Ye, back in September 2024, announced his 12th solo studio album, Bully, which would be his first studio album since the half–finished album Donda 2 came out exclusively on the Yeezy x Kano Stem Player in 2022. What we didn’t know about this announcement of Bully is that it would take a year and a half after it was announced for us to see the album officially released with physicals and on streaming providers. During this time we went through a roller coaster with the progress of Bully including multiple live performances of songs at concerts, get a YouTube movie of the album uploaded on March 22nd 2025 consisting of Ye’s son Saint fighting wrestlers with a toy mallet in a boxing ring with the unfinished album being played, had a controversy with the songs clearly being an AI voice model cover of Ye other others artists recording of the songs, typical delays, some songs getting released to streaming services as an EP with the AI vocals, and plenty more of Ye’s typical chaotic rollout shenanigans. During this rollout, we went with multiple periods of time where development of Bully went radio silent from Ye and his collaborators. Bully was ultimately supposed to release on July 25th, 2025, as indicated by a Spotify countdown, but then was of course delayed to September 26, and then delayed 3 more times till January 30th, 2026. On January 3rd, we saw the Yeezy website with preorder options for Bully in multi-colored vinyls, CDs, cassettes, and clothing bundles. On January 28th, the album was delayed again, but this time we got news that the media company Gamma is going to distribute the album with the new date of March 20th. Around March 10th, multiple cities across the world, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Tokyo, Shanghai, Toronto, and more, had electronic billboards starting to promote Bully with a new and final release date of March 27th.
Days leading up to March 27th, Bully was hit with controversy as some fans got their physical orders early, and it was the old tracklist from the original YouTube movie that was uploaded almost a year ago with AI vocals. This outrage online led to many fans speaking out about their concerns about the album. On March 24th, a few insiders stated that the album will look different on streaming platforms, which then led Ye, for the first time in a long time, to post a handwritten tracklist of the album on X, saying that the album will have no AI. This tracklist contained multiple songs we have already heard before, but also a bunch of new songs that have not been mentioned before. On March 27th, multiple listening parties took place where the album was played for fans and also livestreamed on YouTube. On the morning of March 28th, Bully was released on streaming platforms with reworked original vocals, new production on old songs, and new, never-before-heard songs.
On March 9th, Ye announced that he would be performing at SoFi Stadium on April 3rd, his first major show in 4 years in the US, with the tickets going on sale the very next day. We didn’t have much time to decide, but Joey and I both decided to fly out to Los Angeles to go to the concert. I was lucky when tickets came out for presale, as I started to be about #3000 in the queue for the tickets, while Joe got a number so high that it just kicked him out. I was fortunately able to buy presale tickets with my positioning, while many got left out, just like Joe. There were screenshots going around that people were getting placed in the 500K – 1.2 million in line range to buy tickets to the event. The demand for this event eventually got so high that a 2nd show at SoFi Stadium was added for April 1st.
Joey and I headed out to Los Angeles the same day as the concert on that Friday. We woke up early at 3:30 AM and flew out of O’Hare to LAX at 7 am. We were lucky that this flight was not cancelled, as our original 6:00 AM flight was cancelled because of the bad weather we were receiving in Chicago (which also cancelled the White Sox opener, which I was supposed to attend, and then rescheduled the day of the concert). It was fun to spot other people in Yeezy clothing or Ye tour merch who were on our flight and were also going to attend the concert. Our hotel was also packed with fans who were staying in LA from other places for the concert. We met a lot of people who were from Seattle, New Mexico, North Carolina, and other cities, too. The concert had doors slated to open around 7PM, so we had plenty of time beforehand to explore a bit. We decided to walk along Venice Beach, starting at the Venice Beach Protected Sand Dunes and going all the way up to the Santa Monica Pier, which is a bit more than 4 miles in total. This was definitely a highlight as we got to take in the beautiful California heat and sun (which also got us sunburned). Considering LA traffic, we headed back to our hotel at around 3:30 PM to get ready for the concert and give ourselves time to explore the SoFi grounds before the concert.
I had high hopes for SoFi since it is one of the newest stadiums built in the United States, as well as the most expensive stadium ever built. Joe and I were so impressed with the grounds and architecture of SoFi. It is one of the most beautiful buildings that I have ever seen. I was honestly in awe of everything. I have seen it countless times on TV, but it doesn’t do it justice, in all honesty. It just blends the outside and inside so well with greenery all over the place, including in sections covered by the arching roof, and makes it feel like a natural place to be in some way. Seeing this really makes me hope that we can have a world-class stadium for the Bears somewhere in Illinois (anywhere but Indiana).
Now, for the concert, most of us had seen how the Wednesday show played out on Instagram Live and other social media, and what the setup was, which made everyone excited for Friday. The stage design for a Ye event is always going to be a critical part, as he always has the most out there but really cool stage designs, such as recreating his childhood home in the middle of Soldier Field for the 3rd Donda Listening Party in 2020. The stage design for the SoFi show was a 40-foot half sphere in the middle of the floor. This sphere had a trapdoor on the top so Ye and other artists could come out of it as well, with a harness attachment to be attached to the person, since the sphere is obviously steep and very high. A few small cutouts were made on top of the sphere as well to cast out some smoke for effect. Now, this scene that I set up for you in your head may not sound so interesting, but it most certainly does when you add the 24 projectors that are aimed at the sphere to create a perfect projection mapping of a video of multiple environments, such as the earth, moon, and more. Add in colored stage lighting above the sphere, lights at the bottom of the sphere, laser lights on the side, and even more smoke machines on the side, and we can create some beautiful scenes. We were high up in the 400 section but still had a great time and were able to take some pretty cool photos and videos as well. This event was live-streamed as well on YouTube instead of Instagram Live like the Wednesday show.
Now for the music performed, Ye started off playing KING, the intro track off Bully, and then went into the second track with THIS IS A MUST. Then came the classic Ye hits that we all know the words to include Father Stretch My Hands, Pt.1, Can’t Tell Me Nothing, Power, and more. It was classic after classic after classic. One of the most talked-about parts of the concert leading up to the show was which special guests were coming out. On the Wednesday show it was Don Toliver but it was suspected someone bigger might be coming out for the Friday show and boy, we didn’t just get one special guest but we had multiple. It started with the beginning of Ye’s new hit song FATHER off of Bully being played, which so happens to feature Travis Scott. It was also pointed by fans the day before that Travis Scott’s jet landed in LA so we knew he was in town and it would make sense considering Ye brought out Don Toliver who is signed to Travis, Travis pushing FATHER and it’s music video hard on his social page, and the fact they were at one point basically brother in laws with Ye being with Kim Kardashian and Travis Scott being with Kylie Jenner. The crowd absolutely went crazy went Travis Scott rose from the trapdoor to the top of the globe and performed FATHER twice with Ye, and then also playing FE!N from his last studio album Utopia.
Ye then continued playing some songs from Bully. I should also mention that some of these songs, especially those from Bully, are receiving live supporting melodies from Andre Troutman, who is using a talk box. If the last name Troutman sounds familiar, that’s because Andre’s cousin is Rodger Troutman, who infamously uses the talk box on the Tupac song California Love. Andre contributed a lot to Bully by performing with the talk box on ALL THE LOVE and WHITE LINES, but also helped produce many of the other songs. The next special guest to perform was CeeLo Green, who sang alongside Ye in their new song together, the album title BULLY. Then, of course, we had our scheduled North West appearance to sing TALKING from Vultures 1 and her upcoming track PIERCING ON MY HAND.
Now, while you might have thought that Travis Scott would be the biggest artist for Ye to bring out, you would have been correct until towards the end of the show, when Ye brings out Ms. Lauryn Hill. Lauryn Hill is one of the most influential artists in music history, as her songs have been sampled countless times, including by Ye. She is best known for her one and only album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which went on to win 5 Grammys and was the first ever hip hop album to win album of the year, and she was the first woman to ever win 5 Grammys with just one album. Now, for Ye, he has always been a fan of Lauryn Hill. He has sampled her exactly 2 times in All Falls Down and Believe What I Say and has mentioned her in numerous moments, including songs such as No More Parties in LA, where he raps, “I was uninspired since Lauryn Hill retired”. Now that you know the magnitude of how much Lauryn Hill means to Ye and just hip hop music in general, you can see why this is so important that she’s here tonight (she is also notoriously known for being late or not coming to her own shows). Lauryn started by singing Mystery of Iniquity which she then transitions to Ye’s All Falls Down from The College Dropout, since All Falls Downs uses it as a sample. Now, the reason why this moment is so important is that even though All Falls Down samples Lauryn Hill, the track doesn’t use Lauryn’s voice since she originally denied the request to have her voice sampled on the track. While Ye couldn’t use the recording of Lauryn, he turned to Syleena Johnson to sing the hook, and then just had Lauryn listed as a songwriter since it’s to her melody and lyrics that she wrote. So them performing All Falls Down together means for the first time ever we hear the original All Falls Down performed live after the song was released 22 years ago. Lauryn Hill then did Lost Ones, Heartbeat, Crisis, Praise Jah in the Moonlight with her sons coming out to help her perform, Zion Marley and YG Marley. She ended her night with Doo Wop (That Thing), which transitioned into Ye performing Believe What I Say which samples it.
It was truly a historic and memorable moment in not just hip hop history but in music history as well. Ye then went ahead to end the night playing some of his memorable songs, such as Jesus Walks, Through the Wire, All of the Lights, Ghost Town, and ending it, of course, with Runaway. In total, the concert was almost 3 hours long, with Ye performing 39 songs and a total of 43 songs being played. To me, it was a great mix of being able to hear those timeless classic hits as well as a lot of new content from Bully. Not only did he bring the energy when he needed to with the song but he also did a lot of fan interaction as well. He was having the crowd sing at certain parts, replaying songs because we were too loud (or weren’t loud enough), and controlling the mosh pits. It’s starting to feel like Yeezy Season again.
SoFi Tracklist
KING
THIS A MUST
Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1
Can’t Tell Me Nothing
N****s in Paris
Mercy
Praise God
Black Skinhead
On Sight
Blood on the Leaves
CARNIVAL
Power
Bound 2
Wolves (w/ Andre Troutman)
Say You Will (w/ Andre Troutman)
Heartless
FATHER (w/ Travis Scott)
FE!N (w/ Travis Scott)
PUNCH DRUNK
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
HIGHS AND LOWS
WHITE LINES (w/ Andre Troutman)
BULLY (w/ CeeLo Green)
ALL THE LOVE (w/ Andre Troutman)
LAST BREATH
TALKING (w/ North West)
PIERCING ON MY HAND (w/ North West)
EVERYBODY
Mystery of Iniquity / All Falls Down (w/ Lauryn Hill)
Lost Ones (Lauryn Hill)
Heartbeat / Crisis / Praise Jah in the Moonlight (w/ Zion Marley, YG Marley & Lauryn Hill)
Doo Wop (That Thing) / Believe What I Say (w/ Lauryn Hill)
Jesus Walks
Through the Wire
Good Life
Homecoming
All of the Lights
Flashing Lights (w/ Andre Troutman)
Stronger (w/ Andre Troutman)
Ghost Town
Runaway
You can listen to Bully here