Guest vocals from Ty Dolla Sign, Kid Cudi, 070 Shake, Charlie Wilson, Jeremih, and PartyNextDoor, among others, are included; only the latter is properly credited as a featured artist.

The latter's release was succeeded by that of Nas' Nasir, and Teyana Taylor's K.T.S.E.. West held a listening party for Ye on May 31, 2018, which was livestreamed from Jackson Hole.

Both of the singles attained top 20 positions on the US Billboard Hot 100, while the album received generally favorable reviews from music critics.

Ye gave West his eighth consecutive studio album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, tying him with Eminem's record.

[6] In March 2018, similar reports had emerged through various artists, including West himself, who was being spotted in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with a release date being expected for either 2018 or 2019 at the time.

[7][8] A number of other artists were pictured or rumored, including Kid Cudi, Nas, King Louie, Pi'erre Bourne, ASAP Bari, Wheezy, The-Dream, Travis Scott and the World Famous Tony Williams.

[13] West announced the album's planned release date of June 1, 2018, on April 19, simultaneously revealing it to include seven tracks.

[16] The presented cover art showed plastic surgeon Jan Adams who performed a liposuction and mammoplasty operation on West's mother, Donda, which led to complications and eventually her death a day after.

[39] As well as 070 Shake, the album includes guest contributions from Ty Dolla Sign, Ant Clemons, Jeremih, Kid Cudi, Charlie Wilson, Caroline Shaw and Nicki Minaj.

[40] Ye was updated on streaming services on November 8, 2018, with the uncredited sample of Kareem Lotfy's recording "Fr3sh" being removed from the track "I Thought About Killing You".

[43] Lindsay Zoladz of The Ringer noted the album's rushed sound, describing it as what "has a slapdash, unfinished quality about it, like a 10-page paper written in a shaky hand on the bumpy morning bus ride to school".

[45] Douglas Greenwood from NME wrote that the album "lacks the profundity of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the audacity of 808s or Yeezus", calling the sound "succinct and easy to swallow".

[46] Steven Hyden compared the composition of the tracks on Ye to West's previous works in Uproxx, expressing the viewpoint that none of them stand out "as a decisive break with what he's done before".

[48] Writing for The Observer, Kitty Empire viewed the work as "veering between sparse, hyper-modern styles and compositions which hark back to the soulful bent" of West's early career.

[27][51] The album includes references to the rapper's mental health, with a large amount of it seeing him unravel his mind, and "Ghost Town" is specifically linked to the theme.

[28] According to Rapzilla magazine's Elijah Matos, the album is among the select mainstream examples of hip hop that examines mental health similar to the younger waves of contemporary emo and Christian rap artists.

[46] West delivers spoken word over a backing vocal within the opener for a couple of minutes until the beat changes and he switches to rapping.

[60][61] Ye was released for digital download and streaming worldwide on June 1, 2018, through West's labels GOOD Music and Def Jam.

[65] West invited a variety of guests and contributors to the listening party, including Ty Dolla Sign, Kid Cudi, Nas, Pusha T, Desiigner, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, and Cyhi the Prynce, among others.

[69] A promotional video of the listening party was played on the website, set to the album tracks "I Thought About Killing You" and "Ghost Town".

[75] On June 8, "Yikes" was released to UK mainstream radio stations by West's labels as the lead single from the album.

[81] West went on to select "All Mine" for release as the second single from Ye on July 20, 2018, which features vocals by Ty Dolla Sign and Clemons.

[40][82] This decision was made by West due to his labels preparing a track for such a release to block a momentum loss for the album after "Yikes" experienced a lack of success on record charts.

"[48] Writing for Time, Maura Johnston compared West's previous projects to the album, saying that "the one thing they've consistently focused on is contrast: light and dark, ugly and beautiful, self-aggrandizing and self-loathing.

wrote that "if West had better delved into his emotional and psychological turmoil in Ye's lyrics, instead of getting bogged down with click-baity asides, then this LP would've been a classic.

"[104] Eric Brown was less enthusiastic in Billboard, stating: "It's tough to ignore Ye's musical stasis; known for his forward motion, on this set, West remains mired in the past," also commenting that "It's a missed opportunity in the sense that it fails to measure up to his previous work and change the conversation around him.

"[27] Similarly, Wren Graves of Consequence believed that "on Ye, he's consolidating old skills, not testing out new ones," adding that "the lack of wow-factor, combined with the short length, makes the album feel somewhat slight.

"[106] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone described the album as "wildly uneven" with "enough sporadic flashes of brilliance to make you hungry for much, much more.

"[45] Robert Christgau gave the album a one-star honorable mention in a capsule-review column for Vice, calling it a "half-assed attempt to make asshattery germane again.

[120][121][122][123][124] In an article for Consequence, Lake Schatz was surprised by West being snubbed even though he called Ye "hardly the best in his catalog" and questioned "whether the lack of even a nomination has to do partially with the MC's especially divisive nature in 2018.