James Blake Asks to Remove Production Credit on Kanye West’s ‘Bully’

James Blake has asked for his name to be removed from the production credits of Kanye West’s track “This One Here,” featured on the artist now known as Ye’s new-ish album “Bully.”

Blake says his “original version” of the track, which was recorded several years ago, “is completely different in spirit.”

In a post on Vault, the direct-to-fan streaming platform that Blake joined after parting ways with his longtime label Universal, he wrote, “The way I pitched his vocals and constructed the track from his freestyle is partiaully there, majorly peppered with other newer vocal takes etc…. 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.

“It’s not personal!” he added. “I just hit a point where [I] don’t want to be credited on music where I can’t affect the end result.”

Like most of West’s releases over the past decade, “Bully” has gone through multiple different iterations before it was officially released. The two artists have collaborated several times over the years, but not recently.

Both the request and the comment, which were first reported by Complex, are consistent with comments Blake has made in past interviews with Variety. While he celebrated West playing an unreleased collaboration between the two at an afterparty in London in 2022, he declined to comment when asked by Variety about their friendship a year later, after West had made multiple antisemitic comments.

“We haven’t seen each other for a little while,” he said, before adding with a sigh, “I think it’s probably a no-comment from me… and I say that with sadness.” He said in the same interview that he’s asked for his name to be removed from songs that he felt had evolved so far beyond his original contributions that he didn’t deserve or want credit, although he did not give examples.

At the time of this article’s publication, Blake’s credit remained on the song on major streaming services.

“Trying Times,” Blake’s new album — his first since leaving Universal and going fully independent — debuted at No. 3 on the U.K. charts earlier this month. Over the past few years Blake, disillusioned with the traditional music business, has taken control of virtually every aspect of his professional career, joining forces with the independent label Good Boy and direct-to-fan platforms like Vault and B-side ticketing.