Credit: Edge Wheeler

Join Staff Reporters Alex Evangelista and Edge Wheeler as they review Ye and Ty Dolla $ign’s new album, “Vultures 1.”

On Feb. 9, Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and Ty Dolla Sign released the first of three albums created by the duo titled “Vultures 1.” With a combined 93 Grammy nominations between the two artists, along with this album being Ye’s first project released in almost two and half years, this album’s release was highly anticipated. “Vultures 1” has 16 tracks with numerous big-name artists featured, such as Quavo, Playboi Carti, Lil Durk and Travis Scott. This album also features Ye’s daughter, North West. Ty and Ye combined to make this album unique and different from most rap albums we have heard recently. Although the wait for this album was long and the constant delays made the wait even longer, we believe the album was worth the wait.

Track 1: “Stars”
“Stars,” the first song on the album, is from start to finish a very good song. This song is more on the mellow side for these two artists and is a fairly short song at one minute and 55 seconds. This song is, in our opinion, one of the best intros on any of Ye’s albums, and even though this track is not the best one to come out of the duo’s collaboration, it gives us a quick, slow-paced introduction to the album.

Track 4: “Talking” featuring North West
“Talking” is a unique track that features Ye’s eldest daughter, North West. Ye appeared to take a page out of fellow rapper Drake’s book following the recent release of “My Man Freestyle,” a beat produced by Drake that his son, Adonis, sang on. “Talking” can’t help but remind listeners of Ye’s close friend Travis Scott’s song, “MY EYES,” from his summer 2023 album “Utopia.” Both “Talking” and “MY EYES” change dramatically midway through the song, with the beat and lyrics suddenly shifting to heartfelt, emotional singing.

Track 9: “Burn”
“Burn” starts out with upbeat vocals and a jazz-like rhythm. At the beginning of the song, Ty Dolla Sign shows off his vocals, and after a few moments, Ye hops onto the track and raps a few verses. Ye’s verses on this track sound like they would be from his early to mid 2000s features. In contrast to most other songs on this album, “Burn” is more of a lighthearted song. The only issue with this song is the length – this song is the shortest on the entire project at just one minute and 51 seconds, and feels slightly incomplete due to its abrupt ending.

Track 12: “Carnival” featuring Rich the Kid & Playboi Carti
Since its release, “Carnival” has been the most popular song off of the album. This upbeat song begins with a crowd chanting and then changes to a choir repeatedly singing “ohhh” with the steady repeated beat from a synthesizer behind it. At the peak of the opening beat, Ty begins a fast-paced rap that lasts about thirty seconds before the song loops back to the chorus. At the one minute and 45 second mark in the song, Ye does something that hasn’t really been seen before in music history. Widely known for his use and elaborate interpretations of samples from other songs, in “Carnival,” Ye samples his own song, “Hell of a Life,” from his 2010 album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” Rock and Roll legend Ozzy Osbourne publicly denounced Ye on Twitter after Ye had originally sampled a riff from “Iron Man,” a hit song from Osboune’s former band Black Sabbath, in “Carnival” without permission. Ye sampling “Hell of a Life” not only shows his genius in the field of samples, but also credits himself, showing his rich and successful history with music. Additionally, “Hell of a Life” samples a different part of “Iron Man” with the lyrics “have you lost your mind? Tell me when you think we crossed the line.” Ye’s choice even takes a shot at Osbourne, acting as a response to his comments.

Track 14: “Good (Don’t Die)”
“Good (Don’t Die)” takes long-time fans of Ye’s music back almost a decade, presenting a similar beat and cadence to many songs on Ye’s 2018 album, “ye.” This track begins with a simplistic electronic beat that is combined with a consistent thumping bass. Ye begins the song by singing, and then breaks into rap as the beat speeds up. This dual-threat ability is one of the traits that got Ye his first crack at the music industry. He was originally recruited to Roc-A-Fella Records as a producer, but his unique skill of being able to combine rapping and singing impressed Roc-A-Fella founder JAY-Z enough that he was signed to the label as an artist. “Good (Don’t Die)” is already one of the most popular tracks on the album, and reminds some Ye fans of a few of his earliest works, such as “Hey Mama” on The College Dropout.

Overall, we think this album is quite good. We had high expectations for this album, as both Ye and Ty Dolla Sign have released many great projects prior to this album, and we believe this album ranks in the upper-third of the works of both artists. This album is very different from other albums created by these artists, and it is a very nice change of pace.