James Blake publicly distanced himself from Kanye’s new track hours after the album dropped, and his reason is a quiet but pointed dig at Ye

James Blake has publicly asked to have his name removed from the production credits of This One Here, a track on Kanye West’s newly released album, Bully. The English musician shared his reasons on his direct-to-fan streaming platform, Vault, just hours after the album dropped on Friday, March 27.

According to Complex, This One Here lists Quentin Miller, Don Toliver, Blake, and Ye as composers. Blake confirmed that his original vocal pitching and track construction are present in the final version, but said the “spirit” of his “actual production is mostly absent.”

Blake explained, “My original version is a completely different production in spirit.” He posted, “I’ve been asked 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 also added, “It’s 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.”

Creative control clearly matters deeply to Blake, and his own album shows exactly why

This decision points to a bigger issue for many artists: creative control. Blake felt his vision was significantly changed to the point where he no longer felt comfortable having his name attached to the production. Ye has faced his own share of controversies recently, including his antisemitic remarks and public apology that drew widespread attention.

The contrast becomes even clearer when you look at Blake’s own recent work. Earlier this month, he released his seventh solo album, Trying Times, and publicly praised his longtime girlfriend, actress Jameela Jamil, who was listed as an executive producer on the project.

He wrote, “For everyone here-without jameela this album would not be patch on what it is now, in its final form.” He went on to say it’s “impossible to overstate how much you’ve transformed these songs, and guided me to reach what I think is my potential.”

Blake continued, “That is what a producer and indeed what a exec producer does. Your intuition, your clarity and pattern recognition for music is the best of anyone bar none.” Jamil called working with Blake a “privilege.” This kind of mutual respect stands in sharp contrast to Ye’s pattern of controversial public behavior, which has repeatedly put his collaborators in uncomfortable positions.

The difference between how Blake speaks about Jamil’s role on his own album and his decision to remove his name from Ye’s track makes his position on creative integrity very clear. Separately, on the same Friday, Ye also released the music video for Father, featuring Travis Scott, directed by Bianca Censori.