The Musiquarium

Released: 2024

Genres: Trap, Pop Rap, Experimental Hip-Hop, R&B

The Musiquarium’s VULTURES 1 Review Score: 10 out of 10

Consisting of Kanye West (now legally known as Ye) and Ty Dolla $ign, VULTURES 1 is the duo’s first collaboration album together after years of working together on every Kanye project since 2016’s The Life of Pablo.

VULTURES 1 got a lot of hate when it came out and it wasn’t just from detractors, but from fans as well, but to be perfectly honest, a lot of the criticisms felt like they were aimed at Ye and his controversial statements and not at the music itself. To be fair, Ye has said some pretty controversial things in the past couple of years (even by his standards), but that has little to do with the music found here on VULTURES 1.

I was initially skeptical of Ye pairing with Ty Dolla $ign, as his previous collaborators were JAY-Z and Kid Cudi, but he actually holds his own here and has quite a nice voice that contrasts Ye’s music nicely (there’s a reason they’ve been working together for so long).

STARS opens up the album in dramatic fashion, followed by the soulful KEYS TO MY LIFE and TALKING, the latter of which features Ye’s daughter North. PAID is a bit similar to the Life of Pablo cut, Fade, except with an interpolation of The Police’s Roxanne briefly thrown-in. BURN, should please old school, chipmunk soul Ye fans, those who long for simpler times, when Ye was just focused on making music and wasn’t such a controversial figure yet.

Songs like PAPERWORK and CARNIVAL evoke a somewhat more industrial Yeezus kind of sound. BACK TO ME has an uncredited Freddie Gibbs feature and is built around a Jay & Silent Bob dialogue sample that works surprisingly well. VULTURES acts as a fitting theme song for the project and as a mission statement for the duo, with dynamic synthesizers throughout.

BEG FORGIVENESS is an epic ballad and one of the best tracks on the entire album, even if it has Chris Brown on it. GOOD (DON’T DIE) was unfortunately removed due to an uncleared Donna Summer sample, which is a shame, because it was a great song and showed a softer side to this era of Ye — fortunately, I bought and downloaded the album before it was pulled.

Fortunately, the album tends to avoid most of the controversial opinions Ye was uttering prior the album’s release, though people will still target the album without even properly listening to it. Like most Ye albums since the College Trilogy, haters are going to hate and will take years to admit that they like the album, but that’s not the case for me, as I enjoyed V1 upon my first listen and subsequent listens have only reaffirmed my stance.

VULTURES 1 is ridiculously over-hated, with people taking out their hatred for Ye, and his views on the music itself. This has everything a good Kanye record has, and is no less interesting than anything that came before.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view ¥$ on Discogs.

Back to the 2024 Album Guide or the ¥$ Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard