Kanye West: The Pop Legend

Meet America's biggest hip-hop celebrity.

Kanye West. For nearly 20 years, he has single-handedly dominated the world of pop music. 

As controversial as he is creative, the idiosyncratic Kanye is truly one of a kind: a devout Christian in a genre of gangsters, pimps, and crackheads; a black man in white America; a political conservative in liberal Hollywood. Musically, socially, and politically, Kanye’s larger-than-life persona can’t be boxed into neat categories. Love or hate him, nobody can deny his stark eccentricity. 

Here’s the mesmerizing story behind one of the biggest superstars in all Western pop culture. 

Ye’s Rise to Fame

Kanye Omari West was born on June 8, 1977 in Atlanta. He was raised by his loving single mother, Dr. Donda West, a professor of English. She had divorced his father Ray West, a former Black Panther and evangelical counselor. 

Raised in a middle class home, Ye had an early passion for music. At age 13, he wrote and recorded his first rap song, called “Green Eggs and Ham.” 

Dropping out of college, he began to pursue his musical ambitions full-time. Through a mentor named No I.D., young Kanye learned the tricks of the trade. He started producing songs for famous rappers, such as Eminem. 

One of these rappers was Jay-Z, who released the album The Blueprint in September 2001. Through Kanye’s production genius, it became a smash hit that revived Jay-Z’s career. Today, it’s considered one of hip hop’s greatest-ever albums. 

But Kanye wasn’t your average rapper. Unlike other artists, he didn’t glorify drugs and crime. His demo tapes were rejected many times, before finally being picked up by Roc-A-Fella Records in 2002. Even then, this was only because of Ye’s beats, not his lyrics or rapping skills. 

Fatal Accident

On October 23, 2002, Kanye’s life would change forever. After a late night in the studio, an exhausted West drove home. But he fell asleep at the wheel! Ye slipped into a head-on collision, which nearly killed him. 

Barely conscious and coughing up blood, Ye was taken to the hospital where Biggie died. There, West underwent intense reconstructive surgery. Doctors literally wired his jaw back onto his face! The poor man was disfigured beyond recognition. 

A truly life-changing moment, it appeared Ye would never speak again, let alone rap. But thankfully for our hip-hop hero, God had other plans. 

Nothing short of a miracle, Kanye made a quick recovery from his injuries. Two weeks later, he was already back in the studio. Now, he was determined more than ever to do the impossible. 

The College Dropout

This time, he recorded his debut single through an artificially wired jaw. Hence, the song’s title: “Through the Wire.” It soared to number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, where the song stayed for five whole weeks. 

Seeing Kanye’s newfound success, the studio was convinced to give him another chance. This became his first album: The College Dropout. 

Kanye’s album became a turning point in pop music. It was enormously successful. On the weight of its lead single, the album sold over 440,000 copies in its first week. It peaked at number two on the Billboard Top 200. 

The secret to Ye’s success was his mainstream appeal. By distancing himself from harsh gangsta lyrics, West crossed over into non-traditional demographics. Women and children were more likely to enjoy his brand of hip hop. Kanye’s soulful personality also made the music more appealing to the mainstream. 

“Jesus Walks” was the album’s most memorable hit, and still remains one of his most signature songs. It was extremely unusual for a hip-hop song to be talking about Jesus and religion. But Kanye’s approach to spirituality was very appealing. He wasn’t trying to convert or preach at anybody. He was simply expressing his own inner struggles—all to a dark hypnotic beat that won him the adulation of millions! 

The College Dropout became a masterpiece of its genre. It went three times platinum, sweeping the house with 10 Grammys. 

Katrina comment

Hurricane Katrina swept across Florida and Louisiana, causing over $100 billion in damages. 

To raise money, some celebrities hosted a fundraising concert on September 5, 2005. 

On live TV, Kanye accused George W. Bush of not caring about black people. His comment rattled the president, who directly addressed Kanye’s criticism. But to his supporters, Kanye’s socially conscious activism was very admirable. West’s popularity, which was already growing, skyrocketed even further. 

Late Registration

In 2005, Kanye followed up his masterful debut with the album Late Registration. 

In “Diamonds from Sierra Leone,” Kanye compared his obsession with riches to forced slave labor in West Africa’s diamond industry. It was a powerful work of social commentary, which won Ye lots of admiration. 

His song “Crack Music” drew attention to the crack epidemic among American blacks. In it, he criticized the War on Drugs, and compared drug addiction to the consumption of hip hop music. 

“Hey Mama” was dedicated to his mother Donda. Once again, Kanye was breaking hip hop tradition. It was rare for a rapper to dedicate a song to a specific individual, let alone their mom! Ye later described it as one of his favorite songs. 

Graduation

Kanye’s third album was Graduation. Replacing the brass bands with synthesizers, Ye came back with an entirely new electric sound. The final act of his schoolboy trilogy of albums, it rocketed our hero to superstar status.

While riding his tour bus in 2006, Kanye heard a strange song on the radio. It was “Touch It” by Busta Rhymes. The minimalist beat sampled from Daft Punk’s song “Technologic.” Then and there, an iconic song would be born: “Stronger.” 

The second single of Graduation, “Stronger” sampled from the Daft Punk song “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” For the catchy chorus, Kanye adopted a dictum from none other than Nietzsche: “What does not kill me makes me stronger.” 

For this tertiary effort, Ye found himself in a breakneck battle against another artist: 50 Cent. 50 Cent prepared to drop his own album Curtis, scheduled for the same day as Kanye’s album. 50 challenged Kanye, saying that if Ye’s album outsold his, he would literally stop making music. 

The 50 Cent-Kanye rivalry was more than just a feud between the two artists. It represented a clash of styles within hip hop. On the one hand was 50 Cent, the spokesman of hard-edged gangsta rap. There was Kanye on the other side, the apostle of a unique brand of auto-tuned pop. Ye’s Graduation outsold 50 Cent’s Curtis by about 300,000 copies in its first week! Clearly, the winner of this battle was Kanye West. 

Having defeated 50 Cent, Kanye became the new King of Hip Hop. It was now official: Kanye’s pristine electronic sound was here to stay. And it would permanently shift popular music toward a slicker, over-produced sound.  

808s & Heartbreak

Unfortunately for Kanye, tragedy would strike right at the peak of his fame. His mother Donda died from unexpected complications from cosmetic surgery in November 2007. His romance with Alexis Phifer broke apart. 

Devastated and heart-broken, Kanye’s good fortune turned as quickly as it came. He retreated to Honolulu, where he devoted himself entirely to his fourth album: 808s & Heartbreak. 

Expressing themes of sadness and heartache, Kanye’s fourth album featured a new tool: the Roland 808 drum machine. 

Released in 2008, the album is notable for its early use of auto-tune, which was still in its infancy. The fans were divided about the use of this new technology. But Kanye doubled down, insisting that auto-tune was his legitimate creative choice. 

In his dark song “Pinocchio Story,” the celebrity complained about the growing alienation he felt as a result of his mega-stardom. Kanye included this tune at the personal behest of Beyonce, who was deeply impressed by it. 

Taylor Swift

While Taylor Swift was accepting her award for Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye jumped onstage and grabbed her microphone. He insisted that Beyonce deserved the award instead. 

Ye was thrown out of the show. He received some of the worst publicity of his entire career, unlike anything he previously experienced. Even President Obama mocked him as a “jackass.” Memes flooded the Internet. 

West offered some nominal apologies to Taylor, both privately and publicly. But he defended his actions in later interviews. 

Avoiding the negative backlash, a disheartened Ye retreated to Japan. He poured his heart out on an unreleased track titled “Never See Me Again,” which later got leaked online. Its lyrics were extremely dark, reflecting Kanye’s suicidal depression. 

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Ye struck back with a new album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Released in November 2010, it was a masterful comeback album. Featuring a stripped down sound, its lyrics dealt with the themes of celebrity and excess. 

Rather than apologizing for his previous behavior, Kanye doubled down on it. His songs addressed explicitly political themes, such as racial bias and systemic oppression. He accused his critics of persecuting him because of his skin color. 

“Power” was its lead single. It sampled from a few different songs: “21st Century Schizoid Man” by King Crimson, “Afromerica” by Continent Number 6, and “It’s Your Thing” by Cold Grits. The song reportedly took 5,000 hours to make. 

Yeezus

Kanye dropped his sixth album Yeezus in 2013. It featured experimental music, which was popular in the UK at the time. He was also inspired by the minimalist aesthetic of the Louvre, which he saw while staying in Paris. It included such tracks as “On Sight” and “Black Skinhead.” 

Personally and professionally, Ye seemed to be back on track. He got married to Kim Kardashian, in a highly publicized ceremony. He launched his own streaming service. Ye also broke into the fashion industry, getting a sponsorship from Adidas. 

Kanye earned a honorary doctorate from the Art Institute of Chicago, fulfilling a promise he had made to his mother long before. He collaborated with Paul McCartney on the song “Only One,” a lullaby to his daughter North. 

The Life of Pablo

After a few years, Kanye dropped his next album: The Life of Pablo. Featuring a strange cover art with lots of repetitive text, it could be interpreted as a critique of consumerism. 

For his song “Famous,” Kanye’s controversial music video depicted naked wax figures of several celebrities sleeping together in bed. These included Ye himself, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Trump, Bill Cosby, and George W. Bush. 

Kanye’s mental health took a turn for the worse. Canceling his tour dates, he checked himself into the UCLA Medical Center. Fans were worried about the 43-year-old musician, who was officially diagnosed with bipolar disorder. 

While the media mocked Kanye heartlessly, the celebrity’s struggles opened up important conversations about mental health. 

Trump Era

Kanye became good friends with President Trump. Wearing the red MAGA hat, the hip-hop icon made a highly publicized visit to the White House in October 2018. He endorsed Trump’s pro-business policies, which he praised for bringing jobs to America from overseas outsourcing in China. He also supported the Second Amendment, and raised concerns about the effect of the prison system on black Americans. 

Kanye wasn’t a politician, nor was he well-versed in public policy. But he connected with Trump, praising the unorthodoxy of having a celebrity president. 

Kanye’s main concern was prison reform. He advocated for a man named Larry Hoover, the former leader of the Gangster’s Disciples. Hoover was behind bars for allegedly ordering a hit job against rival gangsters. He was further charged with drug conspiracy, extortion, and organized criminality. The man was sentenced to six life sentences in a federal super max prison. West criticized the US government, accusing these sentences of being far too harsh and disproportionate. 

Ultimately, Trump didn’t oblige Kanye’s request to release the 71-year-old Hoover, who had already spent four decades behind bars. But Kanye and Trump connected on one thing: both men were outsiders. 

Kanye clashed with another artist, the only one capable of seriously challenging his pop music dominance: Drake. Beyond their musical rivalry, however, the feud of the two men has gotten very personal at times. Drake publicly accused Kanye of revealing unsavory details of his out-of-wedlock child to his enemy, a rival artist named Pusha T. West defended himself, insisting he wasn’t the one who leaked the information to Pusha. 

Ye

By 2018, Kanye was back in the studio. What followed was his album, titled simply Ye. The cover reads, “I hate being bi-polar. It’s awesome.” Running just 24 minutes long, the darkly introspective album plunged into the recesses of Kanye’s mental anguish. 

One song was called “I Thought About Killing You,” where he expressed the pain of his suicidal thoughts. 

The song “Ghost Town” represented Kanye’s attempt to move past his bipolar disorder. 

Around this same time, West released the album Kids See Ghosts.

Jesus Is King

Returning to his Christian roots, the depressed Kanye sought comfort in the belief that God was watching over his increasingly troubled life. 

So his next album became Jesus Is King, released in October 2019. 

A gospel album, it received a mixed reception, even within Kanye’s diehard fanbase. The artist performed to thousands of fans at Joel Osteen’s megachurch. Kanye spoke of his own personal path toward Christianity, although the free-thinking musician never took a dogmatic approach to the Bible or religion. 

Kanye for President

In an unexpected turn of events, Kanye made a run for president in 2020. On the Fourth of July, he officially announced his candidacy on Twitter. But this came months after the primaries were already finished. Voting was quickly approaching, and Ye had little to no time to fully flush out his campaign. West didn’t even appear on the ballot in many states. 

Kanye has also toyed with running for president in 2024. 

Donda

Kanye suffered a terrible year in 2021. He went through a highly publicized divorce from Kim Kardashian in February. After months of rumors, Kim formally requested joint custody of their four children together. Seven years of marriage were gone in a flash! 

Ye took shots at the media, accusing them of fomenting tensions between him and his wife for their own profits. The disillusioned artist vented his frustration in a new album. Released in August of 2021, it was named after his deceased mother: Donda. Tearfully poignant, the name itself compared Kanye’s divorce with the painful loss of his mother. 

Within the rap community, Donda helped restore some of Kanye’s reputation in the aftermath of his controversial gospel album Jesus Is King.

A listening party was held at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in West’s birthplace of Atlanta, Georgia. Even without any promotional press, Donda still made headlines around the world. Thousands of fans flocked to the stadium in July. Strangely, Kanye appeared with a mask on. It represented a focus on hearing his music, rather than the man himself. The blank stage represented an empty canvas. Without uttering a single word, Kanye debuted Donda to a packed stadium in his hometown. 

Retreating back into the studio, Kanye did more work on his new album. After completely redoing it, he finally released the highly anticipated album on August 29. 

Cancellation (and Comeback)

Kanye raised eyebrows in late 2022, when he made a strange series of controversial posts about Jewish people. He was accused of anti-Semitism, although he vehemently denied any prejudice against them. 

Many of his corporate sponsors, such as Vogue magazine, Universal Music Group, Gap, and Adidas cut all ties with him. Forbes estimated in October 2022 that Kanye had lost $400 million after Adidas pulled the plug on him. 

Ye had dinner with the former President Trump at Mar-A-Lago, accompanied by a highly controversial right-wing political commentator named Nick Fuentes, the latter being accused of being a white nationalist. 

Kanye made a bizarre appearance on Alex Jones’ InfoWars in December, where he seemingly expressed sympathy for Hitler and the Nazis. After the interview, he posted on Twitter a swastika within a Star of David. The Anti-Defamation League accused Kanye of inciting violence, leading to his cancellation from social media. 

Ye was banned from Twitter, but he got back on in July 2023 after he assured the company he would not post any hateful content in the future. In December 2023, weeks ahead of his upcoming album, Kanye formally apologized about his anti-Jewish remarks in a written statement on Instagram. 

Whatever one thinks of this unpleasant controversy, nobody can deny that Kanye West remains one of America’s top-tier celebrities. He continues to dominate pop music, captivating the headlines with his erratic but never boring behavior. 

Kanye’s latest project is a new trilogy of albums coming out. The first of these, Vultures 1, was officially released on February 10, 2024.