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YEBU is an unreleased album by Kanye West that was worked on from late-2022 to late-2023 after his antisemitic rant on Alex Jones' podcast in December 2022, resulting in both Donda 2 and WAR with James Blake and No I.D. being scrapped.

Compared to previous and forward albums, YEBU has a much more bitter sound to it as partially present in the songs "Someday We'll All Be Free" and "Love Love Love", with Kanye refraining from his typical energy for a much more somber flow.[1] Several songs from previous sessions such as "Showtime" and "We Did It Kid" had also been brought back for this album.

Title[]

For over a year, the title of Ye's 11th solo album was unconfirmed. Several titles were thrown around (CHANGE, Yesuke) but they were all proven to be fake. Finally, on February 27, 2024, producer Erick Sermon confirmed that the title of the album was Y3. He also claimed that the album would mark the return of the "old Kanye".[2] However, just 2 days later, Kanye claimed that no such album existed, and it was "fake news".[3]

In July, more controversy about the album's title arose when insider Luit confirmed that the album was indeed titled Y3, despite Ye's claims.[4] He explained that the album was titled Y3 because it was Ye's third album released under his current legal name (the previous two being Donda and Donda 2).[5] In October, after a groupbuy was completed, Luit revealed that the main title for Ye's 11th solo album was YEBU because Ye apparently wanted the album to "sound like a conversation at Nobu".[6]

Background[]

Following the release of Donda 2 onto the stem player, Kanye West began working with James Blake and No I.D. on a collaborative album by the name of WAR in late-2022.[7] These sessions would not last very long, as on the third of October that year, Kanye would show up to his Yeezy Season 9 wearing a "WHITE LIVES MATTER" shirt.[8] As he would begin spreading antisemitic imagery, even doing as much to show up onto the far-right wing conspiracist Alex Jones' podcast on December 1st of that year, James Blake made the decision to halt his work with Kanye.[9]

6 days after the plethora of controversies had began to slow down, Kanye would release the song "Someday We'll All Be Free" exclusively onto Alex Jones' InfoWars site.[10] After having his Twitter account suspended, Kanye taken to Instagram to form an "apology" of sorts, before going silent.

Amidst his silence, however, it is speculated that he began progress on his next solo album, YEBU. Ye had presumably been inviting artists to his hotel room in Los Angeles to record new music for him. These speculations primarily stemmed from an Instagram post by Fivio Foreign and a statement by Lil Durk, mentioning his visit to a hotel where Ye was reportedly staying.[11] In May 2023, production locations had shifted to Kanye's Melrose building, where artists Lifelessgarments and Rollin Thrax were spotted, presumably recording for Kanye.[12] Producers Digital Nas, Dina Ayada and 88-Keys had also been seen in this building, presumably producing for Ye.[13]

In June 2023, Ye relocated to Japan and reportedly held a private listening party for the album.[14] Progress on the album would slow past Ye's birthday party in June, where Ty Dolla $ign would meet up with him and propose the idea that he should executively produce for "Beach House 4" before they both agreed on working together on a collaborative album, leading into the Bad Bitch Play Book sessions. The final known sessions for the album are from a short freestyle session with Lester Knowhere where several songs were created with intent for both YEBU and Bad Bitch Play Book. The songs "NICE TO MEET YOU" and "KING" were created amidst these sessions, though whether they had been intended for YEBU is unclear.[15] The album was scrapped past this point.

Digital Nas was said to have created 34 beats that were intended for YEBU.[16] It had also been said that Playboi Carti alongside the rest of Opium was seen recording with Kanye, although whether or not this is true is to be confirmed as this info was released under the assumption the album was called "Yesuke" when this was not true.

Although the album was scrapped, several songs were carried over into further sessions such as the songs "HOODRAT" , "PAPERWORK" and "PROBLEMATIC" which had released onto VULTURES 1 and "RIVER" which had released as a part of VULTURES 2.[17] The songs "EVERYBODY", "UNLOCK" and "SO SOON" are also said to have originated from these sessions.[18]

The next sessions for Kanye's 11th solo album picked back up in August of 2024 after the release of VULTURES 2 with newly previewed songs "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" and "Preacher Man".

Songs[]

Besides the songs from the Japan track list listed below, other songs worked on for the album include:

Track lists[]

Image0-14

The album was briefly worked on during the Japan sessions with Ty Dolla $ign before they began focusing in on their collaborative album Bad Bitch Play Book, which later became VULTURES 1. A track list was seen on a whiteboard posted to Digital Nas' private Instagram, however the photo was cut off and only left the last two songs visible.[19] Notorious leaker Luit has confirmed several other tracks that had originated from this track listing. On July 14, 2024, the full track list was finally leaked.[20]

  1. "So Soon"
  2. "Unlock"
  3. "Happy"*
  4. "Ceremony Freestyle"
  5. "Hood Rat"
  6. "Paperwork"
  7. "Street Lights"
  8. "Love Love Love"
  9. "All In Love"
  10. "Bobby Digital"
  11. "Matthew"
  12. "Big Boody X River"

*The song titled "Happy" on this track list is not related to the song titled "Happy" from Donda 2.[21]


As previously stated, a private listening party for YEBU was held sometime in June 2023. While the entire setlist is currently unknown, some of the songs that are known to have been played at the listening party are:

References[]

  1. https://plwcse.top/f/b47fb37f4fbc76235c274ba8c446ee42
  2. https://hiphopdx.com/news/kanye-west-y3-album-return-old-kanye-erick-sermon
  3. https://hiphopdx.com/news/kanye-west-y3-album-erick-sermon
  4. https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodAssSub/comments/1e1s8fo/ye_lied_people_died/
  5. https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodAssSub/comments/1e1sqnv/yeezus_ye_y3/
  6. https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodAssSub/comments/1g932np/album_name_prior_to_y3_was_yebu/
  7. https://ktt2.com/ye-previews-new-music-on-naomi-campbells-ig-live-32532963
  8. https://www.gq.com/story/yeezy-season-9-ye-shirt
  9. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/02/1140218872/ye-antisemitism-alex-jones-podcast
  10. https://www.thefader.com/2022/12/08/kanye-west-someday-well-all-be-free
  11. https://www.reddit.com/r/ThroughTheWire/comments/13r8585/i_think_i_may_have_found_our_new_green_tile/
  12. https://x.com/souljaian/status/1666612524509462529?s=46&t=PWx4Tew3Cbt6eltKAkVXCQ
  13. https://www.reddit.com/r/ThroughTheWire/comments/13v9gh8/digital_nas_is_at_yes_studio/
  14. https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodAssSub/comments/1gakura/y3yebu_infodump_by_yzycord/
  15. https://pillowcase.su/f/5fd50dc0694dc8b471ecc60987369cfd
  16. https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodAssSub/comments/1e1z0ix/our_goat_himself_digital_nas_made_34_beats_for_y3/
  17. https://open.spotify.com/album/0v9QGZDE2msGl8zAlXKP93?si=JFUYKC7WRF-dE8Yoyt_D2g
  18. https://plwcse.top/f/022cd95cc4a74c5e12771dd84a672d25
  19. https://www.instagram.com/jesusknew/
  20. https://x.com/yeunrlsd/status/1812644100870463694
  21. https://x.com/yeunrlsd/status/1812644642455773456
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