On August 3rd, 2024 Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign released VULTURES 2, the sequel album to VULTURES 1 that was released in February of the same year. VULTURES 2 had a rollout plagued with delays and leaks that may have contributed to the quality of the finished product, The album is unfinished, sloppy, and even has some instances of AI usage. However, the most disappointing part of the album is that all of the pieces of a good album are there, but the songs are simply never fully fleshed out, making this album possibly the last nail in Kanye’s career.
The album explosively opens with the song SLIDE, Ty Dolla $ign contributes an amazing feature, but the song quickly sours when Kanye begins rapping, which is a common occurrence on this album.
By far the biggest controversy about VULTURES 2 is the use of artificial intelligence on some of the biggest songs on the album, such as FIELD TRIP, in which Kanye’s verse is actually Ty Dolla $ign’s voice with an AI filter. It displays Kanye’s immense laziness considering this album has been delayed for almost a year and is still horribly unfinished with unmastered beats and mumble verses that ruin the album. Fans were expecting an amazing album where everyone pulled their own weight but, Kanye didnt put in the effort to make the album good and record his own verses
The album’s immense wasted potential is heard the most on the track 530. The song starts out with a beautifully sung chorus and a lyrical Kanye verse, but when the song reaches its second half, the chorus stops and Kanye starts barely mumbling an incomplete verse. The choice kills any momentum the song had, leaving a very bad taste in the mouth of the listener.
Kanye attempts to bring back the hype that his daughter North West brought to the song “TALKING” on VULTURES 1 by putting her on the song “BOMB.” Regrettably, her verse on the song is lackluster with most of it being spoken in Japanese. The Japanese does not fit the tone of the album, and it doesnt change the mood in a significant way making its addition pointless. The rest of the verse does not bring anything of value to the song. The blame should not be placed on North West. Kanye should not have put her on BOMB. Other than North West, no one else is on this song making it a hollow experience that Kanye or Ty Dolla $ign should have fixed
The biggest thing holding back VULTURES 2 is the horrible mixing of songs like RIVER and SKY CITY. These songs had leaked prior to the album’s release with immensely different production and mixing done to them. When the album was released, however, the production on those tracks were changed to low quality, barely passable beats that ruined both of these songs.
With this new album Kanye fans are wondering if he should just retire at this point. Fans agree that he has not released quality music since his Donda album back in 2021.
With the state of his reputation, Kanye should either retire with VULTURES 2 or make one last album to try and reclaim some good will from his fans.
