Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign - Vultures Volume 2 (2024)

'Vultures 1' is the first collaborative studio album by rapper Kanye West and singer Ty Dolla $ign, and it was released independently through West's YZY brand on 10 February 2024. The album features uncredited guest vocals from West's daughter North, Freddie Gibbs, YG, Quavo, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Bump J, Lil' Durk, Rich the Kid, and Chris Brown, and production was primarily handled by West himself, alongside Digital Nas, JPEGMafia, Chrishan, 88-Keys, Wheezy, Ojivolta, DJ Camper, Timbaland, No I.D., Wax Motif, the Legendary Traxster, and Anthony Kilhoffer, among others. It sustained multiple delays and changes to its tracklist before its final release, and several listening events to promote it, including a multi-stadium listening event and a concert in Reggio Emilia, were cancelled. The title track was released on 22 November 2023 and served as its lead single, and a set of listening events titled 'Vultures Rave' preceded the release of the second single, 'Talking/Once Again', which features uncredited guest vocals from his daughter North West. On 15 February  2024 the business-to-business music distributor FUGA started to remove the album from streaming and download services, because it had been published using their platform's automated processes after they had explicitly declined to publish it, but it was redistributed the same day through Label Engine. In contrast to West's previous two albums, it finds him mostly forgoing religious themes, and received mixed reviews from critics, with many criticizing the album's unoriginality and lyrics, namely those addressing West's rhetoric towards preceding controversies. This didn't stop it debuting at the top of the US Billboard 200, though, becoming West's eleventh number-one album, and Ty Dolla $ign's first. Recording sessions had been taking place since the summer of 2023, and so it's no surprise that many tracks had to be removed from the final track listing, including 'Everybody' and 'New Body', after the Backstreet Boys and Nicki Minaj respectively refused permission to use samples of their work. As usual with West's work, it didn't take long for them to appear online, and so here are the offcut's from 'Vultures 1', which you won't be surprised to learn that I've called 'Vultures Volume 2', and it's housed in an updated version of the original scrapped artwork. 

Track listing

01 Everybody (feat. Charlie Wilson & Lil' Baby)
02 Time Moving Slow

03 Timbo Freestyle
04 Slide
05 New Body (feat. Nicki Minaj)
06 Promotion (feat. Future) 
07 Lifestyle (feat. Lil' Wayne) 
08 Drunk (feat. Kodak Black & Bad Bunny)
09 Worship (feat. North West & Charlie Wilson)
10 River (feat. Young Thug)
11 Gun To My Head (feat. Kid Cudi)
12 Unlock
13 North's Song (feat. North West & James Blake)
14 Once Again
15 Forever Rollin' (feat. Lil' Baby)
16 All This Money On The Floor (feat. YG)
17 IG Models (feat. Future & Lil' Durk)
18 Don't Kill The Party (feat. Tyga)
19 Work Done/Diablo

Kanye West & Dr. Dre - Jesus Is King II (2022)

'Jesus Is King II' is a cancelled studio album collaboration between Kanye West and Dr. Dre, and as the name implies, it bears some relation to West's ninth studio album from 2019, 'Jesus Is King', primarily by having reworked versions of songs from that project. Unlike most other unreleased albums from West's catalogue, 'Jesus Is Lord II' has no direct successor, but as the album was being worked on concurrently with 'God's Country', then it can be assumed that it was scrapped in favour of that record, and/or 'Donda: With Child'. On 18 November 2019, less than one month after the release of 'Jesus Is King', West shared a tweet that read, "Ye and Dre Jesus is King Part II coming soon". On 16  January of the following year a Dr. Dre-produced version of 'Up From The Ashes' allegedly leaked, and although the song was released as part of 'Donda' in 2021, it was not the Dr. Dre version, while 'LA Monster' leaked two months later, leading to some speculation that it was part of the '...Part II' album. The last mention of the project by West was him thanking Eminem for hopping on the remix for 'Use This Gospel' later that same year, and this remix was actually released in 2022 as part of DJ Khaled's thirteenth album 'God Did'. After this, the album was never brought up again by either West or Dre, and so it was assumed to be completely cancelled. On 25 September 2023, a blind groupbuy occurred priced at $1,000, and on completion the contents were revealed to be a full copy of 'Thank God For Drugs', as well as a full copy of 'Jesus Is King: The Dr. Dre Version'. This leak would receive significant media attention in contrast to past leaks, given that it was a full copy of an album of which very few tracks had leaked in the past. So despite the mystery surrounding this album, it does actually exist and can now be heard by fans, who can judge if it's an improvement on the original version or not. It closes with the non-album 'This Is The Glory', an unreleased song by Kanye West and Dr. Dre, featuring Snoop Dogg, which may have been worked on for 'Jesus Is King II', although it wasn't included on the groupbuy disc, but it's just too good to ignore. 

 
Track listing

01 Every Hour/Selah (feat. Martha Ambrosius, Dr. Dre & Sunday Service Choir)
02 LA Monster (feat. A$AP Ferg)
03 Water (feat. Victory & Ant Clemons)
04 Closed On Sunday (feat. Anderson Paak)
05 On God (feat. THURZ)
06 Hands On (feat. Travis Scott & Fred Hammond)
07 Everything We Need (feat. Ty Dolla $ign, Ant Clemons & Martha Ambrosius)
08 Ashes (feat. Sunday Service Choir & Nikki Grier)

09 Follow God
10 God Is (feat. Sunday Service Choir)
11 Use This Gospel (feat. Eminem)

12 This Is The Glory (feat. Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg)

Kanye West - Turbo Grafx 16 (2016)

In 2016 Kanye West tweeted that his next album after 'The Life Of Pablo' would be called 'Turbo Grafx 16', as it was one of his favorite gaming systems when he was a kid, with 'Blazing Lazers' being a particular favourite. West was, of course, talking about the Turbo-Grax 16, which was the first console released in the 16-bit era in 1989, and was joint-developed by Hudson Soft and NEC. The console was best known for the Bonk series, as well as having one of the best Castlevania games, 'Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood'. West's favourite game for the console, Blazing Lazers, was actually a pretty decent space shoot-'em-up that features some decent beats, and it was hoped that we would hear these with West rapping over them. The album was due to appear in the summer of 2016, and work was done on it in the early part of the year, with some recordings appearing on Japanese bootlegs with titles which appended the names of TG16 games to the titles, but these are generally just sub-par instrumentals. Most of the other leaked tracks are pretty standard West pieces, and rumour has it that these were scrapped when his next album was suddenly changed to 'Love Everyone', which was in turn scrapped completely and a full new album recorded in just a few months, to be released as 'Ye' in 2018. For this reconstruction I've ignored the Japanese bootlegs, as the general consensus is that the best track-listing is the one I've used here, so enjoy yet another unreleased album from this immensely prolific artist. 

Track listing

01 Can't Look in My Eyes/
02 Can U Be? (feat. Travis Scott)
03 All Eyes On Ye
04 Hold Tight
05 Euro2 (Switch Hands) (feat. A$AP Rocky)
06 Only Ye (Make You Love Me)
07 Face Down (feat. Quavo & Lil Yachty)
08 Jealous
09 Tongues (Interlude)
10 Rich Nigga Drunk
11 Bad Night (Capri Sun) (feat. Young Thug)
12 No Reason

Kanye West - Love Everyone (2018)

In May 2017 news began to surface that Kanye West was working in seclusion on his new album "on top of a mountain in Wyoming". In March 2018, similar reports emerged through various artists, including West himself, that he was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and a release date for the new album was being expected for either 2018 or 2019. In April 2018, West met with Rick Rubin. who was the executive producer on West's previous two studio albums, in West's office in Calabasas, and that same month he previewed the album for radio host Charlamagne tha God, announcing the album's planned release date of June 1, 2018. Revealing it to include seven tracks, and he later tweeted out a text conversation between him and Wes Lang, in which he shared the initial cover for the album, and an explanation of its concept, followed by him asking for help naming the album. Lang replied "LOVE EVERYONE," to which West replied "I love that". The cover art showed plastic surgeon Jan Adams, who had performed a liposuction and mammoplasty operation on West's mother, Donda West, which led to complications and eventually her death a day later. Within the texts, West explained that he wanted to "forgive and stop hating", implying that he was ready to forgive the plastic surgeon for the situation regarding his mother's death, but Adams responded to the news of the cover in the form of an open letter, asking West to "cease and desist using my photo or any image of me to promote your album or any of your work", while noting his willingness to sit down with West for a face to face conversation. West returned to Wyoming in May 2018 for more recording sessions, as outside of his own albums he was also executive producing, producing, and providing guest vocals for all of the albums by other artists that came out of these "Wyoming Sessions". However, shortly before the proposed release date for 'Love Everyone', West scrapped the whole album, and recorded a new batch of songs which was released as 'Ye' on 01 June 2018. In an interview conducted during the listening party for 'Ye', West stated that he redid the whole album after a controversial interview with the tabloid news website TMZ in May 2018, during which he revealed that he was addicted to opioids after getting liposuction, and made controversial comments about slavery, as well as suggesting that the entire 'Ye' album was recorded in a month, following the scrapping of 'Love Everyone'. As with many of West's unreleased albums, a definitive track listing doesn't exist, and even though it was stated that it included seven tracks, most of the leaked songs are fairly short, meaning that it would have been a brief thirty minute album at the most. I've therefore combined four or five suggested track listings to make a 40-minute album, and it contains most of the songs that the general consensus says should have been included, while omitting early versions of tracks that later turned up on 'Ye'.  

Track listing

01 Love Yourself
02 Lift Yourself 2049
03 Take Me To The Light (feat. Francis And The Lights & Bon Iver)
04 Queen Bitch
05 Ye vs. The People (Starring TI as The People)
06 Shoot Up (feat. Bon Iver & Santigold)
07 Fine Line (feat. Bon Iver)
08 XTCY (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)

09 Simulation Baptize (feat. A$AP Rocky & Pardison Fontaine)
10 In Your Arms (feat. The-Dream & Caroline Shaw)
11 Lovely (feat. Ant Clemons & Jeremiah)
12 Brothers (feat. Charlie Wilson)

Kanye West - Yandhi (2018)

'Yandhi' was to be Kanye West's ninth album, with an original release date of 29 September 2018, but the album was never released, eventually morphing into 'Jesus Is King', which came out in October 2019. Three tracks from 'Yandhi' appeared on 'Jesus Is King', and one later turned up on 'Donda', but the rest remain unreleased, and the album is probably the one that fans most want to hear after 'So Help Me God'. He enjoyed success with his "Wyoming albums", a streak of releases from 2018 where he served as producer, including 'Daytona' by Pusha T, 'Kids See Ghosts' with Kid Cudi as the title duo 'Kids See Ghosts', 'Nasir' by Nas, 'K.T.S.E.' by Teyana Taylor, and of course his own 'Ye' album. Later in 2018, he released the singles 'XTCY' and 'I Love It', the latter of which featured Lil Pump, and he also announced 'Watch The Throne 2' would come soon, as well as 'Good Ass Job' with Chance The Rapper. On 27 September 2018 he posted a tweet which announced 'Yandhi' would come out two days later on September 29, to coincide with him being a musical guest on 'Saturday Night Live', but it didn't appear as promised, and Kim Kardashian later tweeted that it would come out on 23 November instead. West eventually went to Uganda and worked on the album there, only to return in November and announce that the release was delayed indefinitely. In October 2019 he released 'Jesus Is King', which contained three tracks from 'Yandhi' ('Chakras', 'The Storm' and 'Law Of Attraction') that were reworked into the tracks 'Selah', 'Everything We Need', and 'Use This Gospel', and so it seemed that 'Yahndhi' would join the long list of West's unreleased albums. Although an official tracklist from West himself was never released, multiple potential listings have been spotted in the background of pictures, with one on a whiteboard at the Saturday Night Live studio which has been taken as one of the most accurate. In 2018 the album had seven tracks, but this changed every time a new picture emerged, with some listings having up to ten tracks. One of the songs did make an appearance, with 'We Got Love' showing up on the Teyana Taylor album, and a couple of them were released as singles, but there are rumours that up to 30 tracks were recorded. Luckily at least 20 of them have leaked online, and so we are able to reconstruct the album from these, and although it's possible that not all of them would have made the cut, as they make for a record that's over an hour long, having listened to them a few times now, there aren't really any that I want to leave off so that's how long it's going to be. The title 'Yandhi' is a portmanteau of Ye and Mahatma Gandhi, similar to Yeezus, and the album's artwork was officially released, being a continuation of the minimalistic sleeve design of the 'Yeezus' album, this time featuring a picture of a Sony Mini-disc, but I thought that was so boring that I've used (I think) a much better fan-made cover that I found online. As with the 'So Help Me God' album, it's given me a new appreciation for West's later work, and 'Yandhi' is swiftly becoming another favourite.      

 

Track listing

01 Chakras (ft. The-Dream, Ant Clemons)
02 Calm Interlude (ft. Ty Dolla $ign, Ant Clemons)
03 XXX (The Storm) (ft. Ty Dolla $ign, Ant Clemons, Kid Cudi, XXXTentacion)
04 New Body (ft. Nicki Minaj, Ty Dolla $ign)
05 Hurricane (ft. Ant Clemons)
06 Alien Interlude
07 Alien (ft. Kid Cudi, Young Thug, Quavo, Ant Clemons)
08 Home (ft. Ant Clemons)
09 City In The Sky (ft. Desiigner, 070 Shake, Ty Dolla $ign, Kid Cudi, Jeremih, The-Dream)
10 No Problem (ft. Smokepurpp)
11 Spread Your Wings
12 Cash To Burn (ft. Kenny G, Ant Clemons)
13 We Got Love (ft. Teyana Taylor, Ms Lauryn Hill)
14 The Garden (ft. Teyana Taylor, Ty Dolla $ign, Ant Clemons)
15 Don't Get 2 Excited
16 House Party (ft. Ant Clemons)
17 All Dreams Real
18 Last Name (ft. Ant Clemons)
19 Law Of Attraction (ft. Dua Lipa, Clipse, Kenny G, Ant Clemons)
20 End Of It

Kanye West - So Help Me God (2015)

In 2015 Kanye West spent a week in Europe promoting an '80-percent done' new album that didn’t have a title or a release date. He later revealed on Twitter that his upcoming 'Yeezus' follow-up would be titled 'So Help Me God', and it was accompanied by an image that could be the album's cover: a diamond shape connected at the points by four lower-case m's, that Reddit users discovered is a 13th century monastic symbol for the Virgin Mary. At the 2015 Brit Awards he debuted a fiery new track called 'All Day', then followed that up with a performances of 'Only One' on U.K. chat show 'The Jonathan Ross Show' and on Sweden's 'Skavlan'. Along the way he chatted with BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe about the new album, saying "It's fun to work hard. We’re being inventive, and the College Dropout came out of a fight to rap. This new album is coming out of a fight to design". Despite West finally offering up his new album title, a release date was nowhere to be seen, and when pressed he said that release dates are '100 percent played out', and that his new LP would arrive in a surprise fashion, like Beyoncé’s 'Beyoncé' or Drake’s 'If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late'. Some months later another tweet announced that the album would no longer be called 'So Help Me God' and would instead be titled 'Swish', but as we now know, that didn't happen either. Eventually, West's new album did appear, and surprise, surprise, it wasn't called 'So Help Me God' or 'Swish', but 'The Life Of Pablo', and it included none of the tracks that had been rumoured to be on the record, apart from a shortened take of 'FML'. Luckily for us, a lot of the tracks were either released as singles or leaked online, and so enterprising fans have attempted to put together an approximation of SHMG, and this is just one of them, with a fan-created cover that I think is the best of the ones out there, especially the 'official' one that West tweeted, which was, to be honest, pretty boring. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest Kanye West fan, so I'll have to leave it to the rap fans out there to tell me if this really is as good as everyone seems to think that it is.    

Track listing

01 Ultralight Prayer (feat. Kirk Franklin & Choir)
02 All Day (feat. Allan Kingdom, Kendrick Lamar, Paul McCartney & Theophilus London)
03 I Feel Like That
04 Fall Out Of Heaven (feat. Bon Iver & The-Dream)
05 New Angels
06 When I See It
07 God Level
08 Can't Look In My Eyes / Can U Be (feat. Kid Cudi)
09 Awesome
10 FML (feat. Travis Scott, The Weeknd & Bon Iver)
11 FourFiveSeconds (feat. Paul McCartney & Rihanna)
12 Only One (feat. Caroline Shaw & Ty Dolla)