James Blake wants production credit removed from Kanye West’s new album, Bully: “My original version is a completely different production in spirit”James Blake has asked to have his production credits removed from Kanye West’s latest album, Bully, saying the released track no longer reflects the work he originally created.
West – who now goes by Ye – debuted his long-awaited 12th studio album during a livestreamed listening event in Inglewood on 27 March. The record features a wide range of collaborators including 88-Keys, The Legendary Traxster, and Travis Scott. On the closing track, This One Here, Blake was originally credited alongside Ye, Don Toliver, and Quentin Miller.

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However, the producer has now requested that his name be taken off, arguing that the “spirit” of his production is “mostly absent” from the final version.
“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,” Blake explains on his direct-to-fan streaming platform Vault.
“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,” he adds.
The producer also insists that the decision was “not personal”: “I just hit a point where [I] don’t want to be credited on music where I can’t affect the end result.”
The two have worked together several times over the years, with their partnership stretching back as far as 2014. The rapper has also previously called Blake one of his favourite artists.
Bully, released via YZY and the independent label Gamma, is Ye’s first LP since 2024. At the time of writing, Blake’s credit remains on the track across major streaming services.
Earlier this month, Ye announced the tracklist and clarified that no artificial intelligence had been used in its creation, contradicting comments he made last year where he claimed to have incorporated the technology into his writing process “the same way I incorporated Auto-Tune.”

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