The second volume of the ¥$ project continued the sonic framework established on Vultures 1 — trap-leaning production, provocative subject matter, and Ty Dolla $ign's melodic counterweight to Kanye's rapping. Released after multiple delays, it received a more muted critical response than its predecessor but completed the planned album series. Together the two Vultures albums represent a complex late chapter in Kanye's discography.
Deep Dive
Background
Vultures 2 arrived several months after the first installment, completing the ¥$ collaborative statement and demonstrating that the project had enough material to sustain two full albums. Where Vultures 1 was oriented toward accessibility and commercial impact, the second volume leaned further into experimentation, with tracks that felt less finished in the conventional sense and more process-oriented. The recording sessions drew on the same extended period of productivity that produced the first album, with Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign selecting and shaping material to distinguish the two projects tonally.
Themes
Vultures 2 pushes the darker and more abstract side of the ¥$ aesthetic — less hit-song orientation, more textural exploration and mood. It is interested in the edges of the collaboration, the places where Ty's smoothness and Kanye's abrasion meet and don't fully resolve.
Production
The production on the second volume takes more risks — longer track structures, stranger sample choices, moments of deliberate dissonance that recall Yeezus more than Vultures 1. It rewards closer listening than its predecessor and operates more as a formal experiment than a collection of potential singles.
Legacy
As a companion piece to Vultures 1, Vultures 2 rounds out a statement about collaborative identity and artistic survival during institutional crisis. Its critical reception was more mixed than the first volume, but its willingness to complicate the project's commercial premises is part of its interest.
Best For
For the listener who finished Vultures 1 and wanted to go further — or who prefers their Kanye more challenging than accessible.
Fun Fact
Several tracks on Vultures 2 exist in multiple versions that circulated among close collaborators before the release, and the final choices about which versions to include were made relatively late in the process.
Tracklist — 15 songs
Era — Donda Era (2021–2026)
The Donda era is defined by grief, controversy, and an increasingly anti-institutional relationship with the music industry. The sprawling Donda invoked his late mother as a spiritual anchor across 27 tracks; Donda 2 was distributed only via proprietary hardware. The ¥$ Vultures albums with Ty Dolla $ign arrived amid the most intense public backlash of his career following antisemitic remarks, yet still debuted at #1 — a testament to the stubborn commercial gravity of his catalog even as his cultural position became increasingly fraught. BULLY (2026) represents a new confrontational chapter, channeling the raw energy of Yeezus into a post-Vultures artistic reset.
Also in this era
Ask Grok about this album
Ask anything about “Vultures 2” — production, samples, meaning, context.