Kanye West has dropped an early version of his new album Bully on select streaming services, but not in the way you might think.
Over the weekend, the controversial rap legend released the unfinished project as a 45-minute music video on YouTube and Apple Music.
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Titled “BULLY V1,” the video is the same short film that Kanye leaked last week in the midst of yet another explosive rant on social media.
The black-and-white visual, shot by Ye and edited by Hype Williams, follows the rapper’s nine-year-old son Saint as he takes on waves of wrestlers with a mallet in the ring.
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Where the streaming version differs, however, is in the music itself.
BULLY V1 features nine songs instead of 10, with the Playboi Carti and Ty Dolla $ign-assisted “Melrose” being cut from the tracklist due to Kanye’s issues with the two artists.
The sequencing is largely reworked as well as several tracks appear in a different order. The only guest on this version is Mexican star Peso Pluma who features on “Last Breath,” which finds Ye partly rapping in Spanish.
Production credits have yet to be revealed, but Yeezy previously said that he had “chopped every beat with my bare hand” for his 11th LP.
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Rich with vintage soul samples, emotive loops and dusty, boom bap drums that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Griselda record, it features some of the Chicago native’s best production in years.
However, the same effort wasn’t put into the vocals, with AI technology being used to record roughly half of the singing-heavy album, as Kanye himself admitted.
The G.O.O.D. Music founder previously said that Bully would be officially released on June 15 to coincide with his daughter North’s birthday.
However, it’s unclear if that’s still the plan, especially given his recent comments on social media about potentially boycotting streaming services with future releases.
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Also unclear is the planned third installment in his Vultures trilogy with Ty Dolla $ign, who he has taken shots at in recent weeks along with other collaborators and contemporaries.
