You had almost guessed it. On Friday (December 15th) the new album by Kanye West, aka Ye, was on the release list. The title is known, the record should be called “Vultures”. In German: vulture. Whether the 46-year-old wanted to set off an ornithological fireworks display or whether he wanted to stigmatize his numerous critics cannot yet be answered conclusively. Currently “vulture swoop” is more popular.
It fits with the metaphor of the carrion-eating large bird that Ye did not appear at the “Soundstorm” festival in the desert zone of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as advertised, where he was most recently on the program alongside Metallica, the Swedish House Mafia and the Black Eyed Peas -tableau has stood. The fact that he let this gig, which was most likely paid for royally, slip through his fingers fits with his increasingly irrational behavior over the last few years.
Kanye West has repeatedly made anti-Semitic comments on his digital channels. The hip-hop label Def Jam, a genre-specialized subdivision of the world market leader Universal Music, “dropped” him after these and similar quarrels.
Then the disaster with the Herzogenaurach sports multinational Adidas, which had launched a special line with Ye. The contract was terminated without notice and the remaining inventory was sold in special sales. Partner companies such as the clothing department store Gap, the US bank JPMorgan Chase, the sneaker chain Foot Locker and other sponsor and advertising partners also said “Bye with Ö” across the board.
Kanye muttered to himself and made strange Provo statements. He was surrounded by right-wing journalists such as Tucker Carlson and the American conspiracy guru Alex Jones. The star rapper, who is associated with bipolar disorder, babbled strange things on their shows. He said something like: “I do love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis”. Or also: like “I do love Hitler”.
In recent months he has been reserved by his standards. Studio work on his twelfth album seemed a plausible reason. In the previously released title song of “Vultures,” Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband continues to go wild.
One line of the text says, for example, that he could by no means be an anti-Semite. After all, he sometimes had sex with Jewish women.
In the accompanying campaign for “Vultures,” Ye appears in a fine-rib undershirt on which the sportswear logo of the German Bundeswehr, often used in pop culture, appears as a two-headed eagle creature. His music, which tends to languish, is only of secondary or even third importance to riot screw West.