Ye, formally known as Kanye West, released his 12th studio album, “BULLY,” on March 28th after a two-year delay and controversy surrounding its use of Artificial Intelligence.
The album was a hearty 18 tracks long, featuring collaborations with artists such as Travis Scott, CeeLo Green and Peso Pluma.
The production of the album was handled by Ye himself alongside others, such as Che Pope and 88-Keys, with the Legendary Traxster also earning credits on several tracks.
Ye announced “Bully” in September 2024, accompanied by a short film on a deleted X post on March 18, 2025.
The official release of “BULLY” was promised by Ye to exclude A.I. vocals on an X post a few days before it dropped, but a familiar gravely robotic voice was still prevalent on the album and made it difficult to enjoy.
Ye previously used A.I. to make verses on the albums “VULTURES 2” and on “Donda 2.” He would speak about his usage in an interview with Justin LaBoy and in the same X post used to leak the visual album, saying “HALF THE VOCALS AI.”
I thought Ye did indeed try to re-record some verses to remove the A.I, such as on “PREACHER MAN” and “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.”
However, Ye’s voice on “PREACHER MAN” sounded lifeless, almost as if he was recording against his will. “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’s” recording, however, retained most of its charm from the original leak.
Putting aside the half-baked nature of the project, there are still glimpses of Ye’s recognizable sounds and lyricism.
Samples on the tracks “PUNCH DRUNK” and “WHATEVER WORKS WORKS” encapsulate the phrase “Make Kanye 2006 Again,” reminiscent of Ye’s roots in soul chop beats with punchy lyrics.
Another standout track is “MAMA’S FAVORITE,” which featured ethereal production, introspective lyrics and a touching outro of a conversation between Ye and his mother, Donda West.
The track also included ad-libs by Atlanta rapper Nine Vicious.
The title track, “BULLY,” featured thrilling samples of “Mujhe Maar Daalo” by Indian playback singer Asha Bhosle, and raps about his public perception, “I wanna beat somebody up/ Like a bully.”
The song feels like a villain’s theme, matching up with Ye’s antagonistic disposition in the eyes of the world as of late.
Talkbox artist André Troutman is listed as a feature on tracks “ALL THE LOVE” and “WHITE LINES” in addition to having nine production credits for the album.
Disregarding “WHITE LINES” use of A.I. during its outro, the song is a heartfelt ballad towards his wife Bianca Censori, sampling Stevie Wonder’s talkbox rendition of The Carpenters song “Close to You.”
The electronic love song deserved to be finished without the use of A.I.
“ALL THE LOVE” was yet another one of the stronger tracks on this album as well, repurposed from a controversial scrapped album of Ye’s from 2025.
The album, titled ‘CUCK’, was leaked after a Ye-centered Discord server ran a $999 charity group-buy, donating proceeds to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, according to an article from Digital Music News.
“CUCK’s” content was chock-full of anti-semitic content (“ALL THE LOVE” was originally titled “GAS CHAMBERS”) very representative of the obscenities Ye was spouting in these last few years.
This includes, but is not limited to: denying the Holocaust on an episode of Alex Jones’ InfoWars, collaborating with far-right commentator Nick Fuentes and tirades on social media platforms consisting of racist, Nazi rhetoric.
Ye was supposed to headline Wireless Festival in London, but was blocked from entering the country by Prime Minister Keir Starmer because of his history of hate speech. The festival would go on to be canceled for the year, with no comment from the event organizers if the festival will return in 2027.
The album contains a hard-hitting industrial style of production, heard best on track three, “FATHER,” performed alongside rapper Travis Scott. Ye raps about saying goodbye to his old self, while Scott speaks on his own success.
Boasting a similar drum pattern to “Black Skinhead,” it’s hard not to enjoy the track’s hypnotising nature.
While “FATHER” was a nice return to collaboration for the pair, too many songs on “BULLY” are lyrically empty.
After all of Ye’s controversy, I would have expected the album to be less shallow and more expansive on his emotional and mental state.
The album has much to offer to long-time listeners of Ye, but still suffers from his unwillingness to hunker down and commit to finishing his tracks, amidst the use of A.I.
Online commentary mentioned Ye’s unfinished quality felt similar to the 2016 album “The Life of Pablo.”
In the song “Circles,” artist credits on streaming platforms changed on April 2 to no longer feature Don Toliver, according to an April 2 Hot New Hip Hop article.
The track sounds painfully unfinished, making for a waste in an already stretched tracklist.
Whether or not the use of A.I remains on the album, the rollout and subsequent release cannot help but feel tainted by Ye’s willingness to cut corners, an unfortunate steady trend in recent releases.
A “good” Ye release now feels like it depends on whether he can finish the album rather than focus on the quality of each release.
