Ye’s ‘Bully’ Album: All 18 Tracks Ranked

“Damn” wasn’t played during the Bully livestream, but it makes the album’s final cut on DSPs. West sings over stripped-down production about enjoying the ride in front of you, while not worrying about the possibility of crashing. As a survivor of a terrible car accident in 2002, West knows a thing or two about cheating death and moving forward.

Don Toliver reunites with Ye and builds on his dominant 2026 behind his OCTANE album, and it’s still only March. Toliver is one of the most malleable weapons in hip-hop with a unique sound, and Ye has a penchant for deploying collaborators in positions to win. Unfortunately, “Circles” looks to be more of an interlude moving Bully along, rather than a fully fleshed-out idea.

Ye has never been one to box himself into certain genres. He experiments on the Latin side while recruiting the corridos tumbados of Peso Pluma for “Last Breath.” For possibly the first time in his career, Yeezy hops in the booth and puts his Spanish to the test, while harping on a toxic relationship between shots of Clase Azul. With more polishing, this could’ve had the dancefloors on fire uptown.

Ye has always kept an open mind to working with the next generation of artists, and here he connects with underground rapper Nine Vicious, who provides background vocals and gives “This a Must” a menacing twist.

Rarely one to look back on his success, West recalls the days he was seeking global stardom with 2007’s Graduation. “This a Must” lives somewhere in the middle of the pack of Bully, and the track may sound familiar to Ye diehards — as it was recorded under the title “Unlock” with Ty Dolla $ign for the Vultures sessions, but never ended up having an official home.

Much like the Backstreet Boys-sampling “Everybody” from Vultures, “Highs and Lows” will live in the same bag of what could have been. With French singer Pomme denying use of the original’s sample, West was forced to pivot. Think about how many music moments we’ve been robbed of over clearances over the years. It’s still a solid Bully track, as Ye emotionally pours his heart out to loved ones who have stood by him amid the plethora of controversies he’s been embroiled in.

“Beauty and the Beast” was originally played at the Vultures 2 listening party in China, but Mike Dean has alleged the track to actually be a Donda holdover. West seems to be at peace singing between a Mad Lads sample. “It’s been a long time coming/ Fresh new tires, I’m still running,” he lightly croons with a sprinkle of the Yeezus deconstruction at his back.

As a producer, Ye remains unmatched. Here, West meshes a Supremes sample into a melancholic soundscape. Yeezy could go into a coma for a decade, come out, and his production would remain avant-garde and ahead of the pack. Whenever his career seems to be at a crossroads, Ye has been able to lean on music time and time again to bail him out and walk through the fire.

It was a long road for the soulful “Preacher Man” from the Vultures 2 sessions to finally finding a home on Bully. This is the brash spoken-word flow that should’ve been planted across the album. Ye sneers at the opposition with the kind of cheeky bars we’ve come accustomed to from him, as he calls out a woman for hating sports but still sitting pretty courtside, along with the self-indulgent “I hate that God didn’t make a couple more of me.”

Ye ruminates about the peace and solace he finds in being alone at times. Something the world could probably use more of. With an electronic lift from André Troutman, West sings about how he’ll always remain truthful, following his path even when it looks bleak. A Bully palette cleanser, so to speak.

It’s always darkest before dawn, and West delivers a healing album finisher to close the book on Bully. “This One Here” has traces back to Ye’s work with James Blake in 2022, but Blake came out on Saturday (March 28) requesting his production credits be removed from the song. Blake says it’s nothing personal, but it’s not a true Ye album rollout without some controversy, right? I’m going to be repeating “This one here, this fire, fire” the rest of the weekend.

Make room for “Mama’s Favorite” on the mantle of special tracks invoking his late mother, Donda West, alongside “Hey Mama” and “Only One.” Ye’s soft, melodic flow leads into a celestial outro, which features a conversation between a neophyte Yeezy and Donda previously seen in the Jeen-Yuhs documentary. The talk finds Donda instilling her son with the self-confidence that carried him to greatness.

A similar vibe to “Punch Drunk,” Ye chops a Cissy Houston sample and kicks off “Whatever Works” with a possible reference to his Wall Street Journal ad apologizing to the Jewish and Black communities for the pain he caused in recent years. With a lone 10-bar verse, there’s room for a potent second verse to pierce listeners’ souls and make “Whatever Works” one of the standouts from Bully.

A Jonah Thompson sample mixed with fuzzy distortion and stripped-down drums makes for a gloomy backdrop for Ye to parachute into. West finds one of his best pockets on the album, touching on how the public thinks he’s “blacking out like Akon” and forgetting the greatness he’s given to hip-hop. “Take some time off, they act like they don’t remember,” he claims.

Toward the end of his “Sisters and Brothers” verse, there appears to be a shift in Ye’s thinking. In the past, West has been quick to remind everyone — and Forbes — of his once-billionaire status, but now he’s referring to money as “the root of all evil.”

Ye kicks off Bully and it feels like Yeezus just rose again. Production-wise, “King” mimics elements of the industrialization of West’s 2013 Yeezus album. It’s a promising opening verse from Kanye, who addresses how the hate brought him more love, while friends turned to “lost ones” and others treated him like an “orphan” in recent years. There’s also a cheeky bar about how MLK paved the way for him to marry Kim Kardashian, and Ye’s gotta be the only person to ever rhyme Gwyneth Paltrow with Harlem drug kingpin Alpo Martinez.

Travis Scott was one of the rare superstar artists to not turn their back on Ye in recent years. “Father” introduces angelic church organs, which just feels right at some point on a West album. That glory is flipped into chaotic industrial drums courtesy of legendary Mobb Deep producer Havoc. Yeezy calls back to his hilarious “do you see this coat?” paparazzi moment and shows up as the “new me.”

La Flame invades the scene, bragging about his lucrative partnerships with Oakley and Nike over production that seems to be in the family tree as his UTOPIA opener “HYAENA.”

Is it 2004 again with all of the chipmunk soul samples being chopped by Ye on his ASR keyboard? “Punch Drunk” even features co-production from his daughter, North West, so it’s easy to see how the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. With a sub-two-minute runtime, it feels a bit short, with more room on the runway for another hard-hitting verse from Ye to boost “Punch Drunk” from a top-five Bully track to the throne.

A cinematic standout title track that could score a scene in Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight western. Ye opens up about how every time he speaks out it leads to the “castles in thе sky come down crashing,” and his refusal to completely let go of his ego since it’s one of his creative superpowers. West hands the baton to a thunderous chorus from Goodie Mob’s CeeLo Green to bring “Bully” across the finish line. Well done, Mr. West.

The crown jewel of Bully. “All the Love” collides the chaos of Yeezus with the electronic genius of Roger Troutman’s talkbox. It’s the pockets of brilliance that keep fans coming back and make them willing to overlook all of the antics, delays and mayhem that come with Kanye. Over two decades into his career, Ye can still push rap’s creative envelope to places none of his peers can. “All the Love” is the best of Ye, but probably doesn’t reach the commercial heights and stadium status of Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Carnival” or Donda‘s “Off the Grid.”