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Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign: Vultures 2 review – some of Ye’s most jaded, degraded moments

The lyrics veer from nihilistic provocation to drunken messages to his ex-wife, and the music is equally erratic and confused

There was no dignified cleaning of the slate – the title track joked about the antisemitism in the ugliest manner imaginable – but most critics felt that Vultures 1 was at least an improvement on his previous album, 2021’s Donda. Bomb, featuring daughters North and Chicago, should have stayed on the family fridge where it belongs; there are more unwanted guests in the AC Milan ultras who chanted on Carnival – an eye-rollingly “edgy” choice – who reappear sounding just as dreary and leaden as before. Some of West’s other lyrics are just embarrassing – “I’m on vibranium, claws, they titanium”, is the kind of thing a substitute teacher would rap to ingratiate themselves with their unimpressed charges – but there are some inventive flows too, as he asymmetrically presses words on to the seasick beat of Slide, or nimbly babbles over a breezily strummed electric guitar on Sky City.

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