Ye Posts a Handwritten Bully Tracklist With a Promise of “No AI,” a Year After Saying AI Was Part of the Process

Ye wants you to know the new album is human-made. On Wednesday (March 25), he posted a handwritten tracklist for Bully on X with the caption “BULLY ON THE WAY NO AI,” answering weeks of speculation about the long-delayed record, per Pitchfork and Billboard.

The note lists many songs fans already know from leaks and previews, Billboard says, including “Preacher Man,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Last Breath” and “Father,” with Travis Scott. The outlets disagree on the size of the album: Pitchfork reports 13 songs, Billboard 18.

What he said before

The “no AI” claim runs against what he said last year. Ye told Justin LaBoy that he used AI in writing and recording “the same way I incorporated Auto-Tune. It’s a tool, not a replacement.” Pitchfork also noted that viewers spotted him using Audimee, a platform that transforms vocals using AI, in the video that accompanied the interview.

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His team had already tried to shut the idea down. In January, manager Peter Jideonwo wrote on X, “(There) is no AI on Bully,” Complex reported, and the Yeezy support team confirmed it by email. Even so, HotNewHipHop, citing Kurrco, reported that a fan who got a vinyl copy early heard what appeared to be old AI-generated vocals on “Preacher Man.” The report was unconfirmed, and Ye did not address it.

The release, as of Wednesday

Bully has been in the works since September 2024, when Ye previewed “Beauty and the Beast” at a set in Haikou, China. It was first set for Jan. 30, then March 20, and Ye still had not confirmed a new date, Pitchfork said. Billboard reported a scheduled release of Friday (March 27) with listening parties across the globe that weekend and two shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on April 1 and 3, his first stadium shows since the 2021 Larry Hoover benefit concert.

The album will come out through Gamma, the independent label founded by Larry Jackson, whom Billboard says Ye has known since Jackson’s Apple Music days. Billboard also notes that Ye, who is usually loud around album time, has kept the chatter to “an absolute minimum.”

Why it matters

It is Ye’s first full album since 2024, and his first big release since January’s full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, in which he apologized for his past behavior and attributed it to bipolar disorder and a brain injury. “I write today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home,” he wrote. The rollout that followed included a request from James Blake to be taken off the album’s closing track and a headline booking that stirred up Wireless Festival. Later in the year, he played a homecoming show at Soldier Field.

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