Kanye West, now known as Ye, has finally dropped the first volume of his album trilogy, Vultures 1. As a Ye fan, this was an excruciating rollout after the artist was nearly radio silent for a year following his multiple antisemitic rants and posts.

Ye and Ty Dolla $ign would officially start promoting the album on Nov. 3. Then, on Dec. 12, they finally previewed it at a chaotic Miami listening party. Ye and Ty Dolla $ign played many songs here that sounded very underdeveloped. Even with these half-baked songs, he announced the album’s release date: Dec. 15. 

After not delivering on the release date and hosting another chaotic listening party instead, Ye continued to let fans down with an onslaught of failed release dates. Finally, in January, he announced a new release date — Feb. 9 — and the album would be the first of a trilogy.

Once the album finally dropped in the early morning of Feb. 10, everyone saw how unhinged this version of Ye could be.

For the past six years, Ye focused on cultivating a Christian image and spreading the gospel through his music. Much of this album including the lead single has extremely antisemitic lyrics. The first song off the album, “Stars,” has the lyric “Keep some Jews on the staff now.” The album also seeps with empty lyrics about women such as the line “And my bosDebug.txt lookin’ like a reference” in the song “Problematic.”

This project has an extremely underwhelming amount of meaning to it. Previously, Ye’s writing always separated him from other artists in the rap genre, but now his empty lyrics here are extremely disappointing and make the album a lot more forgettable than his previous projects. 

The song “Do It” is the most egregious example of this meaninglessness and is a weak song in an album that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. While this shallowness weakens the project as a whole, it is executed much better in the songs “Paid” and “Back to Me” where he goes completely overboard and leans into the comedic side of the rap genre, which makes it a much more enjoyable listening experience.

While this album does under-deliver on meaning, it still produces some beautiful moments. Songs with grandiose productions, including “Problematic” and “Beg Forgiveness,” talk about his persona in the media and generate an ethereal sound. 

In “Carnival,” Ye brings unmatched energy and combines the chanting from sports fans to form the chorus; this creates a perfect stadium anthem. 

In “Keys to My Life” and the absolute best song of the album, “Burn,” Ye and Ty Dolla $ign deliver beautiful vocal and lyrical performances on top of excellent production. Moments like these remind you of what Ye is capable of when he has focused passion. 

Where this album underdelivers in meaning, it makes up for in features and production. This is not the beautifully composed apology to the world My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was. It’s not the family or Christian-centered Ye we have seen in his previous four projects; this album is a braggadocious ego-filled return from an artist dealing with many struggles. It feels similar to his collab album Watch the Throne with Jay Z.

Kanye has had so much pain and controversy going on in his life since his last project Donda, whether that be divorce, dealing with being separated from his kids, losing billions of dollars or being torn apart in the media for his rants. Vultures 1 had the potential to be the most introspective Ye we have met yet, but it shelters his personality in misogyny and antisemitism.

This story was originally published on The Vision MSMS on March 29, 2024.