Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the internet's most correctest music nerd.

Let's talk about a topic. Big topic this week being the final release we've been waiting for. We've been waiting for quite a while for the full, entire, and complete drop of the second installment in Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign's Vultures album series, Vultures 2, which has been pushed back weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks.

It's taken so long to get here. So long, in fact. It's making me wonder, are we ever going to see Vultures 3? And if we are, is it going to be even released this year?

It's a good question. It's a good question, considering the timeline that brought us to this point. However, right now, whether or not we get Vultures 3 may not even be something that is on the minds of anyone right now, even some of Kanye's most hardcore fans, what remains of them now anyway, because the reception online for Vultures 2 so far has been pretty frigging terrible.

It has to be because I've been seeing numerous comments on my YouTube videos, especially my fake, play, silly, skit, Vultures 2 review, as well as comments and mentions on social media apologizing to me for attacking me and harassing me and slandering me during my unreviewable commentary on Kanye's first Vulture record, and basically the general commentary I was giving about this current era of his career.

The quality of Vultures 2, again, is so poor that it's pretty much proven nearly everything I've had to say about Kanye at this point, correct. The creativity is not there. His mind is not there. The effort is not there. The music, most importantly, is not there. Vultures 2 is just proving to be the proof of that, staring you blankly in the face with no filter, no nothing, completely raw-dogging it, just inhibited laziness and bad ideas.

Now, before I go any further, I will make it a mission – I have not heard this album, and I have no plans on hearing this album. I don't want to listen to it. I don't want to review it. I don't want to assess the music on it or the quality of the art on it because, again, given even Kanye's most hardcore fans are disappointed by it, and believe me, many of them swallowed Vultures 1 happily, and that album was total crap, in order for them to actually be disgusted and disappointed with the quality of Vultures 2, it has to be unquestionably one of the worst things to be released this year.

How could it not be given some of the most ridiculous aspects of the album that have been brought up online since its release. For example, the track "530" off of the record has been shown to be just a low-quality YouTube rip. Yeah, it's just basically an unfinished demo that got thrown onto the record. Even more weirdly, there are bars and flows on this record that are not actually Kanye rapping. It's AI Kanye, which I guess is the case for the first verse on the song "Sky City", which to me is wild.

It's one thing to be some bedroom producer doing a thing, and you're trying to make some Kanye parody or copy, and then, I don't know, you get your hands on some AI vocal interface, and then you wrap a fake Kanye verse. I mean, it's not great, and I feel like that technology has been abused in weird ways as of late. But again, that's one thing. But it's another thing to be doing that. And your Kanye, you can just use your own voice, bro. You can just be the guy that you are AI-ing because you are actually, in fact, that guy.And just leave Edding verses like this on the record presenting in the way that you are is just frigging lazy.

Of course, there are multiple unclear samples on the record, which is not too much of a surprise because he keeps doing this, and every single time, he just doesn't really learn his lesson. I mean, why would his fans presume he's clearing any samples at this point anymore? And of course, because of this and a bunch of other things just generally being issues on the album, mixing and unfinished vocal performances that are pretty mumbly.

Yeah, once again, Kanye is changing and completing the album in real-time, which was cute and interesting and did lead to ultimately a better product when it came to The Life of Pablo, as the gradually improved version of that record was quite a bit better than the first one that came out on streaming services. But aren't we tired of this whole routine at this point with Kanye? It's not funny anymore. Try different jokes. It's just getting old. It's just getting stale.

Can't we just hear the album, how it should be the first time out of the gate? Is that not a thing that we can do anymore? Do we have to piecemeal the whole goddamn thing, every frigging album cycle? Also, it seems like some of the issues and problems on this record are so goddamn glaring. They shouldn't have to be fixed after the fact. Kanye is putting this thing out like it's his first rodeo, as if he hasn't sold millions of copies of albums across his career.

With the quality level that this is at, we're no longer getting a cool behind-the-scenes look into the process of his creativity and how he brings things from a rough idea to a complete idea. No, what's happening now is clearly that he doesn't give a fuck, and he'll pretty much put out anything, even the musical equivalent of a turd. That is so bad, it doesn't really matter how much you change it or alter it, it's still going to be a turd.

Not only is it clear at this point that Kanye doesn't really care about the presentation and the quality of the music, but he doesn't really care about his fans either. Because as I was saying earlier, things have gotten so bad and so desperate, they're apologizing to me, also starting Reddit threads about me saying, 'Yeah, Fantano, if you want to say this is unreviewable, I won't argue.'

For an artist of Kanye's size and an artist with Kanye's sometimes sycophantic fan base is really goddamn embarrassing. Like your fans are literally on your subreddit telling you that your record is so goddamn shit that me, the most sexy, thick, and notable music reviewer of my generation, that I would be well within my right to pretty much, like in the Meat Canyon video, pull down my pants and take a dump on your album, which I would happily do if it was actually even worth doing that in the first place.

It's not because truly and honestly, again, I don't want to listen to it because doing so would be a waste of my time, a waste of your time, audience that would potentially watch that review. I would probably just the entire time listening to the record be feeling second-hand embarrassment for you, Kanye, an artist who's fall from grace at this point has become so tragic and so sad and so disappointing that I don't even get the rise out of it that you would with, let's say, a dumpster fire or a train wreck that you can't look away from because it really has gotten that bad and dragged out.

I don't want to look at the train wreck anymore. I really don't want to stare at it anymore. The last thing I want to do is spend one more goddamn second looking at this train wreck. And if the album is this bad and is getting this reaction, again, I can only imagine how terrible Vultures 3 is going to be. Kanye is barely flowing. If it's even his goddamn voice on the record, the production is ass, mixing is ass, songs are ass. It's all of his fans that were totally on board for Vultures 1 who are pretty much confirming this. With only maybe a few stragglers here and there willing to either go completely balls deep and say, 'Yeah, it's amazing. It's the album of the year, bro. It's the album of the year.'

The most reasonable and complementary things I've heard about the record from his fans, is just that, 'Well, it sucks and it's total crap and it's unlistenable, but there are some good ideas there. They just need to get cleaned up. They were in business This baby.' But the thing is, Kanye does not have the ability or the focus or the capacity to self-edit that he once did.

As a result of that, you're never going to hear these songs. You're never going to hear these songs in a state where they would actually be presentable in a way where they would likely resonate with anybody outside of the Kanye cult. They're forever going to be in the dark, sunken place because at this point, Kanye is completely frigging cooked, and we've got to stop kidding ourselves about that. Just move on. Listen and pay attention to other things. There are other interesting things going on in the world of music that are not Kanye continuing to ruin his goddamn career. Do yourselves and do him as well a favor.

If you actually care about this man's music and his artistry, do everything that you can to maintain a positive view and outlook on that by just ignoring the new crap and just listening to the old stuff that actually mattered, actually had impact, was actually significant. Because I guarantee you, the more you watch this slow-motion immolation that is happening, the more difficult it's going to be to look back on a lot of those older records and even see merit in them, because this is goddamn embarrassing.

And I'm going to leave it there.

Anthony Fantano, Vultures 2 review, forever.

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