Biography
Kanye West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lived with both of his parents. When he was three (as mentioned in homecoming) years old his parents divorced, and he and his mother moved to Chicago, Illinois. His father was Ray West, a former Black Panther who was one of the first black photojournalists at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and is now a Christian counselor.[5] Kanye’s mother, Dr. Donda West, worked as the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University before retiring to serve as Kanye’s manager. He was raised in an upper middle class background, attending Polaris High School[6] in suburban Oak Lawn, Illinois.[7]
After attending The American Academy of Art, a Chicago art school, West attended Chicago State University but eventually dropped out in order to continue working on his music career. While attending school, West produced for local artists. He later gained fame by producing hit singles for major hip hop/R&B artists, including Jay-Z, Common, Mobb Deep, Jermaine Dupri, The Game, Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, Eminem and John Legend just to name a few. He also “ghost-produced” for his once mentor Deric Angelettie according to his song “Last Call” and the credits of Nas’ “Poppa Was a Playa”.
West’s style of production often utilizes pitched-up vocal samples, usually from soul songs, with his own drums and instruments. The first major label song he produced featuring vocal samples was “This Can’t Be Life”, a track from Jay-Z’s The Dynasty: Roc La Familia. Kanye admitted that Wu-Tang Clan producer RZA influenced him in his style,[8][9] and has said on numerous occasions that Wu-Tang rappers Ghostface and Ol’ Dirty Bastard were some of his all-time favorites. Said by Kanye West: “Wu-Tang? Me and my friends talk about this all the time… We think Wu-Tang had one of the biggest impacts as far as a movement. From slang to style of dress, skits, the samples. Similar to the [production] style I use, RZA has been doing that.”[10]
He has also admitted that he sped up the drum beat of Dr. Dre’s “Xxplosive” to use as a replacement for his original drums on “This Can’t Be Life”.[11]
2001
Kanye’s sound was featured heavily on Jay-Z’s critically-acclaimed album The Blueprint, released on September 11, 2001. His work was featured on the lead single “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and the diss record against Nas and Mobb Deep named “Takeover”. Ironically, West has worked with Mobb Deep and Nas since the track’s release. Regardless, West soon became a major name in hip hop production following the release of the album, but struggled to find a way to get a record deal. Jay-Z admitted that Roc-A-Fella was initially reluctant to support West as a rapper, claiming that he saw him as a producer first and foremost. Multiple record companies pushed him aside because he was not the stereotypical hip hop artist. Companies felt he was not as marketable as rappers that portray the “street image” that is prominent in hip hop culture.[citation needed]
2002–2004
On October 23, 2002, Kanye was involved in a car crash after falling asleep at the wheel while driving home from the recording studio. The crash provided inspiration for West’s first single, “Through the Wire”. West’s faith is apparent in many of his songs, such as “Jesus Walks”, which became a staple at his benefit performances, such as the Live 8 concert. These songs were featured on West’s debut album, The College Dropout, which was released on Roc-A-Fella Records in February 2004, and went on to receive critical acclaim. The album also defined the style for which West would become known, including wordplay and sampling.
Kanye was involved in a financial dispute over Royce Da 5′9″’s song “Heartbeat”, produced by West and released on Build & Destroy: The Lost Sessions. Kanye maintains that Royce never paid for the beat, but recorded to it and released it; hearing him on the beat, the original customers decided not to buy it from West. After the disagreement, West vowed to never work with Royce again.[12]
2005
On August 30, 2005, Kanye West released his second album Late Registration. Reviews were mostly favorable: “Late Registration is an undeniable triumph” (Rolling Stone), “As ornate and bloated as West’s ego”. (Spin September 2005, p.99). With the help of producer samples in different ways along with compositions of strings and other sounds. The record earned the number one spot on the Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop critics poll of 2005.[13] The first two singles from Late Registration were “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” (which features vocals from Shirley Bassey’s “Diamonds Are Forever”) and “Gold Digger” featuring Jamie Foxx (which contains an interpolation of Ray Charles’s “I Got a Woman”) to sell over 860,000 copies in its first week[14], and earned him eight Grammy Award nominations including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for the song “Gold Digger”.
In September 2005, West announced that he would release his Pastelle Clothing line in spring 2006:[15] “Now that I have a Grammy under my belt and Late Registration is finished, I am ready to launch my clothing line next spring.” Even months after its speculated release, the current status of this project is unknown.
2006
West in June 2006.
West in June 2006.
In January 2006, West again sparked controversy when he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in the image of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns. Later that month, he suggested in Playboy that if a bible were written in the present day, he is famous and important enough to be included in it. “I throw up historical subjects in a way that makes kids want to learn about them”, West claimed. “[I’m] definitely in the history books already.”
In February 2006, West performed live at the 2006 BRIT Awards in London, England. He performed “Gold Digger” with hundreds of professional female dancers, all of them dressed head-to-toe in gold outfits. Four of these were the UK pop rock band RockerBaby.
After the 2006 Grammy nominations were released, West said he would “really have a problem” if he didn’t win the Album of the Year because of the comments, saying “I don’t care what I do, I don’t care how much I stunt — you can never take away from the amount of work I put into it. I don’t want to hear all of that politically correct stuff.”[16] West won several Grammy awards, including Best Rap Album, but did not win the Album of the Year Award. The award instead went to U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Coincidentally, in November 2006, West was the opening act for U2 during the fifth leg of their Vertigo Tour in Australia and New Zealand.
West at the Nokia Theatre, New York in August 2006.
West at the Nokia Theatre, New York in August 2006.
On August 5, 2006, West headlined the second day of the Lollapalooza music festival in his hometown of Chicago. Later that month, People magazine reported that West became engaged to his girlfriend Alexis while spending two weeks overseas with her.[17]
On November 2, 2006, when “Touch the Sky” failed to win Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards, West went onto the stage as the award was being presented to Justice and Simian for “We Are Your Friends” and argued that he should have won the award instead.[18] [19] [20] Hundreds of news outlets worldwide criticized the outburst. On November 7, 2006, West apologized for this outburst publicly during his performance as support act for U2 for their Vertigo concert in Brisbane, Australia.
In December 2006, Robert “Evel” Knievel sued Kanye West for trademark infringement in West’s video for “Touch the Sky”. Knievel is taking issue with a “sexually-charged video” in which West takes on the persona of “Evel Kanyevel” and attempts flying a rocket over a canyon. The suit filed in federal court claims infringement on his trademarked name and likeness. Knievel also claims the “vulgar and offensive” images depicted in the video damage his reputation. The suit seeks damages and to stop distribution of the video.[21]
This year he was also rumored to be working on Michael Jackson’s next album, scheduled for late 2007, along with his cousin Devo Springsteen and John Legend.[citation needed]
2007
Performance in 2007
Performance in 2007
In 2007, it was announced that West would be starring in a series directed by Larry Charles. He has been working on the pilot episode for the past two years with Larry Charles and Rick Rubin. He also had this to say on January 14: “I wouldn’t do something as cliché as a reality show. At least give me the credit for being more creative than that. It’s a situational half-hour comedy. It’s fictional, and loosely based on my life.”[22] West recently collaborated with Japanese hip hop group Teriyaki Boyz to produce the single “I Still Love H.E.R.”, a reference to Common’s 1994 single “I Used to Love H.E.R.”. It is rumored that West’s introductory lines preceding his verse are a thinly-veiled jab at producer and rapper Danny!, who was mercilessly compared to West in the beginning of his career.
Further to this, during a radio appearance in early 2007, West, like many of his peers, recorded an impromptu freestyle to the popular song “Throw Some D’s”. West’s version became extremely popular because of the different stance he took. The song that to all other rappers was about automobile rims, was used by West to comically refer to D-cup breasts. Because of the unexpected success of the song, West went on to make a video for the freestyle, in which he is seen playing his ‘Old Ass Cousin’.
Kanye was also featured in a new song called “Classic (Better Than I’ve Ever Been)”. It was believed to be a single from his upcoming album, Graduation, because he is featured on the track, but Nike quickly explained that it was for the Nike Air Force 1’s anniversary. It was meant only to be an exclusive track for the company.
On March 25, 2007, Kanye and his father Ray West supported World Water Day by having a “Walk for Water” rally.[23]
After a two-year break, Kanye has returned back to being a fashion columnist on lifestyle magazine Complex.[24]
On July 7, 2007 West performed with the British band The Police at the American leg of Live Earth.
Kanye West hosted the August 17 edition of British comedy-variety show The Friday Night Project.[25]
In July 2007, West changed the release date of Graduation, his third album, from September 18, 2007, to the same release date as 50 Cent’s album Curtis, September 11, 2007.[26] This means that the albums will go head-to-head and compete for better sales against each other. 50 Cent later claimed that if Graduation were to sell more records than Curtis, he would stop releasing solo albums.[27] However, 50 Cent would later dispel his comments.[28]
“ When I heard that thing about the debate, I thought that was the stupidest thing. When my albums drops and 50’s album drops, you’re gonna get a lot of good music at the same time.[29] ”
Kanye West performed at this years V Festival,[30] entertaining crowds at Hylands Park on Saturday, (August 18) and Weston Park on Sunday, (August 19).[31] He performed his latest single Stronger, along with many of his classics: Diamonds From Sierra Leone, Through the Wire, All Falls Down and Jesus Walks.[32] West also played tribute to some of his favourite artists, singing Amy Winehouse’s Rehab, The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony and Timbaland’s The Way I Are.[32]
On August 26, West appeared as himself on the HBO television show Entourage which he used as a platform to premier his new single “Good Life” during the end credits.
Political views
On July 2, 2005, West appeared on the Philadelphia bill of Live 8, using the global platform to refer to “man-made diseases placed in African communities”, a reference to the OPV AIDS hypothesis.[33]
In the song “Crack Music”, he raps, “How [did] we stop the Black Panthers?/Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer”, a reference to the allegation that the Reagan administration intentionally placed crack cocaine in the ghettos of the United States. In the second verse, he raps, “Who gave Saddam anthrax?/George Bush got the answer”, a reference to the fact that he sold chemical weapons to Iraq in the 1980s and 1990s.
In the song “Roses”, West raps about his Grandma’s struggle against AIDS and expresses his outrage at the unfair availability of treatment: “If Magic Johnson got a cure for AIDS / And all the broke mothafuckas passed away / You telling me if my grandma was in the NBA / Right now she would be okay?”. This is also a reference to Magic Johnson’s unlikely recovery and highly publicized battle with the virus. In the song Heard ‘Em Say, Kanye raps, “And I know the government administered AIDS, So I guess we just pray like the minister say.”
Demonstrating his views against George W. Bush, in a 2006 live orchestral performance of “All Falls Down” (later released on the “Late Orchestration” mixtape) West replaced “the White man gets paid off of all of that” with “George Bush gets paid off of all of that”.
On August 22, 2005, the MTV special All Eyes On Kanye West aired, in which West spoke out against homophobia in hip-hop, claiming that hip-hop has always been about “speaking your mind and about breaking down barriers, but everyone in hip-hop discriminates against gay people”. He then reflected on a personal experience. He said that he had a “turning point” when he realized one of his cousins was gay. He said regarding this experience: “This is my cousin. I love him and I’ve been discriminating against gays.” He went on to say that “not just hip-hop, but America just discriminates against gay people … I wanna just come on TV, and just tell my rappers, just tell my friends, ‘Yo, stop it’”. He also drew comparison between African Americans’ struggle for civil rights and today’s gay rights movement. The following year, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, West further expounded his experiences with and views on the relationship between the black and gay communities:
I think in the daily life of a black male, we gay-bash way more than we disrespect women. We would call a gay guy a fag to his face. But if we walked up to a woman and said Aiight, bitch! we would know that was disrespectful. I remember five years ago I was in this clothing store in Greenwich Village with my old girlfriend. I said the word “fag” kind of loud and there were some gay dudes in the store. My girlfriend was like, Yo, c’mon, step into the new millennium. Well, my level of consciousness has since raised. And I actually think that standing up for gays was even more crazy than bad-mouthing the president. In the black community, someone could label you gay and bring your career down. But that was me showing what black people are really about today, or at least what we need to be about.
