{"id":558359,"date":"2026-04-01T14:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/558359\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:31:10","slug":"kanye-west-bully-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/558359\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanye West: Bully Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

It feels so empty partly because of the shoddy scaffolding\u2014a majority of songs are around two minutes or less and devoid of curveballs. \u201cDamn\u201d is DOA, cycling through the same verse three times like a cursed hymn. Any Ye fan could predict what he says on \u201cI Can\u2019t Wait\u201d before hitting play: jabs at industry execs and conspiratorial mumbling. \u201cCircles\u201d is so laughably undercooked that it almost comes out the other end as a clever meta-statement on his own behavior patterns. Between a telephone booth-quality Don Toliver<\/a> feature and an AI remake of the overused sample<\/a> \u201cHuit Octobre 1971\u201d by Cortex, Ye limply mewls, \u201cCircles, circles.\u201d Ye\u2019s core talent was always his ability to dig up grand, poignant samples and make them feel like his private chorus, earthbending them around his presence until he seemed in control of the whole universe. He has the samples but not the vocal sharpness here, using slowed-down Supremes and devotional monologues as emotional shortcuts instead of the launchpad for outpourings.<\/p>\n

Where some thrill on a Ye album usually comes from freakish out-of-pocket bars (\u201cYeezy airbags when I\u2019m crashin\u2019 out\u201d and \u201cI brought a white queen to the altar\/Couldn\u2019t happen without Martin Luther\u201d are the best offerings here), Bully only really ever catches you off-guard when Ye isn\u2019t just running through his stock flex and confession options. There\u2019s a tender ache in his voice on the title track as he calmly describes his system running amok. \u201cI wanna beat somebody up\/Like a bully,\u201d he states, his voice curling as he arrives at a meaningful conclusion. The title of the record neatly describes the way he\u2019s tried to force his will onto the world while hinting at the insecurity that lies beneath. The little boy, lost inside the scrambled megalomaniac now known as Ye, peeks his head out on \u201cMama\u2019s Favorite,\u201d which includes a snippet of dialogue between him and his mom from the 2022 documentary jeen-yuhs. While it partly feels like a tactic to stir sympathy, and sanewash his faults (\u201cDo you think I come off too arrogant?\u201d he asks his mom; \u201cNo, [you] come off just right, \u2019cause it\u2019s what\u2019s inside, because you can\u2019t be a star and not be a star,\u201d Donda West assuages), it reminds you he\u2019s a human who craves reassurance.<\/p>\n

Maybe Ye\u2019s flat tone is the reality of middle age (he\u2019s 48), or the toll of his alienating behavior. It could also be the result of rushed mixing and frenzied last-minute re-recording, as he is wont to do. And since the album came out, hordes of fans have turned into armchair investigators, trying to assess which songs may contain AI. We\u2019ve really lost the plot when hearing Ye\u2019s real voice on a record is considered a great victory for his music.<\/p>\n

At the very least, \u201cHighs and Lows\u201d seems to use a hollow reproduction of French singer Pomme\u2019s \u201csoleil soleil<\/a>,\u201d which she refused<\/a> to clear because of Ye\u2019s \u201cpolitical positions.\u201d The first passage of \u201cPreacher Man,\u201d where he teases the arrival of a \u201clight-bearer to lead you home,\u201d has the overperfect simulacra shimmer of an AI voice. But then it crosses over into a raw, seemingly human voice, which, if intentional, is an interesting effect. Especially because it leads into some of the most traditionally cocksure Ye lyrics on Bully: \u201cLight \u2019em up, beam me up\/The only GOAT, the genius one.\u201d There is perhaps another, more intriguing album hidden within this one, where he seizes on the premise teased in lyrics like, \u201cDon\u2019t feel at home by myself\/Feel like a clone of myself.\u201d Inner emptiness has always been a fixation of Ye. He\u2019s the guy who revolutionized the use of Auto-Tune on 808s & Heartbreak, so if anyone could find a way to shake realness out of AI clones, it would be him.<\/p>\n

But nothing new is sought with Bully, except Ye\u2019s own public rehabilitation. His last tape, the leaked, unreleased CUCK, which was allegedly ghostwritten<\/a> by Dave Blunts based on conversations he had with Ye, sprayed out plaudits for Hitler and demands to free Diddy<\/a>. But it was at least, at times, a shockingly vulnerable clusterfuck unlike anything a major star has released in history, and with unexpectedly hooky samples of underground rock and classic acid house. Even at his bleakest moments of self-professed nitrous and porn addiction, when he was prohibited from seeing his children, he still knew how to make a song. Bully\u2019s real curveball is the lack of Ye, even after he re-recorded it with human vocals. He\u2019s on every track but also somehow none of them, making a case for redemption and not sounding very convinced by it himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It feels so empty partly because of the shoddy scaffolding\u2014a majority of songs are around two minutes or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[776,88,216,777],"class_list":{"0":"post-558359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-albums","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-web"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}