A little rant about bully/ye's creative process
In the midst of what's probably Ye’s worst crashout and dumbest beef yet, I wanted to focus on the positives this week brought us, a rare case of an actual good album from modern Ye. Yes, it’s not finished, it’s missing verses, and the AI vocals kinda suck, but even with all that, it still feels more complete to me than the majority of the past few Ye projects, and I think I know why.
Everyone loves to say now that Ye is washed and he can't make good music anymore, but I don't think so. The last few albums have had their fair share of gems, and his unreleased catalog from the past 5 years is some of his best music ever. What I think he lost (and got back with Bully) is imo the true talent that set him apart from everyone else; his ability to curate.
When you think about classic Kanye, usually the first thing that comes to mind is his eras and how distinct they all are. From the color scheme and the clothing to the designs of the stages for the tours/LPs, down to the narrative provided by the placement of tracks on the album, there was a time when only Ye could provide an experience like that. The last time we saw that was probably the most blatant example of his curation abilities, his 2018 Wyoming run. I'd argue whatever happened in Uganda took that ability away, as he never seemed to be the same after that.
The majority of modern Ye projects have a life cycle of around 6 months. Let's use V1 as an example. Japan sessions started in June 2023. Four months later in October, there was a tracklist and concept mapped out. Two months after that in December, most of those tracks were finished and sounded great, there was a messy but effective rollout (thanks to technical issues and sample clearances), and a clear release date. But then Ye has a manic episode, decides to redo the whole album by stripping the production down, hornifying the lyrics, and fucking the whole thing up.
Jik was similar. Started as the 80% done Yandhi, and then after around 6 months and a manic episode, stripped down, christified, and came out significantly worse. Now there are exceptions to this. Donda was dragged out over a year with 5 different distinct sub-eras, the final project ending up as a 2-hour-long hodgepodge of those eras. Donda 2 was dropped on the Stem Player and abandoned after only a mere 2 months of work, most tracks having no clear structure or lyrics. And v2 was cobbled together the week before it dropped. Now you could argue he's trying to recreate the Yeezus creative process, but that was lightning in a bottle. He can't and shouldn't recreate that, and I think 12 years later, he finally realized that.
The version of Bully we have is a copy from late December, around four months since the Korea listening party (aka where this era reportedly began). There's a finished tracklist that flows surprisingly well and has an extremely fresh concept. He has been saying since post-Pablo about how he wants to do an album with no 808s or hi-hats. Only now he actually did it. The album's production consists of sample chops, minimal drums (which are used sparsely), and what I'd consider the defining sound of Bully, the use of the bass guitar. It's a minimalist album, but (excluding Showtime) no song feels empty or stripped down. It reminds me a lot of Some Rap Songs by Earl, especially in length. While I think Donda overall is better, Bully is Ye's best curation this whole decade.
That doesn't mean I don't have problems with it. But there's only really a handful of things I have to say. The AI vocals are a gimmick and they suck so I'm happy to see them go. The vitamin C cover feels like a lazy voice change and ik for a fact nobody fw meet your padrye. Showtime feels a little bare and highs & lows could use a beat drop. There are a few tracks with like 30 seconds of vocals that could and obviously will get more to them, and that's it. With all this and some Mike Dean touches this could've been the comeback we all wanted. It hurts seeing an album fall victim yet again to the modern ye cycle and this time get nazified, especially knowing what could've been.
Tl;dr bully good ye bad free gojo
In the midst of what's probably Ye’s worst crashout and dumbest beef yet, I wanted to focus on the positives this week brought us, a rare case of an actual good album from modern Ye. Yes, it’s not finished, it’s missing verses, and the AI vocals kinda suck, but even with all that, it still feels more complete to me than the majority of the past few Ye projects, and I think I know why.
Everyone loves to say now that Ye is washed and he can't make good music anymore, but I don't think so. The last few albums have had their fair share of gems, and his unreleased catalog from the past 5 years is some of his best music ever. What I think he lost (and got back with Bully) is imo the true talent that set him apart from everyone else; his ability to curate.
When you think about classic Kanye, usually the first thing that comes to mind is his eras and how distinct they all are. From the color scheme and the clothing to the designs of the stages for the tours/LPs, down to the narrative provided by the placement of tracks on the album, there was a time when only Ye could provide an experience like that. The last time we saw that was probably the most blatant example of his curation abilities, his 2018 Wyoming run. I'd argue whatever happened in Uganda took that ability away, as he never seemed to be the same after that.
The majority of modern Ye projects have a life cycle of around 6 months. Let's use V1 as an example. Japan sessions started in June 2023. Four months later in October, there was a tracklist and concept mapped out. Two months after that in December, most of those tracks were finished and sounded great, there was a messy but effective rollout (thanks to technical issues and sample clearances), and a clear release date. But then Ye has a manic episode, decides to redo the whole album by stripping the production down, hornifying the lyrics, and fucking the whole thing up.
Jik was similar. Started as the 80% done Yandhi, and then after around 6 months and a manic episode, stripped down, christified, and came out significantly worse. Now there are exceptions to this. Donda was dragged out over a year with 5 different distinct sub-eras, the final project ending up as a 2-hour-long hodgepodge of those eras. Donda 2 was dropped on the Stem Player and abandoned after only a mere 2 months of work, most tracks having no clear structure or lyrics. And v2 was cobbled together the week before it dropped. Now you could argue he's trying to recreate the Yeezus creative process, but that was lightning in a bottle. He can't and shouldn't recreate that, and I think 12 years later, he finally realized that.
The version of Bully we have is a copy from late December, around four months since the Korea listening party (aka where this era reportedly began). There's a finished tracklist that flows surprisingly well and has an extremely fresh concept. He has been saying since post-Pablo about how he wants to do an album with no 808s or hi-hats. Only now he actually did it. The album's production consists of sample chops, minimal drums (which are used sparsely), and what I'd consider the defining sound of Bully, the use of the bass guitar. It's a minimalist album, but (excluding Showtime) no song feels empty or stripped down. It reminds me a lot of Some Rap Songs by Earl, especially in length. While I think Donda overall is better, Bully is Ye's best curation this whole decade.
That doesn't mean I don't have problems with it. But there's only really a handful of things I have to say. The AI vocals are a gimmick and they suck so I'm happy to see them go. The vitamin C cover feels like a lazy voice change and ik for a fact nobody fw meet your padrye. Showtime feels a little bare and highs & lows could use a beat drop. There are a few tracks with like 30 seconds of vocals that could and obviously will get more to them, and that's it. With all this and some Mike Dean touches this could've been the comeback we all wanted. It hurts seeing an album fall victim yet again to the modern ye cycle and this time get nazified, especially knowing what could've been.
Tl;dr bully good ye bad free gojo