The controversial musical legend and icon has been working with his oldest daughter on both her album and his upcoming solo musical project.
I guess we’ll soon find out how far the musical apple falls from the tree. Kanye West, the musical legend and, at times, polarizing pop culture figure, shared via his Instagram page that he has been in the lab working with his oldest daughter, North West, on a musical project.
During a listening party for Kanye West’s “Vultures 2” album in March 2024, North announced (on stage) that she was working on her own album titled, “Elementary School Dropout.” The title is, of course, a nod to her famous father’s debut work, the landmark, game-changing album, “The College Dropout.” I would assume the title is more of a play on words than a declaration that the 11-year-old will actually be removing herself from her elementary school studies, unlike her father who famously did drop out of college to pursue his musical dreams.
One could argue that Kanye’s decision worked like a gangbuster’s.
Kanye’s Instagram feed currently features five posts, four of which are black-and-white videos or photos of North working on the project. In one particular post from Jan. 21, Kanye shared a moving caption to his 20.5 million followers about how working with his daughter has impacted his own musical process.
“This little girl made me love music again. She asked me to make beats for her I got back on the ASR Chopped up beats for her album and chopped every beats with my bare hand for BULLY,” wrote Kanye.
“BULLY” is a reference to what is expected to be Kanye West’s eleventh solo studio album and a follow-up to his 2024 collaborative releases with Ty Dolla $ign, “Vultures” and “Vultures 2.” Kanye’s last solo album was 2021’s “Donda.”
In another post captioned, “Training 3,” Kanye West can be seen working directly with North on vocals for what I can only assume will be a tune on her project.
As a father, it’s heartwarming to see Kanye West finding joy in working with his daughter on music, a passion of Kanye’s that has brought him tremendous fame and fortune as well as iconic status in music. Kanye remarking that working with North has made him love music again bodes well for whatever musical releases he has coming down the pike, and with three more kids (Saint, Chicago and Psalm; all shared with ex-wife Kim Kardashian) who knows how much music this family might churn out of the next few decades. But I’m sure we’ll all be waiting to find out.
The question I’m sure that’s on everybody’s mind is this: Will Kanye appear on North’s album (outside of production)? She addressed that very question in an interview with 13-year-old Jazlyn “Jazzy” Guerra on her JazzysWorldTV Instagram account in March 2024.
“Maybe! We don’t know yet!”
Release dates for “Elementary School Dropout” and “BULLY” have yet to be announced.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
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