Vultures 2

''Vultures 2'' is the second studio album by the American hip hop supergroup ¥$, composed of the rapper Kanye West and the singer Ty Dolla Sign. It was surprise released independently by the former's YZY brand on August 3, 2024. The album features guest appearances from the Inter Milano ultras, Playboi Carti, Don Toliver, Kodak Black, Future, Lil Wayne, West's daughters North and Chicago, Young Thug, Lil Durk, Lil Baby, 070 Shake, Desiigner, Cyhi, and Ty's brother, Big TC. The digital deluxe editions feature guest appearances from Peso Pluma, Kid Cudi and Travis Scott. Production on the album was primarily handled by West and Ty themselves, alongside the Legendary Traxster, Digital Nas, Wheezy, London on da Track, AyoAA, BoogzDaBeast, FnZ, among others.

West and Ty began composing the album with collaborators after the release of its predecessor, but the album was delayed several times. The cover art was first released in March and West initially attempted to distribute ''Vultures 2'' on his Yeezy website and previews of the album began appearing on social media by mid-March 2024. Ty confirmed a listening event in South Korea for August 23, 2024, which bookended a short-lived retirement announcement by West. In July, West confirmed the album would be released on August 2 but it did not meet its scheduled release date: it was surprise-released a day later. Post-release listening events in Salt Lake City on August 9 and Taiwan on August 25 were later announced.

''Vultures 2'' continues to feature most of the themes present on its predecessor, exploring money, relationships, sex, and fame, although some songs discuss family and marriage. It was supported by the single "Slide", which was released a few hours before the album. The album cover sees Ty wearing a black mask and holding a picture of Big TC, who is serving a life sentence for a murder he claims he did not commit.

''Vultures 2'' received generally mixed reviews from critics and fans alike upon release, with criticism for it sounding unfinished and West allegedly using artificial intelligence in place of recording some of his verses. West and Ty rolled out several updates to multiple songs in the following days. A sequel album, ''Vultures 3'', is set for a release in late 2024 and the pair are scheduled to embark on a world tour in support of the album and its predecessor from 2024 to 2025.

Background and recording

On January 23, 2024, West revealed that a ''Vultures'' series would be released as a trilogy, with the first being released in February, the second on March 8, and the final on April 5. ''Vultures 1'', the first part of the album, released on February 10, had a slight delay and went on to reach number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 as well as in numerous other countries. On February 25, Timbaland, who also worked on ''Vultures 1'', announced that the second installment was "on the way". On March 3, French Montana announced his involvement and shared a clip of him and the duo in the recording studio. After the album had not come out on its scheduled release date of March 8, West announced that ''Vultures 2'' was still in the works as he and Ty Dolla Sign were still "in the lab". West and Ty Dolla Sign held a private listening party on the scheduled date with a DJ setting, where the rapper was joined by his partner Bianca Censori.

On March 9, West announced the album and revealed its original artwork through his Twitter account. On March 10, in a conversation with a Kanye West fan page, West mentioned that he would be selling ''Vultures 2'' on the Yeezy website for $20 instead of releasing it on streaming platforms like ''Vultures 1''. He stated this decision was made so "We won't have the streaming companies in control of the artist anymore". On March 14, 1-minute previews of the ''Vultures 2'' tracks were released on TikTok and Instagram under West's account. West and Ty Dolla Sign later announced a new release date of May 3, during their interview with Justin LaBoy on his ''The Download'' podcast. ''Rolling Stone'' also confirmed the track, titled "Let Me Chill Out", featuring the late rapper Takeoff. Despite the announcement, the album did not release on May 3.

Ty Dolla Sign appeared on the cover of the ''Billboard'' June 22, 2024, issue. Ty Dolla Sign played the interviewee a couple of the album's tracks, hinting at the release of the album in the upcoming days: "We got all the songs. Basically, it's just like, 'How can we get it there? How can we go bigger than the first album?'". On July 6, Ty Dolla Sign posted an official announcement of a listening event scheduled for August 23 in South Korea on Instagram. In the same week, West claimed he retired from professional music via fellow collaborator Rich the Kid's Instagram story. This retirement lasted roughly 30 minutes before a track with rapper Consequence titled "No Apologies" was announced to release on July 12. On July 30, West announced through his website that all orders placed on yeezy.com had been fulfilled and shipped out, and that the album would release on August 2, 2024. However, hours later, the release date was removed from his website; the album released on August 3, 2024.

Release and promotion

''Vultures 2'' was released to streaming services independently through West's YZY brand on August 3, 2024. The album was released on an unlisted YouTube livestream on West's YouTube channel, and on Tidal. The album was later released on Spotify and Apple Music.

Cover art

The cover features a masked Ty Dolla Sign dressed in all black holding an image of his brother, Jabreal "Big TC" Muhammad, who is currently serving a life sentence for a murder the brother claims he did not commit.

Singles

On August 2, the lead single for ''Vultures 2'', titled "Slide" released on West's Yeezy website alongside streaming services with an updated cover art for the album. Days later on August 13, its music video was released on YouTube. The music video for "Fried" was released on August 7.

Deluxe editions

On August 7, 2024, the first of several digital deluxe editions featuring a bonus track was released, which included "Take Off Your Dress". The day after, four additional deluxe editions featuring the tracks "Believer", "Gun to My Head" featuring Kid Cudi, "Drunk" featuring Kodak Black and Bad Bunny, and "Can U Be" featuring Travis Scott, were released.

Post-release updates

Following its initial release, ''Vultures 2'' saw several updates over the following days: West previously updated ''Yeezus'' (2013), '' The Life of Pablo'' (2016), '' Donda'' (2021), and Donda 2 after their initial releases. "Field Trip" and "Fried" received changes to their effects unit, adlibs, and equalization. "Fried" was also shortened. "Isabella" was shortened by one second. "Maybe" was retitled to "Forever", shortened by 50 seconds, included a new verse by West, and saw changes to its outro and vocal mixing. "Sky City" received added reverb on the verses, and changes to the mixing, effects, and drums, while a bassline and distortion were added. "River" also received several changes, including restoring mix and production from leaked versions of the song, while "530" received additional vocals while "Dead" received an updated mix. "My Soul" received major structural changes to the placement of vocals and its drums. "Lifestyle" was shortened by over two minutes with its sample and mixing receiving audio changes and a new outro featuring The-Dream was added to "Sky City". West announced that "updated songs will be published in real time", with no specified conclusion to potential revisions to the songs.

Critical reception

''Vultures 2'' received mixed to negative reviews from critics. According to Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album has an average score of 42, based on five reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

''Billboard'' Michael Saponara wrote: "While there's plenty of potential for greatness scattered throughout the project filled with West's avant-garde production, at times ''V2'' is derailed by sound quality issues, unfinished thoughts or portions when Ye's rapping dips". Gabriel Bras Nevares of ''HotNewHipHop'' said that "this album's greatest flaw is its hollow execution".

Ben Beaumont-Thomas of ''The Guardian'' said that ''Vultures 2'' is "bloated and occasionally focused, tired and occasionally futurist, morally redundant with enough humanity to supply a fraction of redemption". Paul Attard of ''Slant Magazine'' said that "one expects a Kanye West album to be incomplete in some way upon release, but ''Vultures 2'', his second collaborative album with Ty Dolla $ign, is in shambles".

Commercial performance

''Vultures 2'' debuted at number two on the US ''Billboard'' 200 after a six-day tracking period, scoring West's second-lowest first week sales with 107,000 album-equivalent units. These units consisted of 46,000 streaming-equivalent units, 60,500 pure album sales, and 500 track-equivalent units. The album also accumulated a total of 50.44 million on-demand streams of the album's songs.

Track listing

Track notes

* "Time Moving Slow" features additional vocals from the Curva Nord Milano ultras.
* "Fried" features additional vocals from the Curva Nord Milano ultras.
* "River" features additional vocals from the Curva Nord Milano ultras and Charlie Wilson.
* "Forever" was previously titled "Maybe" before the album was updated and re-released.
* “Sky City“ features additional vocals from the-Dream and Ant Clemons.
* "My Soul" features additional vocals from Todd Rundgren and the Sunday Service Choir.
* “Drunk“ features additional vocals from Bad Bunny.

Sample credits

* "Field Trip" contains samples of "Machine Gun", as performed by Portishead.
* "530" contains samples of "Break the Fall (Acoustic)", as performed by Swsh.
* "River" contains samples of "River", as performed by Leon Bridges.
* "Forever" contains samples of "Maybe", as performed by Kettenkarussell.
* "Lifestyle" contains samples of "Love Is Gone", as performed by Nico Baran, and “ The New Style”, as performed by the Beastie Boys.
* "Sky City" contains an interpolation of "O-o-h Child", as performed by the Five Stairsteps.
* "Take Off Your Dress" contains samples of "Please Make It Good Again", as performed by Talmadge Armstrong.
* "Gun to My Head" contains samples of "Blindside", as performed by Alice Merton.
* "Can U Be" contains samples of " Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)", as performed by Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, "Haunted", as performed by Rob (FRA), "Glide", as performed by Pleasure, "National Anthem", as performed by Keith Hudson, and dialogue from '' Silver Linings Playbook'' (2012), as performed by John Ortiz and Bradley Cooper.

Charts

References

Notes

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2024 collaborative albums
Albums produced by Kanye West
Kanye West albums
Self-released albums
Sequel albums
Ty Dolla Sign albums