Kanye West - BULLY

Ye goes back to the sample crates on BULLY, a 2026 album that swaps recent bombast for warm, chopped-up soul and a surprisingly tender voice.

Billed as his first solo album since Donda, BULLY arrived after a drawn-out rollout of delays, previews and shifting tracklists. The finished record leans on the craft that made his name in the first place: digging out forgotten soul records, pitching them up and building entire songs around one aching vocal phrase.

"Preacher Man" opens with chopped soul samples, part of a wider return to the chipmunk-soul style of his early records. "I Can't Wait" pulls off one of the slickest sample flips here, and across songs like "Highs and Lows" and the title track "Bully", Ye leans into sung, heavily Auto-Tuned melodies that owe more to 808s & Heartbreak than to battle-rap swagger.

Ye handles much of the production himself alongside a wide circle of collaborators, and the LP gathers 13 songs in a running order of its own, distinct from the streaming version. It feels looser and more personal than his recent output, with hooks drifting like half-remembered radio.

For fans who first fell for Ye as a producer with an ear for old soul, this is the most familiar he has sounded in years. Listen for the samples.