It’s been a long time coming. You might recognize this line from Kanye West/Ye’s song “Beauty and the Beast”, a single from his new album Bully. An album that has been a long time coming, as the album had been delayed roughly six times since it was first teased in September 2024, finally dropping on March 28, 2026.
Produced by Ye, Andre Troutman, The Legendary Traxster, 88-Keys, and James Blake, Bully is a thirteen track album with a runtime of 42 minutes and 26 seconds, featuring popular singles such as “Preacher Man”, “Beauty and the Beast” and “Damn”. This album highlights similarities of Kanye West’s older music, while still incorporating the edge of Ye’s more recent music.
One of the notably different things about this album compared to his others is that there were teased versions of certain tracks way before the album itself came out. In these leaked tracks you could hear a muffled version of Ye’s vocals, as well as an established use of Ai in these tracks.
There is a wide range of opinions following the use of Ai in the original versions versus the no Ai tracks of the released album. Though he kept the songs similar, since there was no use of artificial intelligence in the making and production of the songs, some of them lost that original feel that many had gotten used to and had been listening to for a while due to all of the delays.
Notably are the tracks “Highs and Lows”, “Circles” and “Last Breath”, all of which had a shifted feel in the released versus pre-released versions. Many online are complaining about how “Highs and Lows” and “Circles” sound significantly more dull than the original tracks. While the real tracks were somewhat a let down, the end products still have highly impressive production and creative design, and is ultimately worth it to have the album 100% man-made.
Kanye has always been known for his creative use of samples in his songs, something we’ve seen before on almost all of his previous albums like The College Dropout and Graduation. He not only incorporated many music samples on Bully but also an interview by James Brown on the track “Father”. This track also features Travis Scott, a collaboration that’s gotten tons of attention on social media from both Ye and Travis Scott fans.
The seventh track on Bully is “Mama’s Favorite”, which also includes a sample from a conversation between Ye and his mother Donda. Donda’s heartfelt and genuine dialogue ending the track inspires an emotional response out of the listener, and gives more insight to the relationship Ye has with his mom.
The inspiration behind the album was shared in a 2025 interview where Ye shares the story of his son kicking another kid. When he asked his nine year old son Saint why he did it, Saint replied with, “‘Cause he’s weak.” In the interview Ye says he thought to himself, “This guy really is a bully.” This was the moment that he was inspired to start his newest project. Not only did Saint inspire the name, but is also the iconic face we see on the album cover.
Ye has always been known for his creative stage designs, although his 2026 tour stage tops anything we’ve ever seen, as he performs on a 40-foot rotating globe that changes design and lights based on the planet he is trying to depict. Most of the concert takes place with Ye ‘on top of the world’ with the earth design, but we also see different hues and planets as well.
Also involving his tour is his new ban from the UK, meaning he isn’t allowed to perform or even enter the UK due to his past antisemitic, racist, and Nazi-related remarks and actions. He had been booked to play in London, which will no longer take action because of his past choices, despite his full page apology in The Wall Street Journal.
Ye has had extreme ups and downs in his album Bully and his whole career. Through the delays and obstacles, Bully has been a long time coming, and is shaping the way the modern world views hip hop today.
Due to the setbacks, but also the creativity and emotion, I’d give Bully an overall 4 out of 5 rating. Even though I enjoy some of his other stuff better, it’s still a great piece of art and some of his most unique work.
