A new Kanye album is a real event. As we all know, The Chigaco native is a global superstar with a larger than life personality. Known for shining in multiple disciplines. Mr. occupations. You ever bought a pair of Yeezy’s? In recent years Kanye hasn’t been so focussed on fashion and has speaking of technology in his interviews. After the launch of the stem player I guess we could add tech founder to his list of titles.
Anyway, we’re here to talk music and this is a musician who has GOAT status. I’ve been listening to Ye since his early days when he was with Roc-A-Fella Records. His College albums are fondly heralded as classics to many. The multi-platinum and diamond (10x platinum) selling artist has been known to experiment. Every album after the college series has been distinctive with It’s own individual character.
The 'Gold Digger' rapper has gotten so unpredictable that I had no idea what to expect from his latest offering. I was fond of Ye’s iterative approach to The Life of Pablo. The fact that this project is titled ‘Vultures 1’ let’s you know a new iteration won’t be far away and I'm all for this innovative approach to music.
Watch The Throne (with Jay-Z) was an amazing album by two giants of the culture. Kids See Ghosts (with Kid Cudi) was more of an EP than an LP and was a funky little project reminiscent of a Gorrilaz kind of vibe. Vultures 1 continues Kanye’s tradition of making collaboration albums and is rumoured to be the first in a series of three.
Teaming up with Ty Dollar $ign was an interesting choice. Another one with multiple strings to his bow. I knew him as a singer. But apparently he’s a song writer, plays bass, guitar, keys and drums. A record producer and multi-instrumentalist. There’s no denying this man’s talent. He has an amazing voice, a number of albums under his belt and multiple Grammy nominations. The stage is set for Vultures 1. So let’s swoop down into the review!
The album begins on a sombre note. There’s some real spirituality to be found in the gospel inspired ‘STARS’. Ty’s vocals are amazing. Man this guy can sing! ‘KEYS TO MY LIFE’ has, dare I say it - a Drake vibe? It’s masterfully put together. The Production style switches up and there’s a little Wu-Tang inspired flip that old skool heads like me go crazy for.
On ‘CARNIVAL’ Ye posed a question to the Space X founder ‘where my rocketship Elon? It’s time to go home’. Quite a fitting question from a man who is thought of as being out of this world. That track is actually bonkers if you listen to the lyrics on the chorus. I caught the ‘Hell of a Life’ sample which is a throwback to Kanye's classic 2010 release - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. ‘HOODRAT’ caught my attention with the dusty break beats, vocal sampling and warm synth leads. I like the Juvenile ‘Back that ass up’ flip on ‘DO IT’.
Are we still in a pandemic? Or is it the moody EDM groove on ‘PAID’ that’s so infectious?
I’ve immediately become fond of ‘BURN’. Cheeky Ye lyrics sandwiched between Dollar sign vocals over a soulful beat. It’s short and sweet. It might be the happiest song on the album and feels as timeless as one of Ye’s College songs. There’s a video for ‘TALKING’. The track features Kanye’s young daughter and is super cute. But to be honest I prefer the hidden track that kicks in after North West’s freestyle ends. ‘BACK TO ME’ is giving - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. That’s a classic Kanye album and It’s no coincidence that there’s elements on this song that remind you of it.
I heard some familiar sounds from 808s and Heartbreaks as well as Yeezus too. Distortion has become a hallmark sound for Kanye in recent years and adds to the harsh and dirty beat for ‘FUK SUMIN’. The way that song was put together could only be classified as alternative. But when Pop stars like Ye and Dollar $ign do it, they take alternative music mainstream. Cool stuff from these two. They can do whatever they want, they don't have to do that underground stuff.
Title track ‘VULTURES’ is so spooky and cinematic it sounds like something out of the Stranger Things universe. The video for that single is, for lack of a better word - weird. Might as well be shot in the upside down.
As you would expect, looking at the credits reveals Kanye and his long-time collaborators like No I.D. and 88 Keys did a lot of the production work. However I didn’t expect to see names like Timbaland and JPEGMAFIA which was a nice surprise.
Plenty of features add something to the mix. A standout feature for me came from the late Nipsey Hussle. Freddie Gibbs is spitting flames on his ‘BACK TO ME’ appearance. ‘BEG FORGIVENESS’ showed us Chris Brown in a light we’ve never seen. Drenched in vocal effects, he delivers an emotional ballad over a stabbing synth. I literally didn’t know it was him until I read the credits. Who would pay all that money to get Breezy on a track then obscure his vocals? Incredible of Kanye to utilise Chris’ vocals in this way.
Vultures 1 is 16 tracks and 56 minutes of experimental Hip-Hop and R&B. I’m on my 3rd listen and I like it now more than I did the first time. When 808’s and Heartbreaks dropped it had to grow on me, but eventually I grew to love it. I thought Yeezus would be the same but it turned out to be my least favourite Kanye album.
Vultures 1 is in a similar vein to those projects in terms of the experimental nature. However I do think It’s easier on the ears than Yeezus and not a shock to the system like 808s was. So for me Vultures is different, but not too far away from what we might expect from a Kanye album.
It’s important to remember that Kanye’s bar is really high. Like GOAT high. So make no mistake, this album is Hip-Hop at It’s finest. It doesn’t really get much better than this. If it does, then that album would be a classic. Considering how much this is growing on me, maybe in time I’ll think of Vultures 1 as a classic too. Looking forward to Vultures 2.
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