Kanye West’s fans are outraged after the rapper appeared to delay the release of his new joint album with Ty Dolla Sign.
Over the weekend, the 46-year-old rapper, now known as “Ye”, announced his new record Vultures will be released on Friday (15 December) – marking his return to music after a string of controversies over the past year including his anti-Semitic outbursts.
The singer also previewed the album he has been teasing for months during a listening party in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday (12 December) – which sparked fury after he was pictured wearing a black pointed robe similar to those worn by the Ku Klux Klan.
At the party, West played a version of his song “New Body” without Minaj’s verse, later pleading with the “Starships” rapper to clear the collaboration from three years ago.
“Kanye West after successfully not dropping another album on its release date,” one user captioned a short video clip of the rapper saying: “Gotcha”.
West has a history of announcing new albums and then failing to release them on time.The “Stronger” singer announced two albums in 2020 – God’s Country and Donda: With Child – that are still awaiting release.
Nearly every album he’s released has been delayed, with 2021’s Donda pushed back a month , while Jesus is King – originally titled Yandhi – was released more than a year after West’s announcement.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the record West is perhaps best known for, was originally set for release on 14 September 2010, before it was moved to 12 October – then 22 November.
At the time of writing, the hashtag #Kanye was trending on Twitter, with hundreds of thousands of posts about the delayed album launch and the technical glitches that interrupted the livestream of a second Vultures listening party being held in Las Vegas late Thursday night (14 December.)
Several fans remarked it sounded as though West was “making a beat on his iPhone keyboard” after the music went off, before the stream briefly went dark amid rumours the police had shut down the listening party over permit issues.
“The music went off at the Vultures Rave so Kanye decided to dance to the beat of him typing.” one fan quipped.
“Hearing Kanye make a beat out of the iPhone keyboard has to be the funniest thing,” another critic joked on X.
When the livestream was restored, fans were delighted by a video of West hugging rapper Kid Cudi and “squashing their beef” after a public falling-out over Pete Davidson, who was dating West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian, in February 2022.
West removed all of Cudi’s contributions to Donda after it emerged he was friends with the Saturday Night Live! star, who dated Kardashian, 43, for nine months.
Cudi, one of West’s frequent collaborators, is reportedly featured on the new album.
Other featured guest artists include Nicki Minaj, Young Thug and Lil Baby, along with West’s 10-year-old daughter, North.
Last month, West debuted the latest album’s controversial title track during a surprise performance at a nightclub in Dubai.
At one point, he raps the lyrics: “How am I antisemitic? I just f***** a Jewish b****.”
Representatives for West did not immediately return The Independent’s request for comment on his remarks.
The new album follows a year filled with controversies over West’s anti-semitic rants.
In 2022, he tweeted he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”, adding: “You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
In a subsequent appearance on right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s show, Infowars, West controversially claimed he “likes Hitler”, and urged: “We’ve got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time.”
Sportswear giant Adidas cut ties with West over his “unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous comments” which ended their mega-money Yeezy business deal overnight.
