Kanye West has shared insight as to why he chose to fully self-produce his recent album BULLY, uncovering his theory that Taylor Swift and his previous album collaborators led him to make the decision.
West revealed the theory while detailing his thoughts behind producing his latest album during a recent live stream with Digital Nas.
In doing so, he admitted that his recent album Vultures 2, was a turning point. While mentioning collaborators like Quentin Miller, Don Tolliver, Ty Dolla $ign, Malik Youssef, and Billy Walsh who contributed to BULLY, West said the fact Vultures 2 notably didn’t debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking a first in his career, made his frustration with the creative process ran deeper.
And while most artists might take a flop in stride, Kanye seems to think external forces were at play, placing part of the blame on the “artists” associated with Taylor Swift.
“Just for Vultures 2, this is my first album that was not a number one in my entire career and who did they use to do that? Taylor Swift’s artists, and this n#### I never heard of, Monty Litman, or some,” West vented, clearly dissatisfied with the impact of those involved in the project.
He hinted at a deeper conspiracy, where the competition to secure a chart-topping spot was intentionally skewed—a move he framed as possibly being orchestrated behind the scenes while defending his own work on Vultures 2 buy pointing to key standout tracks.
“People will say they don’t like this album, ‘I don’t like this album’,” headmitted. “But the crazy thing is, there’s crazy songs… like ‘Field Trip’ is on that album, that s###, like ‘530’ is on that album.”
In the aftermath of the album’s commercial struggle, Kanye took a new approach to his creative process, one that pushed him to rely solely on his own instincts.
“I was like, ‘Man, I’m just gonna get on the ASR, I’m gonna chop up some s### myself,” he explained. “So I was really big when I did that [BULLY] album, of not allowing other producers to work on the album.”
He ended his remarks by dishing about his excitement over his upcoming WW3(World War 3) project while also emphasizing the importance of having moments of solitude to focus on his personal expression.
“I’m working with other people on World War 3, so I like that, bringing people in, [but] sometimes you gotta have, like, these quiet moments, too, to just express your exact thoughts,” he added.