Bully has a cover.
Tuesday, Ye shared what he says is the cover art for his upcoming new album, his first solo effort since 2021’s performance art-enhanced Donda. The cover, seen below, is credited to Japanese photographer Daidō Moriyama.
For a look back at what we know about Bully, not to mention what we still don’t, see here. The album hasn't been given an official release date, at least not publicly, though Ye has been consistently teasing the project at his most recent listening experiences and on social media. Just last week, he opted for a rare look back at key production and live show moments from across his career, seemingly driving home the speculation that Bully could be entirely self-produced.
Two potential Bully cuts, tentatively titled “Preacher Man” and “Beauty and the Beast,” have been previewed in the run-up to Ye cracking open the first page of a new (post-Vultures?) chapter. The latter, claimed by Mike Dean to be a leftover from Donda sessions, received an extra push from Ye and company with last week’s release of a live video captured during a listening party in Haikou, China.
If Bully manages to get a rollout before year’s end, it’ll come at an undeniably interesting time for Ye and the larger, ever-active conversation surrounding the legacy of his decades of work thus far, particularly in light of the 20th anniversary of his industry-shifting debut album, The College Dropout.
We’re also coming up on the 20th anniversary (next September) of Ye’s unscripted “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” comment during a Hurricane Katrina marathon. The oft-referenced live TV moment, as well as its importance within the larger conversation about the widely criticized federal response to the 2005 disaster, served as the focus for a recent episode of the CNN docuseries TV on the Edge.