Kanye West – Vultures 1 (Album Review)

Kanye West, or Ye, as he is colloquially and legally known as, is someone who will evoke something from your consciousness if you’ve been alive in the past… let’s say, 40 years. It doesn’t matter what that name makes you think of, associate, or feel- surely, you’ll have something conjured up, be it an impression or a detailed analysis of the man’s artistry and his pitfalls. A creative pioneer fallen into the traps of neurological degradation as well as hedonistic desires, his career has been extremely colourful, fruitful as well as controversial. I think his initial conditions and the events in his life have definitely impacted the trajectory of his artistry, just as the quote states, ‘life imitates art’ and vice-versa, but the way it has culminated into an entity is surely interesting.

It goes beyond the bounds of simply ‘American entertainment’ post-world war 2. It is almost as if his existence is a totem for the American zeitgeist itself. His ventures into artistry, albeit innovative, seem to weirdly mirror the common consciousness of the period he is in. In the early 2010s, his forage into hyperfuturism mixed with elements of rap mirrored the positive futurism slant of this time period. Now, his sentiments seem to mirror a jadedness and an attachment to hedonism- as well as controversial political statements that also mirror the stark polarity of American entertainment in this time and age.

He is definitely not a person simply to be analysed within the confines of an artist. Not that the title of an artist itself is confining, at all, but it is clear that his presence is more of an ‘idol’ to others. He is an entity for people to look in the mirror to. Most people interact with entities that are a mirror of themselves: their desires, their ambitions, and their intent. Hence, there is a camp of people who truly take his brand as an artist as that of idolatry. Some people put a moral filter over his statements, and some people rashly dispose of all that is reminiscent of a moral filter to echo his sentiments.

His sentiments become the boombox of their ‘real thoughts’. Some of us just acknowledge Kanye West’s moments of ingenuity as well as his moments of sheer cacophony. Whichever camp you may fall in, you’ll know the significance of this album in the mainstream entertainment world. That is why today, we shall explore this album, and wonder what is in the recesses of today’s Ye.

It must also be acknowledged that this album is a joint venture with Ty Dolla $ign. Upon further investigation, I’ve come to realise that Ty is no stranger to collaborative albums with others, but I must say- I am quite curious about Ye’s intent as to why this album should’ve been a joint album, and why him in particular. I also wonder which aspects of the composition and instrumentation is done by him, or whether him and Ye intended to merge and be presented as a singular ‘borg’ entity, presented as ‘¥$’. However, in classic Ye fashion, its safe to assume that perhaps these questions are up to interpretation.

The album starts off with a track called ‘Stars’. The song starts off with airy vocalisations, and chords that sound quite anticipatory. Although it is befitting of an introductory track, I do find it quite cliche. The major scale utilised in the initial verses make the song sound quite ‘faux-inspirational’, similar to the pandemic of ‘fake woke’ songs emerging in the field of rap within the past 10 years. The star of the show is definitely the choice of drums used in combination with the bass, as it gives the song the ‘oomph’ it requires.

After heaps of Asake, and Ye’s own ‘Sunday Service’, I simply cannot appreciate the crowd vocals polishing off the song. Perhaps it adds on to the idea of idolatry. Even though I am a person who usually focuses on the instrumental and the musical quality of the track, since this is a rap album, I also have to scrutinise the lyrics. The lyrics are quite mediocre to me. If you have this glorious fanfare in the background, why make jabs at borderline anti-Semitism as well as generic lyrics relating to lust and opulence? This track does not simply deliver the effect it intended to me.

The second track, ‘Keys to my Life’, starts off pretty promising. I like the introductory strings as well as the strange interlayered vocals. The beat and mastering of the bass in this track combined with the strings gives me a very 2011 – 2014 feel, but in a great way. The crunchiness and the slight white noise added in the track also give it a nostalgic feel. The tone change in the song reminds me of the ‘chopped and screwed’ sample technique, which gives the song a higher level of musical variability. However, the vocalist besides Ye in this track ruins the strong delivery that Ye typically has, with his lacklustre delivery.

In terms of production, I think this track is quite innovative, but more could be done to improve the track to make it extraordinary. The segment with the multiple people in the background (vocally) ruins the song entirely for me. They are not synced, and frankly sound quite irritating. Upon further inspection, Timbaland had a hand in this song- which is probably why the backing instrumental sounds extremely innovative to me. Once again, the lyrics are a let-down. They allude to his struggles in his relationships, and his desires to move on, but besides a few moments of quirky wordplay, they just seem elementary.

The third track, ‘Paid’, gives off slight synthwave and reference to 8-bit music as well. It has a very dark, synth heavy soundscape beneath the song, with the rogue vocalisations giving a percussive feel to the song. Moreover, the percussive section of this song bears a ‘cup-like’ rhythm, giving the song a quirky edge as opposed to the minimalist yet dark feel of the rest of the track. The rappers’ delivery oscillate between an outdated Migos-like 2015-2018 esque flow and a Drake-esque flow.

Even though the lyricism simply isn’t significant to me, I think the backing track is quite interesting in this track. There is an odd punch to the added synth bass, and the gated vocals towards the end give the song a ‘silver’ feel reminiscent of earlier house songs. Its eerie minimalism reminds me of tracks typically used for Apple ads, but I can’t say the song is necessarily special. It is decent in its composition.

The track afterwards, ‘Talking/Once Again’, starts off with a sample from a cheerleading battle related to a cheerleading team called ‘Wolfpack’ from a high school in Pennsylvania. It then fades into a semi-rap sequence from Ye’s daughter, North West. Even though her presence in this track is most likely symbolic for the theme of the song, and seen as an act of legacy passing on, I can’t help but bear similarity in her rap cadence to Smoke of Ilovefriday in the track ‘Hit or Miss’.

What’s interesting though, is the slight jersey club-esque beat and the chord structure of this segment and the piano keys slightly bearing similarity to songs such as Ahomka Wo Mu. The second segment of the song, titled ‘Once Again’, starts off sounding like a faux-positive uplifting song with slight tinges of synthwave. The lyrics allude to the trials and tribulations of parenting as well as the concept of generational wealth, but I find the conceptual execution very trite and overdone. This narrative has been parroted many times, through various entities. If anything, the trials and tribulations of parenting turn into a pseudo-stylistic sermon for people to fawn over, rather than contemplate.

‘Back To Me’ then starts off pretty strong, contrasting the previous track with a tight drum beat that also sounds like a chopped and slowed down version of the average drum ‘n’ bass drum track. The musical composition of this song sounds pretty minimalist and lacks any kind of unique quality, which is a shame, as I think the drum sample has loads of potential to play with. The lyrics, on the other hand, venture into almost lewd territory at this point. I know, I know, degeneracy seems to sell and resonate with people who are just as degenerate- it is the ‘mirror theory’ of media consumption at this point. However, I think if the triad of degeneracy correlate with neurological degradation, then surely it must be questioned and challenged. Yes, the lyrics are misogynistic and treat the concept of women in relation to men as a novelty. It’s a dirty word to some, to point out that something is misogynistic. However, fact is fact. This song is quite crass.

If this concept can’t reach a crux any sooner, the song afterwards, ‘Hoodrat’, starts off with a constant sample echoing the word ‘hoodrat’ over and over again. The song does have a very effective bass at the beginning, but the chord structure once again oscillates between crass minimalism to the same faux inspirational chords that crowd this entire album. I get the conceptual theme, liberation in his new flame, compared to his older relationship, and the music does reflect that sequence of events, but besides a few jabs at wordplay, neither the instrumental nor the lyrics present anything profound or artistically innovative.

It’s the same schtick of bringing religion into otherwise overtly sexual lines, for no real reason, and then wrapping it up as a conceptually forward artistic movement. In fact, I find the title and the recurrent sample of this song bearing the word ‘hoodrat’ quite telling of where people are at when it comes to urban art movements- the act of immortalising and cementing all that have degenerate origins as profound fuel for art. When do we step aside from the constant glorification and actually use some critical thinking?

The song afterwards, ‘Do It’, follow the same conceptual writing pattern as the last two tracks. As for the instrumental, it does have a very interesting interpolation with the strings and the bass- which I think, also pays homage to the direct sample in the later part of the track to the song ‘Back That Azz up’ by Juvenile with the slight pentatonic-esque and profound sounding violin. In fact, I kind of like the sample throughout this song, it further expands upon the sonic direction of the original song it samples without losing any essence of the song. However, as much as I’d love to give the song its merits purely based on its instrumental, it is a rap album. And as expected, the lyrics do not go beyond anything related to sex, degeneracy, opulence, and whatever is within the confines of that.

The song that follows suit actually excites me, being an ardent follower of Gen-Z music trends. ‘Paperwork’ has a VERY obvious phonk brasiliero influence, with elements of rock elevating the state-space of typical phonk songs. (Although I must admit, this song is not the pioneer of this technique- there are phonk brasiliero songs that follow the same cadence and intensity as heavy metal songs.) It is interesting that Ye took on this genre to influence aspects of his album, however, in terms of musical variability, I don’t see anything that he has provided to the genre besides his own vocalisations. The original artists of the genre are much more competent in expanding upon their own craft. In terms of the rap segments and the lyrics, the addition of Quavo does definitely give the flow a more antique flare at this point, since his cadence reminds me of 2015-2018 rap in general, but it doesn’t add to the song at all.

‘Burn’ gives a strange contrast to the harshness of the previous track, with a neo-70s feel reminiscent of mid 2000s rap. It doesn’t sound bad, but it just sounds like it has been done a billion times before. Perhaps this track is meant for the original Ye fans who have followed his sound from the beginning. It literally repeats the same few measures musically, with the sample, and then adds a bass. That’s literally it. The rap flow isn’t anything melodically innovative, and the lyrics bear the typical trope of love. Nothing really more.

‘Fuk Sumn’ begins with a very interesting soundscape, to me. I’ll just get this out of the way: the lyrics, the cadence, and the flow are all generic of Ye’s typical style, and the lyrical content of the song is extremely crass and sexual. Same old references to opulence. No deviation there. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let us analyse the soundscape of the instrumental track. This is the first track out of the entire album that shows some sort of actual innovation when it comes to constructing a soundscape. It starts off with mysterious strings oscillating, and then fades into a lo-fi crunchy beat sequence with a heavy bass.

The relationship between a highly tampered bass and a noisy bass in this song definitely provides the song with musical variability. The space inbetween the beats are also very carefully crafted. Moreover, there is a complete beat change in the midst of the song, which is frankly quite genius. It even oscillates between various beat patterns and time signatures. I think this is one of the best tracks of the album, musically. However, upon further inspection again, the renowned producer Timbaland had a hand in this track. It seems like whenever he has input in a track, it just goes to the next level. Well, that’s expected, given his track record. (Pun intended)

The title track ‘Vultures’, follows suit. It literally sounds like a song that Yuno Miles should’ve rapped on. Even though the instrumental was intended to be taken quite seriously in the theme of the track, I literally cannot help but think of Yuno Miles. The odd bells in the backing track also do not help with the comparison. There is an oscillating sound (I think it is a manipulated sequence of strings) that does reminds me of vultures circling around, so there is a plus point. However, the flow isn’t anything special. The lyrics are even worse, with references to sexualising Jews, and even the Columbine shooting. The same trend of the album follows suit on this song. This woman wants me. This b-tch has designer clothes. I’m hard, I’m involved in the trade of drugs. Nothing really new with the lyrical content. In fact, the triteness of the lyrical content makes the serious intent of the bells and the vulture-like sound design almost laughable.

I think the song afterwards, titled ‘Carnival’, might be the worst track I’ve listened to thus far. I’ve talked about my ear-fatigue with crowd vocals many times, and this song amplifies it to the nth degree. Yes, it is to make a statement. Yes, it is to give a chant-like presence to the song. However, I don’t think anything in the lyrical content of the song is worthy of even being uttered. Wordplay involving Bill Cosby and Puff Daddy gets invoked in the lyrics. If wordplay is an art, must it constantly be misogynistic enough to mix imagery of sexual abuse with sexual pleasure? This song is utterly degenerate, and also does not possess much musical variability. It literally has the same few measures of crowd vocals, and bass, looped with the only interesting thing in the track being a slight glitch sound to separate the measures.

The song that follows, boasts vocals from Chris Brown. The song starts off with an acapella of his verses, with an almost regal like delivery. However, the sequence afterwards manipulates his voice in a way that I find quite outdated- reminiscent of the annoying ‘manipulated vocals’ schtick of DJ Snake’s tracks from 2013 – 2017. The bass of this song is quite prominent, thumping very strongly, and the minimal instruments used through the synths do provide the song with a sad-like cadence. In fact, the bass kind of reminds me of an 80s take on basses, and the ends of the synths remind me of the way synths from the late 70s to the early 80s have that kind of ‘off’ sound to it. At the mark of 3:39, the song does have some sort of variability with a slight tempo change and sample, but it doesn’t seem innovative to me. It is almost as if it comes off as pseudo-innovative, like Yoko Ono’s performance art piece involving her decency and a pair of scissors. This song is quite void of genuineness.

The song afterwards, is supposed to be ‘Good (Don’t Die)‘, but it has been pulled from all streaming services due to an illegal use of a sample from one of Donna Summers’ songs. As a result, I cannot review this song. Perhaps, when an alternate version of the exact song is available, I will come back to review it.

‘Problematic’ then begins, expanding upon the same pseudo-profound soundscape that Ye intends to transmit throughout the album. It has contemplative chords, with religious-esque horns, as well as a subtle choir in the background. However, this track literally sounds like a parody to me. This song bears ZERO musical variability, repeating the same thing in a couple of measures. The lyrical themes of the song allude to victory, but to me, all of these victories seem empirically moot. Yes, they may seem like victories but only in the confines of all that is material and opulent. All of the verses in this particular song seem to bear similarity to various different biases people seem to have that are not empirical- racial preferences, pan-Africanism, and the same, overly drawn out theme of basing your self-worth on how many women you can trample over and make puns of.

Lastly, the album finishes off with a track called ‘King’. It starts off in a very old-Ye-esque instrumental, I’d definitely say. It does bear a lot of similarity to drum ‘n’ bass samples as well as breakcore style. It is quite okay in terms of its musical variability, as it has a particular flare and cadence to it. It also has a certain psychedelic-esque guitar solo used in its sample. It does not develop into anything more than that initial spark, however. The lyrics of this song are once again, quite trite. It’s basically a monologue of him ‘standing on top’ after being besmirched by the media, with references to women being at his feet, and references to designers. At this point, at the end of the album, I haven’t learned anything new, and I haven’t heard anything new.

This album was really not that significant in its entirety. It does not necessarily pose any new innovation to rap, which is quite ironic, as Ye is often heralded as some form of ‘creative genius’. Once again, I think the whole brand of Ye used to be true- and he did used to be a creative genius, in his choice of backing tracks and some of the topics he used to rap about, but this album poses less musical variability than his older works and an even more restrictive set of vocabulary. The lyrics do not really deviate throughout these albums besides the triad of trite themes that circle modern rap: money, women, and feelings. Nothing else. The few tracks in which I do like the instrumental of, seem to be produced by Timbaland who is a compositional genius in his right- but that’s only two tracks out of fifteen that I can truly appreciate, and even at that, the lyrical content over the track isn’t necessarily that poignant and the lack of even experimentation with the style of flows make it worse. It is a very predictable album. I can’t say that this album is truly recommended, although I’m sure Ye can mark on the concept of idolatry and stan-hood to justify his work. It is not truly innovative.

Rating/Mediocre – ‘Vultures 1’ is honestly an album that does not stand up to the creative apex Ye has achieved through his former pursuits. With multiple instances of simply borrowing genres, and not establishing anything unique or creative, the soundscape of this album stays quite stagnant for the most part. The lyrical content of the album is also abhorrent and lacks a high level of verbosity for someone of this caliber.

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