father Stretch My Hands (with the infamous email and bleach bars) had charismatic delivery and some quality surrounding lines to make these bars hilarious and one-off acceptable. Across Vultures, Kanye spits so many similarly-dumbfounding bars like machine gun spray in a very hazy fashion.
Kanye spits so many similarly-dumbfounding bars like machine gun spray in a very hazy fashion.
The sound of the song ‘Problematic’ is presented like an ethereal gate to heaven with the gospel sample and epic horns. You may even imagine Nas wisely reminiscing over production like this. Kanye instead shouts disasters like ‘I was late to every meeting, in my queen's tunnel.’ We may have now reached a point of questioning, is Kanye using these lines as a cheekily daring way to intentionally imperfect his art, or is he genuinely incapable of writing well now? Such moments are quite unfortunate when comparing to the outlier of his penmanship here: the song ‘Burn.’ Here, Ye’s flow, undeniable swagger and snappy wordplay form a portal back to his College Dropout days, which is only apparent based on his lacking performances elsewhere.
However, Vultures, despite a few tackily produced beats, is a sonically pleasant experience with its varied soundscape and standout vocals from Ty on tracks like ‘Paid’ and ‘Do It’. It is just worrying the ringleader himself often fails to perform over his own work. Kanye even occasionally addresses his past antisemitism in a very ‘I used to be so silly, didn’t I?’ fashion like a man reminiscing on his schoolboy pranks on ‘King’ and the title track. It doesn’t work. If Kanye is truly dedicated to making repairs, it would be best if he ceased any mentioning of his past remarks outside public apology and moved on.
Vultures ultimately shows a shaky rise for a past legend looking to stand again. While there are snapshots of Kanye’s old colourful self in the mix and some vibrant standouts, the man is undoubtably rusty in readjusting his craftsmanship. While people remain sceptical of his apparently-changing image, one thing is for certain: if he is to remove Ty Dolla $ign as his musical stabiliser in the near future, Kanye needs to realign his pen and tongue.
