As of this post, it’s nearly 8 a.m. ET, and Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign have not yet released their collaborative album Vultures, which was expected to drop at midnight ET. Given West’s history of album delays and working on projects until the last possible second, this isn’t particularly surprising. This isn’t even the first time Vultures has faced a delay, as it was reportedly once set to drop on October 13.
As for why the album isn’t out yet, it looks like West was trying to cross some T’s and dot some I’s before the final buzzer.
At 10:23 p.m. ET last night (December 14), 97 minutes before the album was presumably set for a midnight release, West tweeted a screenshot of a text he supposedly sent to Nicki Minaj, which read, “Hi it’s ye. May I call you about clearing new body on the new album.”
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1735500716603809997
As NME notes, Minaj gave Kanye’s request a public “no.” During an Instagram Live broadcast last night, she said, “Child, that train has left the station, OK? No disrespect in any way. I just put out a brand new album. Now why would I put out a song that has been out for three years? Come on, guys. You know?”
Nicki Minaj says she will NOT be clearing her verse to Kanye West’s “New Body” for his new album.
– “That train has left the station.” pic.twitter.com/IN44WPmzZq
— She’s Fishy ➐ (@ShesFishy) December 15, 2023
In a February 2022 interview, Minaj said of “New Body,” a demo of which leaked back in 2018, “The public adored ‘New Body.’ ‘New Body’ is the biggest hit record that never came out. So what I thought was interesting was that Kanye made me write my ‘New Body’ verse four times over in order to fit into where he was creatively and spiritually in his life. […] I missed it by a year, I guess. Had ‘New Body’ been out when he was not in his gospel era, then it would’ve seen the light of day. But, it didn’t, so it wasn’t meant to be. Everybody knows that’s the hit that got away. […] I think the ship has sailed for ‘New Body,’ everybody has come to love the original way they heard it.”
All that said, it is still December 15 right now, so West and Ty still have well over half a day to get everything in order and release Vultures before the weekend if that’s something they’re committed to doing.
