Kanye West is possibly considering bidding adieu to the music industry from a professional lens.

Rapper/producer Rich the Kid revealed Ye is mulling over allegedly calling off all business in the hip-hop industry. Amidst the swirling retirement rumours, Ye’s 2024 album with Ty Dolla $ig, Vultures 1, also seemingly took a major hit on streaming platforms.

A now-deleted text chain screenshot previously shared on Rich’s Instagram Stories on Tuesday, July 9, divulged Ye’s message: “I am retiring from professional music.” The Vultures album-maker further hinted that he was “not sure what else to do” as far as his tuneful journey goes.

Presumably blown away by the shocking revelation, Rich the Kid replied: “Retire? Why? How? The ppl NEED you the music you & Ty & we have made was the BIGGEST STAMP in culture to this date in 2024. Drop Ye about min &V@ and we do it all over again the kids need you big bro fasho maybe some time to chill but retiring ain’t it.”

Is Kanye West really retiring from the music industry?

Not long after leaving the fan community stunned with the mind-boggling revelation, he hopped on over to the other side of social media on X/Twitter to announce that he’s dropping a new collaboration with Kanye, which will be featured on his upcoming album “Life’s a Gamble.” Confirming the release date, Rich wrote on X/Twitter, “ACTUALLY WE DROPPING FRIDAY 7/19,” while sharing his forthcoming project’s tracklist.

The several laughing emojis on his tweet vaguely insinuated that the Instagram reveal was a sham, possibly setting up the shock value for an unmissable promotion strategy. His album’s tracklist further outed that his collaboration with Ye is titled “Plain Jane.” He was previously featured alongside Playboi Carti on West and Ty Dolla $ign’s (together known as ¥$) collaborative album “Carnival.” And so, Ye's retirement lasted a good 30 minutes.

Kanye West and the cursed journey of his Vultures trilogy

In attempts to revive his once-major impactful music career, Ye initially announced the three-part project with Ty Dolla $ign. However, legal battles and other issues have repeatedly resulted in album delays, with his forthcoming “Vultures 2” album entirely out of sight for the time being.

Amid everything gone haywire, supposed leaks of a song from the anticipated and endlessly hyped album made it to social media.

Despite his first collaborative effort with Ty Dolla $ign peaking at #1 on Billboard Hot 100 after its release and the brand-new acclaimed victory as the best group at this year’s BET Awards, Kanye West has been in the news more for other infamous and embattled reasons than his music.

With the Vultures 2 release date shrouded in mystery, ¥$ have already confirmed they’re bringing their Vultures listening experience to Korea on August 23.

It remains to be seen whether ¥$’s musical trilogy will conclude this year, especially with the second chapter’s excessively delayed arrival. The potentially cursed project's first iteration also faced an unprecedented attack.

As it appears to be the case, Vultures 1 temporarily went off Spotify’s radar on July 11. The album was previously deleted from Apple Music after its February 10 release due to a disagreement with its distributor - FUGA.

“On Friday, February 9, 2024, a long-standing FUGA client delivered the album Vultures 1 through the platform’s automated processes, violating our service agreement. Therefore, FUGA is actively working with its DSP partners and the client to remove Vultures 1 from our systems,” a company spokesperson told Billboard in February 2024.

At the time of writing, at least Vultures 1's lifeline is intact, as it was eventually recovered on Spotify. However, the same can't be said for the forthcoming iterations, as their future remains as hazy as ever.

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