Everything You Missed at Kanye's 'Vultures' Listening Event

Kanye’s liar allegations are up by 1, as Vultures was not released last night. But if we eventually get those new Playboi Carti and Travis Scott features—all is forgiven. In other news today:

• Song streams & revenue 💰️ 

• Every song premiered at Kanye’s Vultures listening event 🔥 

• Who tf is Killer Mike? The rapper selling brooms after his Grammys sweep 🤔 

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new Thursday and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Daily Double, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from Jan 26 to Feb 1.

Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss” earned $103K from 22M first-week streams. Nicki Minaj’s diss track response “Big Foot” generated $38K from 2M streams and $33K from 36,800 units sold (not pictured). Meanwhile, Ice Spice’s “Think U The Shit (Fart)” opened with $44K from 9.8M streams.

Kanye Held His ‘Vultures’ Listening Event But Did Not Drop the Album

At this point we’ve lost count of how many lies Kanye has racked up since the Vultures rollout started. Despite him and Ty Dolla $ign confirming multiple times that Vultures vol. 1 would drop on Feb 9, it did not. He did, however, hold another listening event in Chicago and previewed new music ft. guest appearances from Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, Rich the Kid, and more.

Below, find everything you missed at the Vultures listening event at Chicago’s United Center.

Similar to Donda, the album has changed since the first Vultures event in Miami. Kanye is notorious for working on music until the last minute, and given what was premiered at the event, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume not all the songs were mixed and mastered.

Kanye fans were, however, blessed with a surprise Playboi Carti and Rich the Kid appearance on “Carnival” which came as a surprise and a Travis Scott feature on “Fuk Sumn.” The livestream premiere doesn’t guarantee that fans will get the versions of songs they heard, but another listening event down means we’re one step closer to the album, right?

Almost as a pre-disappointment snack, the official “Talking” song ft. Kanye’s reincarnation, aka North West, was released on streaming services shortly after the music video premiere. It’s exhausting being a Kanye fan.

Another listening event is scheduled for New York tonight (Feb 9). Whether it happens or not, soothe your disappointment with snippets of every song Kanye premiered in Chicago:

• “Carnival” by Kanye, Ty Dolla $ign, Playboi Carti, Rich The Kid

• “Fuk Sumn” by Kanye, Ty Dolla $ign, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Quavo

• “Burn” by Kanye, Ty Dolla $ign

• “Paperwork” by Kanye, Ty Dolla $ign, Quavo

• “Hoodrat” by Kanye, Ty Dolla $ign

• “Everybody” by Kanye, Ty Dolla $ignm Charlie Wilson, Lil Baby

• “In The Stars” by Kanye, Ty Dolla $ign

• “Paid”’ by Kanye, Ty Dolla $ign, Future

Who TF Is Killer Mike? The Rapper Selling Brooms After His Grammys Sweep

“Have we learned who tf this is yet,” is the general sentiment of the comment section on every Killer Mike-related post since he swept the rap category at the 2024 Grammys. “Bro needs to sell an autobiography because who tf is this dude,” read another comment, echoed by the 55K users that liked it.

If you would also like to know who Killer Mike is and why he has the audacity to sell “The MICHAEL Broom used exclusively for sweeping the Grammys,” keep reading.

The Grammy Sweeping Broom

On Tuesday (Feb 6), Mike boldly announced his merch to celebrate his Grammys win—an autographed broom made for sweeping. “Covers 3x the area,” reads the description, playing into his 3x Grammy wins.

He technically didn’t do a full sweep. Lil Durk and J. Cole’s “All My Life” won Best Melodic Rap Performance, but he did sweep the three categories he was nominated for—Michael took home Best Rap Album, and “Scientists & Engineers” won Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance.

Who TF Killer Mike is

Despite being around for over 20 years, Mike’s notoriety pales compared to the Grammy nominees he beat—Travis Scott, Drake, 21 Savage, and Metro Boomin. It sparked the typical oldhead vs. new-gen debate online as well as quality vs commercial success.

So what has he done in the last 20 years?

• 2000: Made his rap debut on Outkast’s critically acclaimed album Stankonia on the song “Snappin’ & Trappin’”

• 2002: Won his first Grammy for his guest verse on Outkast’s “The Whole World”

• 2003: Released his debut studio album Monster, which debuted #10 on Billboard 200

• 2013: Formed hip-hop duo Run the Jewels with rapper-producer El-P and released four self-titled albums (Run the Jewels in 2013, Run the Jewels 2 in 2014, Run the Jewels 3 in 2016 and RTJ4 in 2020)

• 2005—2023: Accumulated 15 acting credits in various movies and TV shows, including ATL, Frisky Dingo, Baby Driver, South Park, and Ozark.

The CliffsNotes version of his career doesn’t cover everything, but TLDR is that he’s also known as a social and political activist. He’s passionate about enacting change in social inequality, police brutality, and systemic racism.

His music deals with many of those same themes in a classic hip-hop MC way, honoring his Southern rap roots, without the genre-bending stylistic qualities of today’s rap stars. He’s from the same family of seeds that sprouted André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole but less mainstream.

New Music Friday

The lack of Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures was devastating for some but they weren’t the only artists scheduled to drop. Here’s all the music you can look forward to—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ Pain & Love 2 by Fivio Foreign

• 💿️ Drop 7 by Little Simz

• 💿️ TYO 808 by MadeinTYO

• 💿️ Coming Home by Usher

• 🎶 “Dirty Nachos” by Chief Keef

• 🎶 “Somethin’” by Nardo Wick, Sexyy Red

• 🎶 “Thousands” by Lil Skies

• 🎶 “conscious” by Bear1Boss, SoFaygo

• 🎶 “Yeah Glo!” by GloRilla

• 🎶 “Sunday Service” by Latto

• 🎶 “I LOOK GOOD!” by JELEEL!

• 🎶 “Virgin Ears” by BLP KOSHER

• Post Malone & Swae Lee’s “Sunflower” becomes first-ever double-diamond single in RIAA history. The Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse track is 20x platinum, the equivalent of 20 million sales.

• Vince Staples is hosting a “free screening for the trenches” of his new Netflix series. The premiere, for those who don’t have a Netflix account, is being held at Brain Dead Studios in LA on Feb 12.

• 21 Savage to perform on Saturday Night Live with host Shane Gillis. Despite parodying SNL for the Her Loss rollout with Drake, the episode will mark Savage’s real late-night show debut.

Like sports? 🏀 🏈 Get up-to-date analysis and unique insight that’s actually interesting to read with the Playmaker Newsletter.