How did a Kanye West surprise album release ever become this dull?

Earlier today, Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign surprise-released a new album, Vultures 2, which, as the name implies, is the follow-up to their February 2024 release Vultures. As we listlessly listened to the album this afternoon (checking to see whether West had said anything noteworthily awful amidst its list of grievances, demands that women be nice to him, and other verbal trivialities), it occurred to us how wild it would have seemed, a decade ago, for Kanye West to surprise-release an album and have it make such a lackluster impact.

We’re sure there are people listening to Vultures 2 today for non-journalistic reasons—although we have to imagine they’re at least a little bored, since the only moment the album picks up even a hint of life is when West samples The Five Stairsteps’ “O-o-h Child” late in the track listings. (Vultures 1 topped the Billboard charts when it came out, despite feeling like it came and went with a quickness from the public consciousness, so there will definitely be people streaming this.) But as people who were writing pop culture news back in 2014, when West was ramping up into the incredibly exhausting release of The Life Of Pablo, it’s just wild to see how thoroughly he’s demolished, not just his reputation, but his impact, in 10 short years. It’s an amazing one-two punch: On the one hand, 10 years of embracing antisemitism, right wing political figures, sexism, accused abusers, and more have dismantled any way for the critical apparatus to lend West even the slightest trace of the benefit of the doubt; on the other, the shaky trickle of music released over the last few years, often promising genius, while delivering basically none of the cleverness (either behind the mic or at the producer’s console) that marked the man’s past output have stripped him of even the “canceled genius” mantle he’d so clearly love to carry.

Anyway: Vultures 2 reportedly features (per Variety) appearances from Lil Wayne, Don Toliver, Kodak Black and Playboi Carti, Future, Lil Durk, Lil Baby, 070 Shake, CyHi & Desiigner, Charlie Wilson, Young Thug and the Inter Milan Ultras, James Blake and Fred Again, Big TC, and a credit for Todd Rundgren. In addition to “O-o-h Child,” the album also features a sample of Leon Bridges’ “River,” on the track of the same name, that Variety says wasn’t cleared; West got dinged for an uncleared sample from Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” on Vultures 1,and ended up having to pull the track from streaming services.