Issue 1: Vultures Review

This week I will be reviewing Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign's highly anticipated album.

Explanation of ratings

Since this is the first issue of my newsletter, I will explain how my rating system works. In a typical song or album review, I will provide a numerical score between 0 and 100 with each interval meaning something different. This is observed below:

85-100 - Perfect Song/Album

70-84 - Very Good Song/Album

55-69 - Good Song/Album

40 - 54 - Mid Song/Album (something that I don’t like nor dislike)

25-39 - Bad Song/Album

25 and less - Very Poor Song/Album

With albums, I will provide an additional rating scheme where I will analyse various parts making up the album. These factors include; songs (where I will simply find the average of the song ratings I have scored), overall sound (what I think of the overall sound and vibe of the album), creativity (how creative and different the album is from other projects from the artist and other projects at the time the album was released), cohesiveness (how well the project flows and the songs go together) and replayability (how likely I will revisit this album in the future). All of the above factors will also be considered when coming up with a score for the songs as well.

Vultures 1 by Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign Review

Tracklist Ratings:

1. STAR - the choir sample and slow beat running throughout the whole track is beautiful. I feel both Kanye and Ty have strong performances and help support the beautiful choir tone with their vocals. Due to the introductory nature of the song, it may lack the same replayability as the other songs on the album but nonetheless, it is a poignant start. 73

2. KEYS TO MY LIFE - the production is really strong which is what you would expect with it being Timbaland-produced. I do like the message behind the song in talking about Ye’s relationship with Kim Kardashian and his new one with Bianca Censori. The ending slighty ruins the song for me since I find the vocals quite annoying but overall I find the track is solid. 62

3. PAID - the hook is really catchy, which is probably why I enjoy the song so much. However, Ye’s performance is strange - especially with the screechy-sounding vocals he delivers. I think this slightly ruins the song as I find it unnecessary. I also find some of the lyrics strange especially when you think about the messages portrayed in the previous track. Ty has a very strong performance with his hooks and verses which helps cancel out Ye’s questionable performance on the song. 67

4. TALKING (feat. North West) - I find it really sweet for Kanye to give North a feature on his album and all in all, she performed well. I like how the overall song discusses life with daughters which Ty talks about in his verse, making North’s feature work well. Not particularly something I would have in my playlist rotation but still a good song. 64

5. BACK TO ME (feat. Freddie Gibbs) - the song that probably has the most memorable lyric on the whole album: ‘and beautiful, big t**ty, butt-naked women just don’t fall out the sky, you know?’. I somewhat like it even though it takes away a little bit from strong performances by Ty and Freddie Gibbs. Without the emphasis on the lyric, I feel that the song would have easily been ‘very good’ rated. 68

6. HOODRAT - probably the lowest point of the album. The beat does not work with the song at all and I find it annoying and off-putting. I feel that with a different beat, the track would have been far better as the other aspects of the song are strong. 44

7. DO IT (feat. YG) - a strong song with a catchy hook and strong performances all round. This feels like more of a Ty-style song than a Ye song from the beat and hook, which is something I like. Ye has a strong verse and delivers yet another memorable line with ‘I just bought my b***h, a b***h’. I’ve only heard a few YG songs but he does well on the track. Overall a very strong song. 71

8. PAPERWORK (feat. Quavo) - an underrated song in my opinion. The beat is very strong with it feeling almost dance-esque in some parts. Quavo’s feature is the best part of the song in my opinion and makes the overall sound of the track feel like a blend of Ye and Migos. Not a huge fan of Ty’s verse since I don’t feel like it works with the beat - putting the track rating down a bit. 69

9. BURN - a really beautiful song which sounds R’n’B-like, playing into Ty’s strengths. Ye has a good verse and it works on the song even though it is more of an R’n’B cut. If you are someone looking for chill songs, this is certainly one of the best songs of the album in this regard. 77

10. FUK SUMN (feat. Playboi Carti & Travis Scott) - one of the most hype songs from the album which largely comes from the big-name features of Travis Scott and Playboi Carti and the insane production. It is not surprising Timbaland worked on the song, which you can tell with the extravagant beat switches and overall high energy of the track. Even though the song does lack in terms of lyrics and substance compared to other tracks on the album, the overall vibe of the song is excellent. 82

11. VULTURES (feat. Bump J & Lil Durk) - the leading single of the album which still offers a sound listening experience. I’m still not a fan of Bump J’s verse as I find it lacklustre in its approach and quite mumbly, which slightly ruins the song for me. Lil Durk’s verse is good even though it isn’t anything special but certainly a better addition than the version without him on. Ye delivers a good verse with many notable lines. Ty certainly has the strongest performance on the track and redeems the song towards the end of the run time. 65

12. CARNIVAL (feat. Rich the Kid & Playboi Carti) - one of the most hyped songs of the album even though it took me a while to connect to it. After giving it multiple listens, the track grows on me more every time. The use of Inter Milan ultras for the football chants in the background makes it sound spectacle-esque. Rich the Kid, a rapper I hadn’t heard much of previously, puts out a very strong verse and hook. Playboi Carti has a decent verse although I am not a huge fan of his new style with a deeper octave for his vocals. The beat switch using a Hell of a Life sample works really well and reflects the great production of the track. 75

13. BEG FORGIVENESS (feat. Chris Brown) - for me, the best song of the album. Ye, Ty and Chris Brown all deliver stunning vocals with the beat complementing them perfectly. A long song, which is where I feel Ye does his best work especially when thinking of songs such as Runaway and Saint Pablo. The second part of the song is flawless with Ty’s vocals working incredibly well. 86

14. GOOD (DON’T DIE) - recently removed from Spotify due to copyright infringements so I won’t be able to give this song a complete review or rating. From the few listens I gave the song, I did like the track and was certainly among the strongest songs of the album.

15. PROBLEMATIC - quite a chill-sounding song compared to the emphatic and heavy-sounding tracks like CARNIVAL and FUK SUMN. Ye delivers some of his best verses and flows on the whole album in this track with Ty putting out a strong hook and verse as well. 77

16. KING - a decent closing track. Not particularly a song I would revisit since it takes a while to get going and doesn’t really have much in terms of lyrics, flows or hooks. You can see the angle that Ye wanted to accomplish with the song but it could have been executed better. 56

Personal reflections and background information:

Vultures is Kanye’s first big project in 3 years since the release of Donda and the first time Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign have collaborated on a full-length album together. The two have collaborated numerous times in the past with notable tracks being Fade from Life of Pablo, Ego Death from Featuring Ty Dolla $ign and All Mine from ye. Collaboration projects in the past have produced some of Kanye’s best work such as KIDS SEE GHOSTS with Kid Cudi and the iconic Watch the Throne with Jay-Z. Reflecting on this, there was the expectation for Vultures to be on the same level.

However, as with every Kanye album - controversy was ripe with the album’s release. Much of this has come from Kanye’s actions from the past year with accusations of hate speech and anti-Semitic statements voiced publicly through his Instagram page. These actions led to the termination of his key partnerships with brands such as Gap and Adidas. On a less serious note, the common Kanye issue of a delayed release also occurred with the album due to be released just before Christmas. However, the date was continually postponed throughout January until it finally got released last week (9/2/24). From a business standpoint, even though many could argue both of these factors may reduce the success of the album - the outcome has been the opposite. Vultures is on track to top the Billboard 200 with an estimated 150,000 unit sales (McIntyre, 2024) which is likely to be because of the whole interest surrounding the album coming from these controversies. In addition, Kanye claims to have made a further $19 million from his viral Superbowl commercial of Vultures’ merchandise sold on yeezy.com (ET Online, 2024). With Kanye claiming he was close to bankruptcy, it seems like Vultures has worked wonders so far from a financial standpoint for the rapper.

In terms of the actual album, Kanye has reinvented his sound yet again. Contrasted to his most recent album Donda which seemed to have religious and gospel tones being the main sound, Vulture brings a far darker sound-scape which is emphasised by the heavy production and features such as Playboi Carti with his new style, Freddie Gibbs and Travis Scott who very much complement this sound. This was a sound I really enjoyed, especially with it running through every song of the album one way or another. The highs on the album far outweighed the lows and I would certainly class Vultures as a success for this reason. I imagine songs such as BURN, CARNIVAL and PROBLEMATIC have the potential to become some of Kanye’s classic songs. Ty Dolla $ign was fantastic all throughout the album and actually had stronger performances than Kayne on a large number of songs. I enjoyed that Ty managed to incorporate his style into a lot of the album - which contributed to its unique sound. Most of the features worked well and added value to the songs with my favourites being Chris Brown on BEG FORGIVENESS and Rich the Kid on CARNIVAL.

Overall, I would say Vultures is a very strong album. At this moment in time, I wouldn’t class it on the same level as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Life of Pablo or Graduation but with some time - it could come close. I am looking forward to listening to the upcoming volumes of Vultures with the leaked song Everybody not being on this album and leaked features of Lil Wayne, Kid Cudi and more being expected. If these volumes are anything like Vultures 1, I am very excited for them to be released.

Album Ratings

Songs: 69

Overall Vibe: 76 - as mentioned before, I really enjoy the sound of the album. I do like the differences between very uplifting and energetic songs like FUK SUMN and CARNIVAL to more chill songs like BURN and PROBLEMATIC. The differences in song style whilst maintaining the cohesive sound is likely why the overall vibe was very good in my eyes.

Creativity: 74 - it is certainly clear that the inspiration of some of the songs comes from previous Kanye projects. Songs like FUK SUMN and PAPERWORK seem very similar to the sound of YEEZUS whilst BURN and PROBLEMATIC are very similar to the sounds of The College Dropout. However, these songs have been done in a modern way which I actually think is a stroke of genius from Ye and Ty. This has produced modern songs which also allow fans to feel nostalgic. Vultures isn’t genre-defining like 808s & Heartbreak but certainly has a lot more creative elements to it compared to recent album releases in the genre.

Cohesiveness: 77 - there is a strong definitive sound running throughout the whole album. The tracklist also works well even though the album seems a bit slow to get going at the start. It is actually very interesting that the second half of the album is far better than the first - something not common in hip-hop where the opposite is normally the case.

Replayability: 81 - I wouldn’t class Vultures as one of Kanye’s best albums but it is still a very good album. I certainly feel like I would revisit the album quite regularly due to its unique sound and many top tracks on it. The run length is also very good with it only being about 55 minutes long, which I feel is the perfect length for the album.

Overall Score: 75 - VERY GOOD

References:

ET Online, 2024. How did Kanye West’s Super Bowl ad shot on zero budget speak $19 mn Yeezy sales? [Online]. Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/how-did-kanye-wests-super-bowl-ad-shot-on-zero-budget-spark-19-mn-yeezy-sales/articleshow/107677763.cms. [Accessed: 18 February 2024]

McIntyre, H, 2024. Kanye West Is Headed For Another No. 1 Album, Even As He Remains Incredibly Controversial [Online]. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2024/02/14/kanye-west-is-headed-for-another-no-1-album-even-as-he-remains-incredibly-controversial/?sh=8d4a3cb51e29. [Accessed: 18 February 2024]