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 ...full biography