Max

I think I need to address the elephant in the room before even starting this review. Given that Ye’s new full-length album does shine a light on his controversy, or at least references it (in the vaguest way possible), the new album cannot be separated from his actions, as it was used as part of the material for this project.

Yes, I understand that Ye was in the midst of mental psychosis due to active neglect from the yes-men around him. Yes, I am very aware that he is now seeking forgiveness for his actions and allegedly getting the treatment he needs for his bipolar personality disorder. And yes, I am ultimately happy for him to seek the help he deserves as a music fan… But, during his very public meltdown, what he said has been said about tripling down on being a Nazi, and the damage has already been done.

If a certain behaviour or a history of the artist was used as material for a project, then it is fair to consider it as you digest the project as part of the context. So naturally, that is exactly what I did as I was processing the new album, Bully, by Ye.

After about the 3rd listen, I have concluded that this album is more of a fan service for the kind of hip hop fans who would comment “BUt BUT HE MADE GRADUATIONS THO!!!” on every possible platform out there. After Kanye’s very sloppy album run from VULTURES I & II and Donda 2, at first glance, it is almost refreshing to see that the tracks on this new album mostly feel like an homage to Kanye’s old catalog. And I can see why this was such an anticipated comeback from him, especially when some of the singles that he put out unofficially resembled the “old Kanye” style.

This moment kind of signaled a resurrection of the old Kanye for the group of Kanye’s soft-core apologists who still want to give him the benefit of the doubt despite his public meltdown and rampant hate speech.

One thing I am admitting is that the production of this project did stick with me, hence why I found myself wanting to listen to hypothetical longer versions of these songs. The atmospheric and dream-like mood he was aiming to achieve worked really well with the way the samples are arranged. The chipmunk vocal sampling and the use of a voice box really brought out the old Kanye that fans were asking for.

I think my main issue with this album is that most of the songs feel half-baked. Most of the tracks feature a running time just under 3 minutes, and this gives no room for the tracks to develop into anything. I think tracks like “HIGHS AND LOWS” and “FATHER” are good examples of this, where they start off promising in the first 30 seconds, only to follow up with one and a half verses, a bridge, and a hook repeated a few times, and then just let the production… fade out into thin air.

And I found myself often asking, “wait, that’s not really it, right?” every 5 minutes into this album, or every 2.5 tracks.

In terms of the actual content of the project, he doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. A few songs about Bianca, a few songs referencing his crash-outs, and a few songs about wanting to be the new version of himself that he has been teasing us with for the last 4 years now since Donda. As mentioned briefly earlier, Kanye does make surface-level references to his drama in a way that makes it sound like he is trying to minimise the damage.

In some lyrics, he refers to the consequences of his actions for his rampant hate speech as being attacked for just speaking his mind: “All the castles in the sky come down crashin' every time I speak my mind.” Or even saying that news outlets are not fair to him for not mentioning his mental issues while addressing his actions: “Political and social tensions on the climb / Not to mention, they forget to mention / How I'm swingin' through like Sonny Liston in his prime.”

These kinds of lyrics felt like a speed bump while driving, where it really disturbed the process of digesting his material by how nonchalant he seemed to present the issue. By no means, I’m not looking for another apology letter, but the way he made his case in this album was very avoidant of his criticism.

Overall, this project had no real ambition behind it. No real new experimentation, The only interesting or ambitious part of the album being having underground rapper Nine Vicious as a sound effect. Just half-baked Old Kanye slop that his apologists will appreciate.

But unfortunately, with just how underdeveloped this project was, Kanye let down his greatest fans as the boy who cried Old Kanye.