Kanye teases 11th studio album Bully: Here's everything you need to know

In late September 2024, Ye, revealed at his Vultures 2 event in China that his fans could expect new music. In the time since his tour-de-force performances in Asia, it has been confirmed that the rapper’s 11th studio album is on the way and it’s called Bully. After dropping Vultures and Vultures 2 as joint albums with Ty Dolly $ign, Bully will be the enigmatic superstar’s first solo project in over three years.

Bully: Early Impressions of Ye’s upcoming project

While his final track lists are frequently subject to complete overhaul before release, Ye, formerly Kanye West, has performed tracks rumoured to be off the upcoming Bully album at listening events that were a part of the rollout for Vultures 2.

Beauty and the beast is the first of these numbers, and it showcases a heartfelt side of him. In the song, the artist laments:

"It's been a long time comin’ / Fresh new tides, I'm still runnin' ... I still think about it every night and day to try to stay away ... to keep my audience... Don’t take this disrespect, I'm sitting here trying to redirect."

Next, he debuted Preacher Man, which is decidedly more akin to his work on 808s & Heartbreak, with Ye singing in heavy autotune over some of his sonic trademarks.

Harajuku Ye

According to American journalist Touré, Yeezy has been in Tokyo for several months working on the album. The journalist said in a clip on his Instagram account, toureshow:

"It’s a concept album and he plans to be the only producer on it. Traditionally, Kanye is the product of a team, there are producers helping him, there are writers helping him, he comes with the big ideas but there’s others in. Not this time. This time, Kanye is gonna make this pretty much by himself. A fresh chapter in his life because in Tokyo he can be who he wants to be."

Perhaps the most exciting element of his upcoming release is that he seems to have stripped his creative process down to the basics, moving closer to his roots. Ye is back to being fully in charge of harnessing his unbounded artistic expression.

Visualise It

It should also be noted that Ye went on his Instagram to show fans the official artwork for Bully in October 2024. It shows a close up black-and-white image of an unknown figure with a titanium grill reminiscent of his own. According to the polarising artist, the cover was created by Daidō Moriyama, a renowned Japanese photographer.