Ye, Ty Dolla $ign cancel arena listening gigs

American rap duo ¥$, consisting of Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign, have quietly cancelled their next series of US arena listening sessions for their collaborative project, VULTURES.

The six shows, announced last week, were set to take place between 7-15 April. The East Coast run of listening parties included Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena (20,000-capacity), Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena (19,758-cap), Washington D.C.’s Capital One Arena (20,356-cap), Charlotte’s Spectrum Center (17,500-cap) Tampa’s Amalie Arena (21,500-cap), and Fort Lauderdale’s Amerant Bank Arena (20,000-cap).

“We regret to report that due to the time constraints for Ye and Ty Dolla $ign to curate production and meet logistic requirements, the upcoming dates for the VULTURES 1&2 listening experience will need to be revisited at a later date,” said both Amalie Arena and Amerant Bank Arena in public statements.

The duo have not publicly acknowledged the cancellations, with Ye deactivating his Instagram account over the weekend.

“It’s still better than other people’s shows that have a mic”

The listening party cancellations come after the duo delayed the second instalment of their three-part VULTURES series. Announced earlier this year, the three-part collaborative series was set to be released in February, March, and April, respectively. VULTURES 1 was released on 9 February to commercial acclaim, but no updates or timelines have been provided for the second and third instalments.

Alongside the release of VULTURES 1, multiple “hi-fidelity audio experience” gigs were announced and held in quick succession in February. These included three back-to-back gigs in the US, at Chicago’s United Center (23,500-cap), New York’s UBS Center (19,000-cap), and at an unnamed tent on the Las Vegas Strip, and three shows in Europe.

The European late-February listening experiences took place at Italy’s Mediolanum Forum (15,800-cap) and Unipol Arena (20,000), plus Paris’s Accor Arena (20,300). In October 2023, the duo had reportedly planned a joint concert at RCF Arena (100,000-cap) in Reggio Emilia, Italy, which was ultimately scrapped.

Two additional gigs were held in early March after the initial VULTURES 2 release date at Arizona’s Footprint Center (18,422-cap) and San Francisco’s Chase Center (18,064-cap). The pair went on to headline California’s Rolling Loud festival, where they played pre-recorded music without performing.

“It’s still better than other people’s shows that have a mic,” said Ty Dolla $ign following the Rolling Loud performance.

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