Kanye West was apparently planning to release his new collaborative album with Ty Dolla $ign on Friday (October 13) but decided to pull back amid trouble landing on a distributor. According to a report from Billboard, West is currently fielding offers from five different companies but several others have declined to work with him, citing his past anti-Semitic comments. A source, however, said he will “make a decision soon.”
A trusted few who’ve heard the album reportedly think it’s West’s best work since 2018’s Ye. Still, as the situation in Israel intensifies, company executives are hesitant to work with an artist who once said he “loves Hitler.” Taken out of context or not, West’s comments—and there were many of them—were hurtful to the Jewish community and cost him a lot of business.
West and Ty Dolla $ign have collaborated before. In 2020, they joined forces for a single called “Ego Death” featuring FKA Twigs and Skrillex. It served as the lead single for Ty’s 2020 album, Featuring Ty Dolla Sign.
Kanye West has been steadily working on his new album. In August, Chicago producer Orlando “Fya Man” Wilder, who worked with West on DONDA, held an AMA on Reddit where revealed some details about the project. Wilder described the music West was working on as “Old Ye but new with the times.”
He also confirmed West was working on the album at his birthday party in June, saying, “Music was worked on heavily, and the party was amazing.” Last month, West previewed a new song at the Mowalola SS24 fashion show in London. Just days ago, West held a small listening party in Italy and previewed new tracks from the album.