After multiple delays, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign released their 16-song collaboration album, “Vultures,’’ across all streaming platforms on Feb. 9, 2024. The artists also hinted to fans about two more album volumes at the listening parties held in New York and Chicago and through an Instagram post. According to the post, volume 2 will drop on Mar. 8, and volume 3 will drop on Apr. 5.
The Volume 1 album features collaborations with renowned artists like Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Nipsey Hussle, Fivio Foreign, Quavo, YG, Freddie Gibbs, India Love, Chris Brown, Lil Durk, Rich the Kid, and Bump J. West also featured and debuted his ten-year-old daughter, North West, on the song “Talking.”
West is one of the most influential artists in the music industry. He was the ninth most-streamed artist on Spotify in 2023, with 6.94 billion streams. The American rapper currently has 69.4 million monthly listeners on the platform and holds the 14th position worldwide for most streamers. West is back with his innovative sounds and versatile flow to take his spot and is topping the charts with the album’s release.
Dolla, the artist who has worked on projects like “Or Nah’’ with The Weeknd and “Swalla” with Nicki Minaj, holds the 89th position worldwide for most streamers, currently having around 37 million monthly listeners. The fans eagerly awaited the collaboration album from these American artists after it was teased in 2023. The rapper moved from 180th position to 89th position since the release of the new album.
The introduction of the album starts with the song “Stars.” Fans thought they would see the song “Everybody” as the introduction song on which the artists sampled a song by “The Backstreet Boys,” an American band. Due to the group not clearing the sample, the song was taken off the album. A similar thing happened with one of the other songs on the tracklist where the artists sampled Nicki Minaj’s Verse from a song on the track called “New Body,’’ but Minaj refused to clear the sample. Can fans expect to see these songs in the future volumes of the album?
Some of my favourite songs from the album are “Key to My Life,” on which India Love is Featured, West and Dolla are rapping and singing about their love life, and “King,” on which West talks about how he can’t be stopped even after the antisemite allegations and cancellations. I liked the featured verses from Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, and Rich The Kid on the songs “Fuk Sum,” and “Carnival.” West surely knows who to put on a song and how to bring the best out of the artists.
I loved the song “Talking,” which has a verse from North West and Kanye sampled schoolgirls cheering on it, the music is groovy and has a different vibe. One of the songs, “Do It,” by the artists, features YG and one of the greatest artists, Lt. Nipsey Hussle. The song “Paperwork” features Quavo, who was out of his element but still had a good verse on the song. There was a version of the song on which Lil Wayne was also featured, and fans might be able to hear it in the future.
Overall, I wouldn’t say the album was perfect, but I liked it. West released his first album, “The College Dropout,” in Feb. 2004 and has served his fans with platinum-rated projects for two decades. Getting three new albums by the artists is a blessing for fans, and volume 1 has received a great response. The fans are eagerly waiting for the planned future volumes of the album.
