On August 3rd of 2024, unbeknownst to the world, something happened. Something huge: Vultures 2. Often being anticipated for years, Kanye West’s music is always treasured upon release by fans and critics alike. Or at least, it was. Unfortunately, the last anticipated West drop was on February 10th, 2024, with the release of Vultures 1; unfortunately, not Vultures 2. Vultures 2 was not anticipated at all. At the end of the album’s first week available to the public, Vultures 2 was streamed 50 million times and had 60,500 album sales. By comparison, West’s second album, Late Registration, had first-week results of 860,000 album sales. The following albums proceeded to sell even more, with his third album, Graduation, earning 957,000 album sales in its first week. This proves how successful West is – or rather, was. Vultures 2 sold noticeably fewer copies in the first week than almost all of his other albums released, even within the same timeframe. This gap is very telling, and shows that West has changed. And not always for the better.
Falloff, by the Oxford dictionary, is defined as “a decrease in something.” Although the main talking point around Vultures 2 is its poor sales, there is much more to it than meets the eye. Much of West’s persona, and everything that made him relatable so long ago, is crumbling around him. Taking on a new, almost misshapen musical and personal identity, Kanye West was once an up-and-coming rapper with a new style, one that took over the hip-hop/rap genre. West’s light music, a lack of mumble rapping, distinct sounds, and his ability to innovate took him from a nobody trying to meet Jay Z to landing himself a spot on the world’s 100 most influential people in 2005 and 2015. West’s journey into relevancy was real and visible: and unfortunately, it peaked. West was one of the most respected rappers, with many people saying he was the most revolutionary rapper of his generation.
The current West scene is a domino effect, with one bad act leading into another harmful event: and things have only gotten worse. In fact, more than his music has been tanking; Kanye West, as a person, has not been doing well as of late.
During 2022, West went notoriously viral for spreading anti-Semitism and inciting more violence against Jewish people, something he spread largely with DEFCON 3, a statement that essentially indicated West’s wishes to kill Jewish people. Close to the same time, West has been doing other publicity stunts, including dressing his current wife, Bianca Censori, in very thin and revealing clothes. Towards the beginning of 2024, West got his fresh titanium grills; and an addiction to Nitrous Oxide, also known as laughing gas. West’s former chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, called out West’s dentist for making West dependent on the drug, making him incapable of producing good music or creating clothes. The Nitrous Oxide situation does not help when it comes to being a chaser for West’s anti-Semitic era. All this attention is exactly what West wants: unfortunately, not all publicity is good publicity, and West is feeling the repercussions of his actions. His mental health also plays a factor in his downfall, and unless something changes, West might not be able to do anything about his public image spiraling into something dark and unlikable.
In light of this Kanye West recap, it is clear that the Vultures 2 numbers are so much more complicated than just bad music. From rags to riches, then falling from the peak of relevancy, and slowly becoming a laughingstock of the music industry, West is in some hot water – he is having such a fall from relevancy, that nobody is watching him – not even vultures.
