Kanye’s daughter North West, 10, announces debut album ‘Elementary School Dropout’
The album’s title pays homage to her father’s 2004 debut album, ‘The College Dropout’
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Your support makes all the difference.Kanye West’s daughter North West has announced she is planning to release her debut album, aged 10.
The daughter of West and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian shared the news over the weekend (10 March) at an Arizona-based listening party for her father’s forthcoming record, Vultures 2.
“I’ve been working on an album,” North told the crowd as she stood next to her father. “And it’s called Elementary School Dropout.”
The album’s title is an homage to the rapper’s own debut album, The College Dropout, which he released in 2004.
The record remains “instantly iconic” and “sonically fresh”, The Independent’s Nadine Smith wrote in a feature around its 20th anniversary, while acknowledging the string of controversies West has been involved in in recent years.
In December 2022, the “All Falls Down” rapper, 46, appeared on right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s show, where he claimed that he “liked Hitler” and said people should “stop dissing the Nazis”.
A year later, he posted an apology to the Jewish community written in Hebrew.
“It was not my intention to offend or disrespect and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused,” he said. ”Your forgiveness is important to me, and I am committed to making amends and promoting unity.”
Then, last month, he released his latest collaborative album with Ty Dolla $ign, titled Vultures 1. In the album’s title track, “Vultures”, he referenced his offensive views, rapping: “How I’m antisemitic? I just f***ed a Jewish b****.”
During the album’s release party in December, Kanye was spotted wearing a KKK-style hood while on stage.
Ahead of the record’s release, Kanye dropped the music video for his two-part track “TALKING / ONCE AGAIN”, which featured North rapping.
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In the video, shared on the embattled artist’s Instagram and Twiter/X, North is shown having her hair done and smiling with her dad while also rapping the first verse: “It’s your bestie, miss miss Westie / Don’t try to test me / It’s gonna get messy / It’s gonna get messy / Just, just bless me.”
“Vultures is far from great,” The Independent’s music editor Roisin O’Connor wrote in an analysis of the album. “It’s not as bad as Donda, mind you, West’s 2021 album that stumbled between everything from trap to drill, gospel to boom-bap, while wrestling with his (ultimately performative) new religious mission statement.
“Nor is it worse than 2019’s Jesus is King, the gospel record that failed to gather his views on faith in any meaningful, cohesive way. Vultures at least has a few decent hooks – namely on the summery ‘Burn’ in which he hits out at being burnt by those who ‘cashed a check’ off his name, and on ‘Do It’, which samples the synth-strings on Juvenile’s ‘Back That Azz Up’.”
She continued: “Now, West seems less inclined to put in the work, apparently under the impression that cheap shots at his enemies and quickfire, chaotic stunts will generate the attention he craves far quicker... Vultures unequivocally lacks the kind of world-dominating, money-spinning hit that might just tempt the music industry to welcome him back into the fold.”
North is the oldest of Kanye and Kardashians’ four children. The former couple also share Saint, eight; Chicago, six; and Psalm, four.