Kanye West has announced that his new joint album with Ty Dolla $ign will be released on Friday 15 December, marking his return to music after a string of widely publicised controversies.
In a club appearance last night with fellow rapper Ty Dolla $ign, West, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, can be heard announcing the record: “It’s called Vultures, and it’s coming out this Friday.”
Ty Dolla $ign also announced that a listening party would be held on Tuesday 12 December in Miami.
West, 46, previously debuted the title track during a surprise performance at Dubai nightclub Blu, where it emerged that the song included West rapping: “How am I antisemitic? I just f***** a Jewish b****.”
Adidas ended its years-long partnership with West after he made a number of “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous” comments about Jewish people.
Shortly after this, he caused further uproar by declaring that he “liked Hitler” during an interview with right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his channel, Infowars. Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes was also being interviewed on the programme.
West’s last major release was his 2021 album Donda, itself a controversial project that included an appearance by Marilyn Manson, just weeks after the rock musician was accused of sexual and physical abuse by multiple women.
Manson denied all of the allegations against him, insisting that his “intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners”.
West is currently rumoured to be married to former employee Bianca Censori. He shares his four children – North, 10; Saint, seven; Chicago, five and Psalm, four – with ex-wife Kim Kardashian, whom he divorced last year.
(Photo by Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Last week, Ty Dolla $ign shared a tracklist for the new album to Instagram, with song titles including “Lifestyle”, “Worship”, Beg Forgiveness”, and “Drunk”.
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It will also include the track “Back to Me”, after a low-quality video of West and TY Dolla $ign listening to the clip surfaced on social media in October.
Rumoured guest artists include Future and Playboi Carti, while reports suggest that the duo could sample the Backstreet Boys and singer Leon Bridges.
West has a track record of announcing albums then failing to release them on schedule. He announced two albums in 2020 that have yet to be released: God’s Country and Donda: With Child.
Donda was also delayed by a month, while Jesus is King, originally titled Yandhi, was set for release in August 2018 but eventually came out as Jesus is King in October the following year, after a further four missed released dates.
The Vultures release has already been postponed from a “multi-stadium listening event” that was announced for 3 November 2023.
