Vultures 1
Vultures 1 is the debut studio album by, an American hip-hop supergroup composed of the rapper Kanye West and the singer Ty Dolla Sign. It was released independently by West's YZY brand on February 10, 2024. Guest appearances include West's daughter North, India Love, Freddie Gibbs, YG, Nipsey Hussle, Quavo, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Bump J, Lil Durk, Rich the Kid, and Chris Brown. Production was primarily handled by West and Ty Dolla Sign themselves, alongside the Legendary Traxster, 88-Keys, Camper, JPEGMafia, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Ojivolta, Chrishan, Anthony Kilhoffer, and others.
West and Ty Dolla Sign began recording the album with collaborators in Italy in October 2023, then relocated to Saudi Arabia for three months. It sustained multiple delays and changes to the tracklist before release, following West's struggles to secure a distributor. The release was first teased throughout late 2023 under the placeholder title ' and was set to be titled Vultures before being retitled to Vultures 1 as the first volume in a series. The tracks "Everybody" and "New Body" were announced for the album, but could not be included due to clearance issues and the song "Back To Me" had been leaked on the internet from a recording session in Italy in 2023. West and Ty Dolla Sign previewed tracks at the Vultures Rave listening party in December 2023, two months before holding numerous public events in Chicago, New York, and Milan. The album was initially distributed using the FUGA platform, allegedly in violation of FUGA's service agreement, and a withdrawal was made from streaming services on February 15, 2024. However, it was then re-distributed by Label Engine the same day.
In contrast to West's previous two albums, Jesus Is King and Donda, Vultures 1 finds him forgoing religious themes and instead addressing his preceding controversies, as well as themes of money, relationships, sex, and fame. It also sees him returning to an explicit tracklist, with his previous two albums only featuring tracks with clean or censored lyrics. The cover art features West dressed in all-black with his hockey mask, joined by his partner Bianca Censori. The title track was released as the album's lead single in November 2023, followed three months later by "Talking / Once Again" and "Carnival", the latter of which topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Music videos were produced for all of the singles, with a new version of "Vultures" produced by Havoc used for the song's visual.
Vultures 1 was West's first major release following the controversies surrounding his antisemitic comments. It received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticized West's lyricism and manner of addressing his controversies, though the production and Ty Dolla Sign's contributions received praise. The album marked West's 11th number-one debut on the US Billboard 200, making him the rapper with the third-most number-one albums after Jay-Z and Drake. It topped the charts in several other countries, including Australia, Canada, and Germany, becoming West's first number-one album in the latter country. Vultures 1 was certified gold and silver in the United States and the United Kingdom by the Recording Industry Association of America and British Phonographic Industry, respectively. All of the songs entered the Billboard Hot 100, bringing West to 157 career entries. A sequel album, ', was released on August 3, 2024, with also slated for a release indefinitely. The performers were scheduled to embark on a world tour in support of the album from 2024 to 2025, planned for cities such as New York and London, but no updates on this have been provided since.
Background and recording
On August 25, 2023, NBC News reported from two sources that West had been working on music throughout the summer and planned to release an album, revealing "new music is imminent". West held a private listening event for the album in Italy on October 1, that Ty Dolla Sign attended and it was rumored they had been collaborating on the project. During that same month, the musicians were spotted in recording studios in Italy, alongside other artists. A joint concert at RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia, Italy was reportedly planned for October 20, 2023, but was delayed by a week and then canceled. The performers had collaborated in the past on multiple occasions, such as West's tracks "Only One" and "Real Friends". In an interview with Big Boy on March 15, 2024, Ty Dolla Sign expressed his loyalty to West, acknowledging both his successes and declines, and stated that he always knew West would regain popularity with each comeback and would celebrate his achievements when he did.File:P103-2000Yen- front.jpg|thumb|300px|left|The symbol next to the dollar in West and Ty Dolla Sign's duo name of represents the Japanese yen currency.|alt=2000 Japanese Yen banknote with Shureimon.
In an Instagram post on October 23, 2023, Ty Dolla Sign confirmed the album's existence. The post contained a black background with white text that displayed "", their duo name; the symbol next to the dollar sign represents the Japanese yen. During a performance in early November 2023, Ty Dolla Sign said he had just flown in from Saudi Arabia, where he was working with West on their upcoming collaborative studio album and said it would be "coming real soon". Videos of the two artists recording with rapper Lil Baby also surfaced online. Images were released of West working on music at a desert studio in the Arabic oasis city al-Ula, appearing in a sparse setting surrounded by chairs and tents. According to the collaborator Darhyl Camper, the artists spent three months recording in Saudi Arabia, mostly in al-Ula. During writing sessions in Dubai, West was joined by the British singer ZLYAH, who was taken aback by the invitation and the fact that the rapper enjoyed his music, as he saw West as an inspiration. ZLYAH contributed to the writing of "Carnival" and he learned from this as his first writing credit for another artist; the singer said the process was to "write down ideas and pitch stuff" after being provided with beat packages for the instrumentals. He elaborated that West sent reference tracks to the songwriters and they improvised over beats, surmising they "had great chemistry" from the start and noting the rapper was involved with the songwriting too. British record producer Fred Again played snippets of a song by West and Ty Dolla Sign at a club, rumored to be from their collaborative project. West recalled the recording had a large budget due to visiting both Saudi Arabia and Italy, declaring that the expenses and "super mega talents" were part of why Vultures 1 is superior to other albums.
On December 13, 2023, media outlets reported that the interpolation of the boy band Backstreet Boys on "Everybody" was not authorized. The following day, West sent a text message to fellow rapper Nicki Minaj asking her for permission to include "New Body" on the album; during an Instagram Live stream, to which she denied his request, saying: "Why would I put out a song that's been out for three years?" In response to Nicki Minaj's statements, West said: "I made that girl rewrite her verse three times for 'Monster'. I supported her career. So, I don't know what it is." On December 29, 2023, "Everybody" was rumored to be released on streaming services. However, it was not released and DJ Pharris previewed another track, "Talking", on the Power 92 radio station instead. In late December, around the same time the album was delayed, West issued an apology in Hebrew to the Jewish community for his antisemitism controversy. On January 2, 2024, longtime West collaborator Malik Yusef posted a picture of Ty Dolla Sign in the studio, assuring that he was re-recording all of his verses as well as recording new ones. On February 12, after Vultures 1 had been released, West declared to TMZ that he was two months from bankruptcy before his relocation to Italy, where the rapper put his maximum effort into his work. West explained he "moved to the factories" and managed to survive cancellation, commenting that he was less concerned with being controversial rather than "the ability to say how you felt out loud" due to his perceived skillset he felt helped him survive.
Music and themes
Vultures 1 is a hip-hop album that encompasses house, R&B, and trap, incorporating elements of gospel and industrial music. The album was described as more cohesive than West's recent records; none of the tracks are mumbled. Steven J. Horowitz of Variety summarized the musicality as a collection "of sharp aural moments that twists and shifts at each turn", observing that the different producers provide variety and scope. Pitchforks Paul A. Thompson described the beats as "rhythmically complex", with a lack of any heavy influences. According to The Guardian journalist Alexis Petridis, features a variety of styles, although he thought it is still uneven. In AllMusic, Fred Thomas noted West demonstrates the "same electric inventiveness" that made him famous as a producer, attributing this to aspects of the tracks like sparseness, funk, and orchestral music. The New York Times journalist Jon Caramanica opined that the album reminds him of "the texture-focused darkwave rap" style utilized by rappers Playboi Carti and Travis Scott, which originated with West's 2013 record Yeezus.After West had promised that he would never make secular music again following his 2019 gospel record Jesus Is King and also did not curse at all on Donda in 2021, he broke with both of these traditions on the album. West had considered for it to include no curses initially, but Ty Dolla Sign persuaded him otherwise. Of his performances, Thompson believed he utilizes an "airy, endearing singing voice" and the rapping possesses technical precision. West and Ty Dolla Sign speak of women on Vultures 1, frequently making sexual references. The rapper provides reminders of his controversies, including the antisemitism that he alludes to his previous apology for. For the first few tracks, West demonstrates calmness as he tries to move past the controversies, before he moves the focus towards them.