Guest appearances include West's daughter North, India Love, Freddie Gibbs, YG, Nipsey Hussle, Quavo, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Bump J, Lil Durk, Rich the Kid and Chris Brown.

Production was primarily handled by West and Ty Dolla Sign themselves, alongside the Legendary Traxster, 88-Keys, Camper, JPEGMafia, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Ojivolta, Chrishan, Anthony Kilhoffer, and others.

West and Ty Dolla Sign previewed tracks at the Vultures Rave listening party in December 2023, two months before holding numerous public events in Chicago, New York, and Milan.

[7][8][9] During a performance in early November 2023, Ty Dolla Sign said he had just flown in from Saudi Arabia, where he was working with West on their upcoming collaborative studio album and said it would be "coming real soon".

[16] West recalled the recording had a large budget due to visiting both Saudi Arabia and Italy, declaring that the expenses and "super mega talents" were part of why Vultures 1 is superior to other albums.

[18] The following day, West sent a text message to fellow rapper Nicki Minaj asking her for permission to include "New Body" on the album; during an Instagram Live stream, to which she denied his request, saying: "Why would I put out a song that's been out for three years?

[31] In AllMusic, Fred Thomas noted West demonstrates the "same electric inventiveness" that made him famous as a producer, attributing this to aspects of the tracks like sparseness, funk, and orchestral music.

[32] The New York Times journalist Jon Caramanica opined that the album reminds him of "the texture-focused darkwave rap" style utilized by rappers Playboi Carti and Travis Scott, which originated with West's 2013 record Yeezus.

[36][37][40] Ty Dolla Sign delivers a verse about his daughter growing up and expresses hope she has been raised properly, and West closes the track by crooning about the clouds once again "gathering to release what they held in".

[38] In the lyrics, West references his rival Taylor Swift and calls out cancel culture as he dubs himself "Ye-Kelly",[30] making comparisons also to Bill Cosby and Puff Daddy, while defending singer Chris Brown.

[25][37] "Good (Don't Die)" is an electropop track with a vintage groove and goes against the style of hip hop,[36][37] alongside an interpolation of the deceased singer Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" (1977).

[42] The album had seemingly been delayed because Universal Music Group, the parent company of West's previous label Def Jam Recordings, stated that they were no longer working with him whatsoever.

[46] Later on December 10, West played snippets of songs planned for the album at a restaurant in Wynwood, Florida, revealing guest contributions from Brown, and fellow rappers Future and Young Thug.

[49][50] Two days later, MDLBeast SoundStorm posted a late announcement on their Instagram account that West would be playing at their festival in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh and referenced the album.

[5][64][65][66] Multiple publications noted that the release coincided with the 20th anniversary of West's debut studio album The College Dropout; The Ringer's Justin Charity opined this is "a sign of how distressingly far" he has come since his first single "Through the Wire" in 2003.

[76] Responding to the commercial success in the United States, West issued a statement to Complex that it is "a beautiful time", while Ty Dolla Sign posted a video to Instagram Stories of him lifting his index finger to silence critics.

[82] On November 17, 2023, DJ Pharris previewed "Vultures", featuring uncredited guest vocals from rappers Bump J and Lil Durk, on his radio show WPWX Power 92 Chicago.

[83][84][85] On February 7, 2024, an alternate version of "Vultures" with production from Havoc of Mobb Deep was released as a promotional single for the album, along with a music video on Instagram that includes footage from the trailer.

[b] It was accompanied by a music video that features North getting braids in her hair to match with West's black threads and Ty Dolla Sign gazing at his own daughter, who rests her head on his shoulder in the ending scene.

[94][96] The tour dates would start in the Summer of 2024 and run into early 2025, with plans to also visit "iconic international venue options" such as the Brazilian mountain Corcovado, the Great Wall of China, and Egypt's Giza pyramid complex.

Following the settlement, the lead counsel of Summer's estate told Billboard that the agreement reached their desired result through West and Ty Dolla Sign agreeing not to use the song.

[103] On March 2, 2024, Ty Dolla Sign posted himself scrolling through the front page of Apple Music to West's Instagram Stories that did not show Vultures 1, which HipHopDX anticipated may be due to the withdrawal issues.

The venue's website said that the event "marks a historic moment" of attendees listening to Vultures 1 with the contributing artists before its release, suggesting offering this would be iconic by bringing them together to celebrate "creativity and innovation".

[133][134] A floating cylindrical LED wall stood above the smoke-covered stage of the Mediolanum Forum in Milan, where West and Ty Dolla Sign danced with face coverings.

[31] Rhian Daly of NME wrote that West brings elements of greatness "but also makes it hard to enjoy those moments for too long", and characterized the album's mixing as poor and its lyrics as misogynistic, while praising "Burn" and highlighting "Talking" as the standouts.

[38] Nonetheless, his opinion about the lyrics was more mixed, saying West is "still a defiant troll who can't help but reach for cringey jokes and clunky one-liners" that downgrade the strength of his performances; he summarized that "the controversies are addressed in a very Kanye way".

[38] Rolling Stone reviewer Jayson Buford characterized Vultures 1 as "a serviceable record" and said the production still shows West's ability despite being sparse, though felt he makes Ty Dolla Sign "sound as bubbly as he's been" since the presidency of Barack Obama.

[37] Saponara praised certain aspects of the production and Ty Dolla Sign's contributions, while he named "Carnival" his favorite song on the album, calling it a prime example of why West's fans tolerate all of his controversies, delays and "madness that come [...] because nobody in rap creates generational moments like this".

[37] Caramanica of The New York Times remarked that West merely addresses his controversies "in glances, no-stakes responses to a high-stakes game" and found the lyrics to be "full of puerile punchlines that might feel freeingly childlike" at a lower intensity.

[169][170] The album also topped the charts in Austria,[171] Belgium's Flanders region,[172] the Czech Republic,[173] Denmark,[174] Finland,[175] Iceland,[176] Lithuania,[177] the Netherlands,[178] Norway,[179] Poland,[180] Portugal,[181] Slovakia,[182] and Switzerland.