Songfacts®:

• "Vultures" is the debut single by American hip hop duo ¥$, comprising Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign. They are joined by Bump J, a longtime affiliate of West dating back to his Nothing To Lose debut album. West and Dolla $ign released the song on November 22, 2023, following a preview on WPWX Power 92 Chicago six days earlier.
• ¥$ are the signs for the Japanese currency Yen and the American currency Dollar, broken down to Ye 'n' Dollar.
• West and Dolla $ign began making joint music in 2014 when they were working on Ye's seventh studio album, The Life Of Pablo. Following the album's release, Ty Dolla $ign became one of Ye's most frequent collaborators. Their collabs include Ye's "All Mine" and "Violent Crimes," and Jesus Is King's "Everything We Need." Kanye also jumped on Ty Dolla $ign's 2020 track "Ego Death."
• "Vultures" is the first song released by West following a raft of anti-Semitism allegations. After receiving blowback for wearing a "White Lives Matter" T-shirt in October 2022 at Paris Fashion Week, the rapper tweeted that he was going to go "death con 3" on Jewish people. There was also a string of hate-filled interviews, including a cringe-worthy stint on Alex Jones's Infowars where he sympathized with Hitler.
  
  Here West addresses the accusations with a twist. "How I'm antisemitic," he raps, "I just f---ed a Jewish b--ch." The tastelessness continues when Ye disses his former manager Scooter Braun, who is ethnically Jewish, before nodding to the Columbine High School shooting massacre. Quite the shift from his Christian-inspired albums: Jesus Is King (2019), Donda (2021) and Donda 2 (2022).
• Bump J's laid-back rhymes portray himself as a gunslinging drug dealer. The song title comes from his opening line: "I don't have no rapper friends, I hang wit' the vultures."
  
  Ty Dolla $ign wraps it up with a verse about his sexual exploits.
• Chicago rapper Lil Durk had a verse on the original Chicago radio debut but it was mysteriously axed from the final release. His cryptic Instagram post after the drop adds more intrigue: "Be lucky I'm humble. Look at it as your blessing."
• The outro samples 2 Eleven's feature on Three 6 Mafia's "Pimpin & Robbin." Ty's no stranger to Three 6 Mafia samples, and Ye's history with them goes way back, featuring on their 2006 remix of "Side 2 Side."
• Vultures 1 debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. In addition, all 16 of its tracks landed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. For Kanye, it was his 11th consecutive chart-topping album, but it was the first for Ty.