Kanye West is generating buzz of new music as clips of him announcing an album have surfaced on social media. The unpredictable creative revealed the project titled BULLY during a listening event at Wuyuan River Stadium in Haikou, China, on Saturday (Sept. 28).
“I got a new album coming out,” he told the roaring crowd in one clip. He goes on to introduce the unheard track called “Beauty and the Beast.” In the since-widely circulated snippet, West flexes his singing skills as he croons, “It’s been a long time coming, fresh new times I’m still running,” before what sounds like another artist’s voice is heard saying, “I still think about it every night and day to try to stay away, to keep my audience/ Don’t take this disrespect, I’m sitting here trying to redirect.”
Expectedly so, the track generated excitement from fans who were glad to know that West has been in the lab working on solo music in between crafting VULTURES 1 and VULTURES 2 with Ty Dolla Sign. As previously reported by REVOLT, the two artists dropped off their second collaborative effort in August following a series of delays. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The collection of 21 tracks featured assists from Don Toliver, Kodak Black, Playboi Carti, Future, and Lil Wayne, to name a few.
But as it turns out, “Beauty and the Beast” is a cut that has been lying in wait. “Synth God” Mike Dean revealed that the track is a 2021 “Donda leftover” when he commented on a Hidden New York Instagram post that showed off West-inspired artwork for the song.
Dean is a longtime collaborator of the 24-time Grammy Award-winner, having had a hand in past albums like The College Dropout, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Yeezus, DONDA 2, and The Life of Pablo. Elsewhere during the listening event, fans also got to hear the unreleased “Preacher Man,” as well as updated versions of “Jail” and “530.”
West has been hosting a series of listening events for the better part of the last two years, several of which gave supporters early access to works-in-progress that would go on to appear on the VULTURES projects.