The English musician and producer first worked with the divisive rapper on 2024’s “Vultures 1,” a collaborative album from Ye and Ty Dolla Sign.

James Blake asks to be removed from producer credits on Ye’s new album, Bully

The English musician and producer first worked with the divisive rapper on 2024's "Vultures 1," a collaborative album from Ye and Ty Dolla Sign.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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March 29, 2026 7:53 p.m. ET

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Kanye West and James Blake. Credit:

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James Blake is currently featured as a producer on one of the tracks off Ye's latest album, *Bully*. But he'd like that to change, and took the time to explain why.

The English musician and super producer, who has worked with the likes of Beyoncé, Rosalía, and Bon Iver, first collaborated with the divisive rapper formerly known as Kanye West on 2024's *Vultures 1*, a joint album with Ty Dolla Sign. Blake was attached to "This One Here," the song that closes out *Bully*, as early as 2022. But on Sunday, a day after the album finally released, Blake opened up to fans on his social platform *Vault** *about his current status on the song.

"The way I pitched his vocals and constructed the track from his freestyle is partially there, majorly peppered with other newer vocal takes etc. But the spirit of my actual production is mostly absent other than that," he wrote in response to a fan comment alleging AI use in the song. "My original version is a completely different production in spirit. 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."

Kanye West at the 2015 Grammys in Los Angeles.

Lester Cohen/WireImage

Blake closed out his comment by noting, "It's not personal! I just hit a point where don't want to be credited on music where I can't affect the end result."

* *has reached out to a representative for Ye for comment.

Ye's 12th studio album currently credits Blake with composition and lyrics on "This One Here," as well as production and engineering, per Spotify. The song also features rapper Don Toliver and WDNG Crshrs member Quentin Miller on the composition and lyrics credits, and was titled "SHOWTIME" when it was included on the scrapped project *WAR*, meant as a collaborative album between Ye and Blake.

It is not clear whether AI was used in the production or engineering of "This One Here," though on Friday, Ye posted the album's tracklist on Facebook with the caption, "*BULLY* ON THE WAY NO AI."

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In January, as the rollout to *Bully *reached its end, Ye published an essay in the *Wall Street Journal *apologizing for months of blatantly antisemitic behavior.

"I lost touch with reality," the "Flashing Lights" singer explained, pointing to a frontal lobe injury" sustained from a 2002 car accident that ultimately led to a bipolar diagnosis.

Last year, West could not go a month without sharing widely criticized antisemitic views, such as praising Adolf Hitler as "fresh" and selling T-shirts emblazoned with swastikas. But his antisemitic remarks date back to at least 2022, two years before his first collaboration with Blake.

A two-time Grammy winner, Blake independently released his seventh studio album, *Trying Times*, on March 13.

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