The highs and lows of Bully by Ye
Official art from Bully album (Graphic Courtesy of Ye’s team)
By William Winkelman, Website Editor
What would you believe is the main way people listen to music? It is not CDs, vinyls, advertisements, or even streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, it is actually social media.
The majority of music people listen to is in clips that are 60 seconds or less while scrolling through Instagram or TikTok. By using social media for scrolling, people have weakened their attention spans, and in this case to music.
Over the years, people have gotten used to listening to shorter bites of songs, and those that are longer have become slightly more tedious or repetitive when compared to shorter ones. The new album Bully by Ye attempts to address this new development in music.
This album already dropped back in March 18, 2025, though this version was a lot worse. Back in its original release it was made with AI vocals and the song quality was much worse. This album did release before getting pulled back as Ye went through mania during 2025.
The album title was changed to “Cuck” and even some of the songs on the album were renamed and produced under horrible names like “Gas Chambers” and “Heil H*tler.”
From early 2025 there was radio silence before eventually seeing an apology in The Wall Street Journal and meeting with the Jewish community to give reparations.
In January, he had a concert in Mexico, being his last since 2024. In this concert he would go on to play some songs from Bully, even a new one called “All the Love,” formerly named “Gas Chambers.” These concerts would prove he was back to normal from his mania and that he could be trusted on an open mic once again. During this he would also perform with his daughter North West, rebuilding his family bonds.
The full album was released on March 28, 2026, just recently. This version was full of new songs of a better quality than the original release, as well as those original songs being changed for better or worse. On the album there were a couple collaboration songs, “FATHER” with Travis Scott, “PUNCH DRUNK” which was produced by North West, and many songs like “ALL THE LOVE” with Andre Troutman.
Many of these songs also follow different genres or eras of his music, like “PUNCH DRUNK” and “WHATEVER WORKS” being similar to his early music, and “ALL THE LOVE” being similar to “Yeezus” or “808’s and Heartbreak.” There are possible upcoming changes to the album like “I CAN’T WAIT” having Lauryn Hill on it, and “CIRCLES” having Don Toliver. This would be done through a Bully Deluxe album releasing at a later unconfirmed date.
This album was also recently performed at Sofi Stadium, marking Ye’s return to the United States for concerts since March of 2024. This concert had Travis Scott, Lauren Hill, North West, CeeLo Green, and YG Marley. This concert was one of his best, having a large array of guests and an amazing stadium with them performing on top of a spinning globe with the earth projected on it. This concert helped to signal his return to music as he is able to get guests and did an amazing performance himself.
In total this album is 42 minutes but 18 songs, meaning most of the songs are around two minutes in run time. This leaves most of them feeling like song bites, demos, or just unfinished.
By making his songs sound like this, it allows the songs to be used easier in social media videos. On top of this it also makes them more unique from one another and allows for a more diverse album. As a redemption album it was astonishing to have many of his styles in one place as it allowed fans from all generations of his music to enjoy the new album and his return to music.
If you like hip-hop or rap music you should give this album a try, after all, it will not take much of your time.