The one album that made Kanye West love making beats again
It’s not like Kanye West to be quiet, and he hasn’t shied away from being vocal about his latest project – one that he claims has made him fall in love with music again.
Via an Instagram post in January this year, Ye shared that he’d been working with his 11-year-old daughter, called North. At the time, Ye had been on a social media rampage, talking about his upcoming album Bully. As part of the posts, he explained that collaborating with his daughter revitalised his entire approach to making music.
In the post about North, Ye uploaded a photo of her in a recording studio. His caption read: “This little girl made me love music again. She asked me to make beats for her I got back on the ASR Chopped up beats for her album and chopped every beats with my bare hand for BULLY”.
Despite Ye’s fresh inspiration, Bully has been as chaotic as the artist himself. He originally announced the album back in September, 2024 but has delayed its release multiple times. It’s now set to come out on January 30th, 2026.
Kanye has been at a turbulent point in his career lately. A tirade of antisemitic comments saw him lose the respect of many fans, as well as million-dollar endorsement deals from the likes of Adidas and Gap. He also called for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to be released from prison, and ran ads during the Super Bowl weekend directing viewers to a site selling shirts with swastikas. In February, his own talent agency dropped him due to his “harmful and hateful remarks”.
Amid all the controversy, it seems that Kanye’s connection with his daughter has ignited his connection to music. It may have even been the catalyst for his upcoming album, Bully.
His comment about chopping beats by hand suggests a big shift in his production style. Ye has previously used elaborate studio setups and teams of collaborators to put his albums together. The return to manually chopping beats could signal a philosophical shift. One journalist has already claimed that Bully is “a concept album and [Kanye West] plans to be the only producer on it”.
But Ye himself has hinted that the album won’t be a totally one-man show. During a livestream in April, he said his co-writers included Ty Dolla Sign, Don Toliver, Quentin Miller, and Malik Yusef. Still, the decision to cut beats with his hands emphasises a personal reconnection with producing that harkens back to a younger version of Ye.
In a separate post, Ye shared a clip of North making her own beats on an ASR-10. The caption read: “training”.
While Kanye will have to do a lot to recover his reputation in many people’s eyes, his claim that his daughter has led him back to his passion of making music is touching. The implications will be in Bully itself… if it’s ever released.
For now, Ye may have found his way back to what made him legendary – a pure love for creating beats.