Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign ‘Vultures 1’ reviews: Album is ‘messy,’ and West’s verses are ‘profoundly depressing’

Daniel Montgomery
·3 min read
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After a number of delays, rappers Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign finally released their collaborative album “Vultures 1.” But was it worth the wait? And is it possible to separate West’s music from his controversial behavior and antisemitism?

As of this writing “Vultures” has a MetaCritic score of 49 based on just four reviews counted so far, all of which are classified as mixed — none outright negative, but none outright positive either. Scott Glaysher (HipHopDX) gives the highest rating, an ambivalent three out of five, and he concludes, “Listeners, fans, haters and hopefuls will be in the same place they were before the album dropped: confused, disappointed, but holding onto the idea that the Kanye we all fell in love with can still deliver undeniably good music that is worth defending.”

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Paul A. Thompson (Pitchfork) admits the album “sounds almost disorientingly complete” after more erratic recent efforts, “and when he raps, West is perhaps more technically precise than he has ever been,” but “the writing on any given song, and certainly on the album when considered as a whole, is shapeless, indistinct, and nearly interchangeable.” Jayson Buford (Rolling Stone) can’t ignore that West is “a disconcerting antisemite who has shouted out his affections for Adolf Hitler,” and “the music isn’t even half as good as it used to be.”

Alexis Petridis (The Guardian) thinks Ty Dolla $ign is responsible for most of the album’s “bright moments,” while “West’s own verses are profoundly depressing … If you like feeble sex rhymes laden with unfunny puns, ‘Vultures’ is very much the album for you.” El Hunt (The Standard) agrees that “Ty Dolla $ign brings the most cohesion and consistency, helping to vaguely hold together this album’s disparate, fragmented ideas,” but “Vultures” remains a “messy release which tries very hard to shock, and mostly prompts eyerolls instead.”

Are the Grammys done with West, though? His 2021 album “Donda” was shrouded in controversy and received middling reviews — West had even posted himself literally urinating on a Grammy — but they still nominated it for Album of the Year. In all, West has won 24 Grammys, which makes him one of the most decorated artists in history, and he even won twice for music from “Donda”: Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Hurricane” and Best Rap Song for “Jail.” Time will tell if that was his last hurrah or if his music industry peers will double down.

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