James Blake has requested that his production credit on Ye’s (formerly Kanye West) new album, Bully, be removed.
The producer took to his Vault social media platform over the weekend to respond to a fan’s comments about AI possibly being used on Bully closer “This One Here.” Essentially, he doesn’t feel his contributions on the track are still represented in the final version of Ye’s creative concoction.
“The way I pitched his vocals and constructed the track from his freestyle is partially there, majorly peppered with other newer vocal takes etc,” he wrote. “But the spirit of my actual production is mostly absent other than that. My original version is a completely different production in spirit.”
Blake continued: “Happy for the fans but I’ve asked to be taken off the producer credits for now as I don’t want to take credit for other people’s work and this version isn’t what I created with Ye.”
He also made sure to clarify that this was not something he has against Ye, who in recent years has faced backlash for his antisemitic hate speech, for which he has since apologized. “It’s not personal,” Blake said, noting that his request was solely about the creative side. “I just hit a point where don’t want to be credited on music where I can’t affect the end result.”
Billboard has reached out to Ye’s rep for comment.
An earlier version of “This One Here” was previewed by James Blake in September 2022 at a nightclub event in London following London Fashion Week. Blake and Ye previously teamed up for “Talking,” which landed on West’s 2024 Vultures collab album with Ty Dolla $ign.
Kanye returned on Saturday (March 28) when Bully finally hit streaming services after another brief delay; the set was originally expected the day before. The LP is Ye’s first solo album since 2022’s Donda 2.
As for Blake, the Grammy-winning producer released his Trying Times album independently on March 13.
www.billboard.com
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