WAR[1] is an unreleased collaborative album by Kanye West, James Blake, and No I.D. that was conceived in the spring of 2022, following the release of Donda 2 on the Stem Player.
Background[]
James Blake and No I.D. working with Ye in the studio. Picture posted to Instagram on September 28, 2022.
The project was first conceived in April 2022 during the Donda 2 sessions. The album remained unknown and unheard to the public until September 26, 2022 when Ye had previewed several songs from the album at a club in London. James Blake had also confirmed his contributions to the songs.[2]
During Yeezy Season 9 in October 2022 Kanye would preview the first version of the song "What I Would Have Said At Virgil’s Funeral."[3] On the 10th of the same month, Kanye released his LAST WEEK documentary, sharing the phrase WAR. This phrase was speculated to be the name of the finished name for Donda 2, but was later confirmed by infamous leaker Luit to have been the title of the James Blake and No I.D. collaborative record on July 11th of 2024.
References tracks for "530", "First Time In A Long Time", and "Sci Fi" were all previewed in this documentary as well; however, considering that Donda 2 had also still been in production during the James Blake and No I.D. sessions it is likely these tracks were not repurposed for the record. 6 days after the documentary dropped, Kanye confirmed the existence of a collaborative record between him, James Blake and No I.D. during his infamous Drink Champs Interview on the 16th, calling it their "album".[4]
In December of 2022 Kanye West had went onto Alex Jones' podcast where he would go on to praise Hitler and make multiple antisemitic comments.[5] Past this point, the collaborative record had been presumably scrapped past early 2023 as implied by KayCyy as a result of the controversy surrounding Kanye.[6]
Despite this, several insiders have stated the album is still in production. This is highly unlikely however, given James Blake himself stated he has not spoken with Ye in a long time. It has been said however that songs from these sessions have been brought back for VULTURES 2 and YEBU however, as a track listing for YEBU posted to Digital Nas' private Instagram account displayed songs "All In Love" and "Bobby Digital" which had originated from these sessions.[7]
Several songs from these sessions have been released, as "TALKING" was created during these sessions and "Let Her Know" by James Blake is also believed to have originated from these sessions due to the song featuring No I.D. production.[8]
In May 1st, 2025. On Sneako’s Parti stream, Ye confirmed that WAR was still on the way and even played several songs, including "Quiet," the original version of "This One Here," "Bobby Digital," along with two other songs with unknown titles.[9][10]
Later that month, Digital Nas would confirm it had been his idea to his put unreleased albums out, and stated Ye had blamed him for DONDA 2 not doing very well and that both teased unreleased albums "Yandhi" and "WAR" would not be released due to this.[11]
Songs[]
Very few songs from the album were leaked, making it one of Ye's most mysterious unreleased albums. Two songs, "TALKING" and "SHOWTIME" were created or began development during these sessions.[8] It was eventually released on Ye and Ty Dolla $ign's collaborative album, VULTURES 1 (2024). Other unreleased songs from the album include:
- "530"
- "Bobby Digital"
- "Ceremony Freestyle"
- "Fall In / All In Love"
- "Let It In"
- "Love Love Love"
- "Spiky"
- "Time"
- "We Love You" (feat. North West & Sunday Service Choir)
- "What I Would Have Said At Virgil’s Funeral" (feat. Vory)
- 'Church Girl" (not the official name)
- "Quiet" (not the official name)
Several other demo songs with no name were also created.
Track list[]
No fully known track list intended for the album is known to exist. However, the song "Let It In" was said by the seller of the song to have been intended for a "WAR" track list. The validity of this is unknown,
References[]
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodAssSub/comments/1e0il5d/war_was_real/
- ↑ https://ktt2.com/ye-previews-new-music-on-naomi-campbells-ig-live-32532963
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7dXyR2F83g
- ↑ https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/kanye-addresses-antisemitic-remarks-incorrectly-124303668.html
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/01/kanye-west-alex-jones-hilter-interview/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodAssSub/comments/18siy78/kaycyy_seems_to_imply_that_ye_was_still/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/ThroughTheWire/comments/1e1vb2n/part_of_the_old_solo_album_tracklist_y3_or/
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 https://krakenfiles.com/view/LnLA6QbNwM/file.html
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodAssSub/s/u70iyt7HBH
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodAssSub/s/hkacgTTgRf
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/ThroughTheWire/comments/1kpysnb/digital_nas_will_not_be_pushing_ye_to_release/