Draft:Bully (album)

Bully
Studio album by Kanye West
Recorded	September – October 2024
Label	YZY
Producer	Kanye West
Kanye West chronology
Vultures 2 (2024) Bully (TBA)

Bully is the upcoming eleventh studio album by American rapper Kanye West. There is no confirmed release date and it will be West's first solo album since Donda (2021). Bully was first announced during a Vultures listening event in Haikou, China, where the songs "Beauty and the Beast" and "Preacher Man" (which are expected to feature on Bully) were previewed. Bully is allegedly planned to be a concept album solely produced by West.

Background and recording

Prior in 2024, West released two collaborative albums with American musician Ty Dolla Sign, Vultures 1 and Vultures 2. Both albums received mixed reviews from critics, with Vultures 2 criticized for being released in an unfinished state. Following their release, record producer and musician Digital Nas shared text messages from West indicating his intention to go into "full art studio mode", which confirmed claims by the CEO of West's touring company, Channel Candy, that West had been working on solo material following his show in South Korea. On September 26, West posted a video on Instagram showing himself using an ASR-10 keyboard to create "Preacher Man", a song previously previewed at listening events. An instrumental containing Bollywood samples, posted to West's Instagram page at the same time, is speculated to be titled "Oh No My Hoodie, My Hoodie", though these are not the words actually spoken in the sample, and insiders conflict on if this was ever considered for the songs title.

A snippet of unreleased track "This Is The Glory" was accidentally played during West's event in Haikou, causing many to speculate that the song may be featured on the album. Similar theories arose when a close associate of West, Mark Seekings, posted a photo on Instagram of the inside of his car, with an unreleased track called "60/60" playing on the dashboard.

During a Vultures 2 event on September 28 in Haikou, West announced he was working on a new album titled Bully. He previewed the tracks "Beauty and the Beast" and "Preacher Man", stating both were intended for the album. Both of the tracks were praised for their soulful production. He continued to post several previews of the two tracks on Instagram and his YZY website in the following days. American music journalist Touré revealed West was living in Tokyo and that Bully would be a concept album inspired by his solitude, with West as its sole producer: "Traditionally, [West] is the product of a team—there are producers [and] writers helping him; he comes with the big ideas but there's others involved. [West] is gonna make [Bully] pretty much by himself. A fresh chapter in his life because in Tokyo he can be who he wants to be." Despite this claim, multiple rappers and producers have taken photos of themselves in the same hotel room that West utilizes in recording sessions, such as Don Toliver, Malik Yusef, and Sean Leon.

On October 18, West uploaded a music video for "Beauty and the Beast" to both Apple Music and his website. It consists of footage taken during the songs premiere at his show in Haikou, China. The Apple Music video was taken down on October 19, and an additional animated visual for the songs instrumental was uploaded to the website YZY ONE. On October 23, West posted the album's cover on Instagram, stating it was shot by the Japanese photographer Daidō Moriyama. The cover features a black-and-white image of West's son Saint wearing titanium grills, similar to those West has worn since early 2024. On October 25, West released a merchandise collection for Bully and made the album available for physical pre-order.