Album Copies

4 documented copies

Before Kanye released his first album to critical acclaim in 2004, he pursued many other projects, including a rap trio group named the "Go Getters" and production for other rappers, including, but not limited to JAŸ-Z, Common, Talib Kweli, and Scarface. Two years before the release of The College Dropout, Kanye began releasing a series of mixtapes to generate hype and publicity for the eventual release of his first album. Kanye eventually signed with Roc-A-Fella records in August 2002.

3 documented copies

Following his signing to Roc-A-Fella Records, Kanye released his debut studio album, The College Dropout. It features string arrangements, choirs, and his signature soul sampling, frequently branded as "chipmunk soul" for its sped-up and high-pitched nature. Contrary to the popular gangster-persona lyrics at the time, his songs mostly revolved around themes of family, materialism, religion, and racism. The inspiration for finally making his music came when he was in a near-fatal car crash.

1 documented copy

Following the death of his mother due to complications after cosmetic surgery, his relationship with fiancé Alexis Phifer finally ending for good, and a struggle to adapt to his celebrity status, Kanye felt emotionally drained and lost. As a result, Kanye dealt with his pain by channeling it into a sonically stripped-down album, one dominated by his use of the titular Roland TR-808 drum machine and Auto-Tune., significantly influencing future hip-hop music, having influenced Drake, Future, Travis Scott, and more.

2 documented copies

As far back as 2003, Kanye had planned a four-album series revolving around going to college, with Good Ass Job concluding the series. The death of his mother derailed this plan, with his fourth album becoming the somber 808s & Heartbreak. People still expected Good Ass Job to release, though, as Kanye's next album as late as early 2010. When the wake of the 2009 VMAs incident happened, it would cause Good Ass Job not to release. Kanye would take to twitter on July 27th, 2010, tweeting that the album was "no longer called Good Ass Job" and that he was "bouncing a couple ideas". The art used for this era is the original cover for the single "POWER."

3 documented copies

Yeezus marked a complete reverse from the bombastic production that Kanye accomplished on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. He swapped lush soul and anthemic hooks for splintering electro, acid house, and industrial force while packaging some of his most lewd and heart-crushing tales. Initially envisioned as Thank God For Drugs, a much larger project, Kanye would play the album for Rick Rubin, he later recalled listening to roughly 3-hours of unfinished material that seemed to need months worth of work - despite the release date being a month away. Kanye enlisted Rubin to refine and complete the project, finishing a majority of the songs just two days before release.

4 documented copies

After Rick Rubin and Kanye West cut down Yeezus to the final ten tracks, Kanye still saw potential in much of the cut material. Thus, shortly after Yeezus was released, an EP of leftovers titled Lost Yeezus was already being teased. The project then evolved into a full-fledged album of mostly new material, with Yeezus 2 acting as a codename before they could choose the last name. This project would develop into So Help Me God as the songs evolved.

8 documented copies

The Life Of Pablo is Kanye's 7th studio album, with constant name changes before release. Sporadic and scatter-shot, the album is one of a kind. The title refers to three people: artist Pablo Picasso, drug dealer Pablo Escobar, and Paul the Apostle, whose name is Pablo in Spanish. The album was initially released only on TIDAL, but later made its way to other streaming services with some updates. Kanye finally finished it by adding the track "Saint Pablo."

1 documented copy

Upon hearing the beat to "Hurricane" during sessions for Good Ass Job, Kanye became inspired to create a whole new album titled Yandhi. With the album's concept in his mind, Kanye and his producers began frenzied work as they developed multiple new songs throughout September 2018, aiming for a September 29 release date. As they did not meet this deadline, Kanye went to Uganda to conduct further work on the album, but delayed it indefinitely on November 13.

2 documented copies

After Kanye delayed Yandhi indefinitely, he began working with record producer Timbaland to create "more healing music" for the album. Shortly after the announcement of the delay, Kanye underwent a sudden and dramatic conversion towards born-again evangelical Christianity, debuting the Sunday Service Choir at the start of 2019. The creation of the choir coincided with the songs on Yandhi taking a new Christian lyrical focus. Eventually, the album would morph into the thoroughly Christian JESUS IS KING by mid-2019.

3 documented copies

Following a revelation on Easter 2019 at Coachella, Kanye scrapped Yandhi and reworked it to focus on God and Christianity. This album ended up being JESUS IS KING. After a private listening party in Detroit, Kim Kardashian announced that the album would release on Sunday, September 29, following listening parties in Chicago and New York. It didn't, and there were no updates for almost a month. On October 20, 2019, Kanye suddenly reappeared on Twitter to announce the final release date.

1 documented copy

The release of JESUS IS KING was met with mixed reviews from fans and critics. Kanye then took to Twitter to announce that he was working on a new album with Dr. Dre. Initially conceived as a remix album, it eventually grew to incorporate mainly unreleased material. It was supposed to release officially during the #WESTDAYEVER campaign Kanye did on Twitter in 2020, but never did. It ended up being scrapped sometime in 2020, as stated by producer Dem Jointz. Randomly, Kanye posted an album cover in 2022 on his Instagram story, which is assumed to be for the album.

58 documented copies

Shortly after the release of JESUS IS KING, Kanye (almost immediately) started working on new material. Songs from this era revolve around his faith while also consisting of dark themes (such as prison) and lyrics about current social issues. Initially announced as God's Country on May 20th, 2020 by Arthur Jafa, tracks from this album would go on to be developed further during DONDA WITH CHILD sessions, following Kanye getting new inspiration to make an album dedicated to his mother.

34 documented copies

With new inspiration to work on an album dedicated to his mother, Kanye continued working on previous demos and new ideas. The music of this era reflects Donda's impact on Kanye in a colorful sound while reflecting his mania and the stress he was going through focusing on his businesses while also running for President and struggling with his marriage. With multiple failed release dates for the album, Kanye went into silence in early 2021, finishing up tracks until the album morphed into something very different.

1 documented copy

12 documented copies

Almost a year after the initial announcement of Donda, a Beats by Dre ad revealed that a listening party would take place at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It happened, but the album didn't drop. Kanye moved into the stadium and lived there until the second listening event two weeks later. Once again, the album did not release. Ye later announced a third listening party at Soldier Field in Chicago, with the album coming the next day. It didn't. The album ended up releasing on August 29th, 2021 at 8AM EST, almost two days after the final listening party.

25 documented copies

In Feburary 2022, Ye announced a sequel to Donda, exectutively produced by Future and intended to release 2.22.22. Following this, Ye and his collaborators began rushing to complete the project. Ye also found himself in many controversies, with him constantly harassing Kim Kardashian's boyfriend Pete Davidson on Instagram. A listening party for the project was held on 2.22.22, with the project being released on the Stem Player the next day, albeit unfinished. Ye got into even more controversies, namely proclaiming "White Lives Matter" at YZYSZN9 and saying he was going to go "death con 3" on the Jews, making him get dropped by Adidas and lose his billionaire status.

2 documented copies

On his third Drink Champs interview, Ye would announce that him, James Blake, and No ID were working on an album together, though No ID did not do very much for the project according to James. Three songs were played at a party featured on Naomi Campbell's Instagram, with "Virgil's Funeral" being previewed in full at YZYSZN9 shortly thereafter. James has gone on record to say that Ye is the only thing stopping the project from seeing a release. According to James, though it ended up with the name WAR, all of the songs were about love. "This One Here", "Rest Of Your Life", "Through The High Wire", and "Talking" have since seen releases on James and Ye's projects.

1 documented copy

Ye's antisemetic rants came to a head in late 2022 in an interview with Alex Jones, in which he explicitly proclaimed himself a Nazi and claimed he "liked Love Everyone". Many fans and artists gave up supporting Ye and his antics following this moment, and after watching 21 Jump Street and claiming to "like jews again" on Instagram months later, Ye went silent and began working on new, allegedly Christian-focused material with both frequent and new collaborators. The project was shelved once Ye and Ty Dolla $ign decided to merge their solo projects and work on a collab project. The cover for this era is from the "Someday We'll All Be Free" single.

2 documented copies

After Ye's birthday party in June 2023, Ye would begin to executive produce Ty Dolla $ign's album Beach House 4, with Ty being flown out to Japan to work with Ye. This work would eventually turn into a full-on collaborative album, with them going to Italy to work on music on July 27th, 2023. A video of Ye and Ty listening to "BACK TO ME" was posted by TMZ on October 2nd, 2023, with Ty confirming a joint album on Instagram. Ty would later say in an interview that the two went through their hard drives to find all their best material to speed up the process. The single "Vultures" would release on November 11th, 2023, marking a sound shift and a rename to VULTURES 1.

5 documented copies

After the album's name change from Bad Bitch Playbook Vol. 1 to VULTURES 1, four listening parties were scheduled between December 12, 2023, and February 9, 2024. In 2024, Ye announced that VULTURES would be a trilogy, with the first installment dropping on February 9, followed by the second and third albums in March and April. VULTURES 1 would end up being released on February 10th, the day after the final listening party, which would end up becoming a recurring theme.

20 documented copies

VULTURES 2 was announced alongside 2 other volumes of VULTURES, and was meant to release on March 8th, 2024, before being moved to May 3rd, 2024. This album would've became the first release exclusive to the YZYAPP, which was cancelled due to developer infighting. The cover shows Ty Dolla $ign holding a portrait of his brother Big TC, who is currently in prison. After the album failed to drop on May 3rd, 2024, the direction of the project completely shifted, and was to be censored. The album failed to drop August 2nd, releasing one day later with questionable mixing and songs, featuring the use of AI, and gradually receiving real-time updates to mixing and production.

6 documented copies

In response to the negative reception of VULTURES 2, Ye decided to begin work on a new solo album that was much simpler and stripped back than the VULTURES era sound, being built around sample chops. On September 28th, 2024, on the second Haikou listening event, Ye confirmed that the album's name is BULLY, which references the movie with the same name that he posted on his Instagram story a few days prior to the event. On January 2nd, 2025, Ye announced the album would have AI on it after months of speculation, and that it could help AI become used more in music. This concept was scrapped for release, with Ye resinging the AI last minute in response to fan backlash.

11 documented copies

Following the start of controversial rants on X/Twitter in early 2025, Ye met with Dave Blunts after taking a liking to his music and told him to write an entire album based on his tweets, as well as their conversations with eachother. On March 6th, 2025, Ye tweeted, "this next album got that antisemitic sound", with him previewing the song "WW3" days later. Akademiks eventually announced the album as "WW3", with Ye sending him a tracklist and April 8th release date, however the album would miss this date and continued to be worked on until it was leaked on May 18th. During this, the album would infamously be renamed to CUCK, which was the title used for most of it's development.

11 documented copies

After releasing DONDA 2 via the Stem Player in 2022, Ye would eventually move onto other projects. However, the project never left his mind, with some songs continuing to be considered in the VULTURES era. 2025 would see Ye enter a new era of creative fuel, once again working on multiple projects at once. With plans to release BULLY and CUCK, Ye also spoke of plans to officially release DONDA 2, repeatedly saying he planned to "re-record" verses and upload a finished version of the album. The album released in April 2025, with rough mixing and AI vocals.

1 documented copy

While working on CUCK, Ye was also working on another separate solo project titled IN A PERFECT WORLD. After taking to Twitter in May 2025 to supposedly "denounce" his antisemitism, Ye would return to being mostly absent from social media and the public eye, as well as admitting himself and Bianca into a wellness retreat. In late-June, Ye would announce another album name change to IN A PERFECT WORLD, seemingly implying a merger between CUCK and the aformentioned solo album.

7 documented copies

After the release of BULLY V1, Ye confirmed his intention to re-sing the AI on BULLY and stated it was being mixed. The album would see several delays from September 22nd to March 27th, 2026. On January 3rd, preorder options and physicals were posted to yeezy.com alongside an updated tracklist. The YZY team would claim that the album is free of AI vocals, later confirmed when Ye posted a new tracklist to Twitter on March 25th, with the caption "BULLY ON THE WAY NO AI". The album would release a day late on March 28th, 2026. gamma. would reveal a deluxe for the album was on the way, with the release date being announced in a Spurs vs. Knicks ad as June 19th, 2026.