KANYE WEST Biography
An English major at Chicago State University, where his mother, Donda, chairs the department, West quits school to pursue his music career full-time. "He said, 'Mom, I can do this, and I don't need to go to college, because I've had a professor in the house with me my whole life,'" Donda West tells Time. "I'm thinking, this boy is at it again. He always could twirl a word." (West's parents divorced when he was young.)
After turning out hit singles for Common, Ludacris and Cam'Ron, among others, West gets his big break when Jay-Z asks him to produce several tracks on his chart-topping album The Blueprint.
On his way home from a marathon recording session in L.A., West crashes his Lexus after falling asleep at the wheel. While recovering in the hospital, West pens "Through the Wire," a song about the crash where he jokes about drinking "a Boost for breakfast, a Ensure for dizzert/Somebody ordered pancakes, I just sip the sizzurp." He'll record the song three weeks later with his jaw still wired shut. The finished track convinces Roc-A-Fella Records to let him move in front of the mic and push through approval for his first solo album. "Death," West tells Time, "is the best thing that can ever happen to a rapper. Almost dying isn't bad either."
Nominated for three American Music Awards, West walks out of the show after losing the Best New Artist award to country newcomer Gretchen Wilson. "I feel I was definitely robbed...I was the best new artist this year," he complains backstage to the Associated Press. "I don't know if I'll be back at this award show next year." A month later he was a little more circumspect. "I came up to Gretchen [before the Grammy press conference] and apologized," he tells Entertainment Weekly. "And I want to apologize to my black role models, like Jay-Z and Oprah Winfrey, for being overemotional. I was doing a disservice to everything my forefathers have done to allow black people to get to this place."
With the headline "Hip-Hop's Class Act," West becomes one of the rare entertainers to appear on the cover of Time. The lengthy article details the contradictions of The College Dropout and of West himself, who admits that when starting out in hip-hop, "It was a strike against me that I didn't wear baggy jeans and jerseys and that I never hustled, never sold drugs." In April, Time had tapped West as one of the year's 100 most influential people.
KANYE WEST lyrics and albums
