Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) has a new home after signing with Gamma., according to Rolling Stone. The rapper’s Bully album was rumored to arrive on Friday (Jan. 30), but the LP has seemingly been delayed, with a new release date set for March 20, according to RS.
Kanye has a relationship with Gamma. co-founder Larry Jackson, dating back to his time at Apple, so a partnership with the independent record label isn’t far-fetched. Yeezy joins a stacked roster that includes Mariah Carey, Sexyy Red and Usher.
Previous editions and intentional leaks of Bully, which will be Ye’s 12th studio album, have surfaced throughout the last year. In March, Ye released a visual helmed by Hype Williams for Bully, starring his son, Saint West.
The Chicago native took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal on Monday (Jan. 26), in which he apologized to the Jewish and Black communities for his erratic behavior in the past. He pointed to an untreated brain injury suffered in a 2002 car accident, which he said led to his bipolar disorder diagnosis.
“Twenty-five years ago, I was in a car accident that broke my jaw and caused injury to the right frontal lobe of my brain,” he wrote. “At the time, the focus was on the visible damage — the fracture, the swelling and the immediate physical trauma. The deeper injury, the one inside my skull, went unnoticed.”
Ye continued: “I said and did things I deeply regret. Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst. You endured fear, confusion, humiliation and the exhaustion of trying to love someone who was, at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self.”
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West apologized for his use of the swastika and emphatically stated that he loves Jewish people and is “not a Nazi.”
“In that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T-shirts bearing it,” he wrote. “One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type-1 are the disconnected moments — many of which I still cannot recall — that led to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body-experience. I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did, though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”
Ye added he has continued to work on himself as he discovers a “newfound clarity” and says he hopes to earn fans’ forgiveness moving forward, noting a new regimen of medication mixed with therapy and exercise to help him make strides in his battle. He closed with an ask — not for sympathy, but for patience.
The rapper had been signed to Def Jam/UMG until 2022, when the label dropped him — along with companies like Gap, Adidas and Balenciaga — after he made a series of antisemitic remarks.
Looking to turn to a new chapter of his decorated yet turbulent career, Ye will return to the stage in Mexico City this weekend for a pair of shows on Friday (Jan. 30) and Saturday (Jan. 31).
On the music side, Ye’s last solo album, Donda, came out in 2021, when it topped the Billboard 200. He released a sequel, Donda 2, the following year, but the project was only available on the Stem Player. Ye subsequently teamed with Ty Dolla $ign for a pair of VULTURES projects, the first of which went No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in February 2024.
Billboard has reached out to reps for Ye and Gamma. for comment.
