March 13, 2024 by Elias Prodger (‘26)
Kanye West. Just saying his name recently has caused visceral reactions from anyone you talk to. Kanye’s discography and evolving public image is fascinating, and, simultaneously, horrifying to look at. But this divisive persona is captivating to his growing cult-like fan base that divides music nerds and casual music fans alike. This controversy has culminated in his latest project, “Vultures Vol. 1,” a new collaboration album with Ty Dolla Sign. This has deepened the divide between his supporters and critics. So, after around a month after the release date, let us assess this album. How did we get to this point? Does the album have merit? And can we truly separate this art from the artist?
Before we can talk about this album, we need to talk about Kanye’s evolution, one of the most documented and influential of any artists ever. The amount of lore and detail I could go into is endless, so here is an abbreviated version of his rise to fame. Kanye received his first bit of attention as a producer creating beats for JAY-Z in the early 2000s. This growing attention culminated in his debut album, “The College Dropout.” This album is undeniably iconic and influential, many people say his best record. “We Don’t Care,” “All Falls Down,” “Jesus Walks”? There are too many classic songs to count.
The following record, “Late Registration,” serves as a direct sequel that proves the debut to be anything but a fluke. The extravagant and wide reaching “Graduation” makes up Kanye’s third album, a transition into more pop and electronic song elements while inviting guest artists to sing hooks or add verses. Everyone knows the songs from this album, undeniable in its catchiness and pop accessibility, following worldwide stadium tours and the world’s first glimpse of Kanye’s ego and extravagance.
This new public identity then contradicts his next album “808’s and Heartbreaks.” Hip-hop purists despised Kanye’s new direction of more heartfelt singing and pop direction. This album is now seen as a benchmark for hip-hop, cited as a core influence by the new generation of artists who weren’t afraid to sing and add a pop influence into their music. Kanye’s controversy from hip-hop heads later expanded to the general public with the 2010 VMA’s incident, where he interrupted Taylor Swift’s award for music video of the year.
The public backlash led Kanye into exile in Hawaii where he locked himself in a studio for weeks and spent millions inviting the biggest names in the music industry to feature on his upcoming album. The result was “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” an insight into Kanye’s life as one of music’s biggest names bundled in one of the most extravagantly produced hip-hop albums ever created.
I share the critical consensus that this is Kanye’s magnum opus and one of the most impressive albums the genre has ever seen. Kanye took a victory lap with “Watch the Throne,” a massively successful collab album with Jay-Z, a frequent Kanye collaborator. Kanye then took his new level of fame by going fully industrial on the polarizing next record “Yeezus.” Kanye decided to embrace the newly growing sound of industrial hip hop by creating his most abrasive and offensive record at the time.
As much as I love Kanye embracing these sounds, critical reception was incredibly mixed. But in public, Kanye was making it into more headlines and conversations than ever with his marriage to Kim Kardashian. The following “Life of Pablo’’ marks a new era of Kanye in my eyes, something I call the mixed era. This is where each album from here forward has a track list that drastically varies in quality and sound. Pablo, in my opinion, has the most highlights out of all these runs of albums, making it one of my personal favorites in the discography.
Following the massive Life of Pablo tour, Kanye’s mental health became more common knowledge with the mini album “Ye.” Through the track list, Kanye opened up about his bipolar tendencies and struggles with depression. Among the album’s release was Kanye’s production on Pusha T’s mini album “Daytona” and a mini collaboration album with Kid Cudi, “Kids See Ghosts”. Following the “Ye” roll out, Kanye began to embrace a more religious message. “Jesus Is King” embraced some religious themes in his lyrics, while still maintaining his classic arrogance and an increasingly varied batch of songs.
Kanye transitioned into the era of COVID with an equally chaotic rollout for his next album, “DONDA,” named after his late mother. After several missed release dates, chaotic listening parties, and Instagram posts, the album was released in 2021 on the same day as that of a rival rapper, Drake. The album was clearly bloated and long with an excessive number of songs, but the track list was certainly not vacant of quality.
Phew ok, now we are caught up with 18 years of Kanye’s discography. Kanye has always been a controversial figure, often displaying a brash and extravagant personality that some perceived as charming and charismatic, and some understandably perceived as infuriating.
But the 2020s are where we come into the indefensible period of his public life. Kanye began spouting flagrant antisemitic comments, appearing on conspiracy theorists Alex Jone’s radio show to praise Hitler and criticize Jewish bankers and heads of large companies. A series of interviews showed off his far-right views and conspiracy theorist ideas that were utterly unjustifiable. Along with a divorce from Kim Kardashian, Kanye lost clothing and brand deals that plummeted his net worth and eventually sent him into a several month period of silence. After giving an objectively non apology, Kanye began trying to make headlines with publicity stunts, with his new girlfriend Bianca Censori, and continued to spout his antisemitic and flagrantly false views. With the headlines and attention constantly finding Kanye, he began to tease a new “Vultures” series of albums with Ty Dolla $ign that garnered hype with snippets, listening parties, and several fake release dates. Yet finally on February 10th, the album released…..
1000 words in, and now we are finally going to talk about the album itself. But can we truly look at this album purely from its artistic merit? Well, I would argue that that is almost impossible. To look at the album we must first come to an agreement that Kanye’s comments are indefensible. Societally, we should agree on this… Nazi’s=Bad, and conspiracy theories that pedal that agenda are objectively negative. I don’t think a rational person can argue against this.
But can the art be separated from the artist? That is a far more complicated discussion. A lot of the time, Kanye fans who are willing to fiercely defend the album will argue that Kanye’s recent comments and actions are a persona. This can’t be the real Kanye, and therefore we cannot judge the work based on the comments. To validate that argument we need to ask, who is real Kanye?
Several lyrics within the album reference or defend his public comments, clearly the same person who made the album made those comments. Kanye is Kanye no matter what way you want to twist it. This isn’t an Eminem to Slim Shady kind of comparison; Kanye has shown himself to be indefensible. There is such a clear link between this album and the person that it becomes impossible to review the music without reviewing the person alongside it.
The point of a music review to me is to look at a piece of work through my point of view and to critique it as a piece of art. But when we look at Vultures, I don’t believe it is possible to remain objective and look at this album from a normal critical standpoint. I have listened to the record several times in preparation for this video, and I will concede that it has musical highlights. Some good instrumentals and features are scattered throughout the track list, but the album is tanked by Kanye’s verses. I believe this is the album in the Kanye discography that is truly impossible to separate from his personality. I believe that the older Kanye albums are classic, and I will continue to listen to him, but it is impossible for me to pick apart this album and I could never recommend anyone to check the record out.