Biography
Kanye West is a popular American singer, rapper, producer, songwriter and fashion designer. Critics have repeatedly called Kanye one of the greatest artists of the 21st century. West is also known for his harsh and direct statements at ceremonies and on social media, which often led to scandals.
American rapper Kanye Omari West was born in the city of Atlanta, located in the state of Georgia. Both parents belonged to intelligent professions. Father Ray West was one of the first African-American photojournalists in the United States. Mom Donda West taught English at Clark Atlanta University at the time of her son’s birth and held the academic title of professor. Later, she headed the philological department at the University of Chicago, and when Kanye needed a personal manager, the woman took on these responsibilities.
Rapper Kanye West
The boy was three years old when Ray and Donda divorced. Kanye stayed with his mother and moved with her to Chicago. He attended Polaris High School and did very well. A grade below a B was nonsense for West.
For some time, the teenager and his mother lived in China, where Donda taught the local population English. Since Kanye was the only foreign student in the city of Nanjing, a separate program was not created for him, and West mastered Chinese in a short time.
Kanye West as a child
Creativity entered Kanye's life early. At the age of five he wrote his first poem, and by the age of 8 he became interested in painting and music. Mom gave her son an Amiga gaming computer, which had a program for creating simple melodies. West plunged headlong into this interesting activity. A little later, the teenager begins to rap and participate in the city's hip-hop movement. At the age of 13, Kanye writes melodies that he is no longer ashamed to sell to other musicians. During the same period, he recorded his own composition “Green Eggs and Ham” in a semi-professional studio.
After school, Kanye West received a grant to study at the American Academy of Arts, but he was given a scholarship to study at the Faculty of Fine Arts, and not music, as the guy had hoped. Therefore, he soon transferred to the University of Chicago and immersed himself in English literature.
Kanye West
At 20, West dropped out of college to focus on his music career. The professor's mother was shocked, but her son's further success allowed her to look at things differently. The woman later said that she realized that in some professions, talent, willpower and determination play a much larger role than education.
Kanye West: biography (main events)
The future famous performer was born on June 8, 1977 in Georgia. When West was three years old, his parents divorced. His mother took him and they moved to Chicago. As a child, Kanye West was no different from other boys. He also played basketball and went to public school. As a teenager, he developed an interest in music. He begins to write poetry and even selects melodies for them on a synthesizer. Thoughts about a career as a musician appeared in my head. However, Kanye saw and understood that competition in this business is very tough.
Not completely confident in his abilities, West decides to enter the University of Chicago, where his mother also worked as a teacher.
However, he was unable to complete his studies, as his obsession with music took over. That's why Kanye West goes to New York.
The performer's height is 177 centimeters. Although in the photographs he seems taller. Kanye West weighs 70 kilograms. Height and other parameters are in an excellent ratio, which allows the musician to always look stylish.
Music and creativity
While still in school and college, Kanye West wrote music for other artists, including Beyoncé and Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson's younger sister. But later he began his own path in show business. Unfortunately, at first Kanye received refusals from recording studios. They were happy to buy the author's samples, but did not want to hear about the rapper, who grew up in an intelligent family, and not among young gangsters.
Rap music involves a narrative about the difficulties that the performer has had to face in life. Kanye has no history of shootings or drug dealing. But at that moment another tragedy happened - he got into a car accident, in which he fractured his jaw.
While wearing a special splint for the face, the musician writes the song “Through the Wire” and two weeks later, while still wearing a special medical mask, he records the composition in the studio. Through the disaster, the young man found the theme of his first album, The College Dropout: making his own decisions.
The disc was a huge success and debuted at number two on Billboard. The big hits were "Slow Jamz" and "Jesus Walks", which is still something of West's calling card. Interestingly, from a musical point of view, the style of Kanye's debut album was similar to uptempo soul. This was an innovation that West’s colleagues began to copy, and he immediately set about inventing another genre so as not to repeat himself.
The second album “Late Registration” brought Kanye a Grammy Award, and fans of West’s talent brought the compositions “Gold Digger”, “Heard ‘Em Say” and “Drive Slow”. Thus, the singer, who was rejected by recording studios, became one of the most successful rappers in the world.
Subsequently, Kanye West gave fans hits on a global scale more than once. Worth mentioning are the hip-hop “Stronger,” the minimalist synth-pop “Love Lockdown,” and the rap “Heartless.” The latter is considered one of the best-selling singles in the world.
In 2011, the performer, together with rapper Jay-Z, released the album “Watch the Throne”. The composition “Ni**as In Paris” became the most successful single of the collection. At concerts, the audience called the musicians several times to sing the composition as an encore. During a performance in Paris in 2012, the musicians performed “Ni**as In Paris” 11 times.
In 2013, the musician’s new album called “Yeezus” was released, on which 25 producers worked, including the rapper himself. There is a funny incident associated with the video of one composition from the collection - “Bound 2”. Actors Seth Rogen and James Franco made a funny parody of the video. Later on The Graham Norton Show, Rogen admitted that Kanye West appreciated the joke between him and James. The artist also added that it took the performer 3 hours to shoot the video, and he and Franco spent 3 days on their version. In the same album, Kanye presented the song “Black Skinhead,” which he dedicated to black people.
At the 2020 MTV VMAs in 2020, Kanye West premiered the video for the song “Fade” from his new album “The Life of Pablo.” Singer Teyana Taylor appeared in the video, performing twerk in the gym wearing only sports bras and a thong. The audience greeted the video with enthusiasm.
Having already become a famous musician, Kanye West realized himself in a different industry. He created his own clothing collection “Pastelle”, which he worked on for 4 years. But due to the start of a collaboration with Nike to create signature Air Yeezy sneakers, Kanye closed his clothing line. West also collaborated with Italian shoe designer Giuseppe Zanotti and the Japanese brand BAPE.
Later, the rapper returned to creating women's clothing and demonstrated his first collection at Paris Fashion Week in 2011. A year later, he presented a new version of clothing, but West’s main success as a fashion designer was still associated with shoes. After Nike, he begins a collaboration with Adidas and releases Yeezy Boost sneakers and Yeezy 950 Boots.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
Rapper Kanye West has reached official billionaire status according to a new report from Forbes.
The publication reports that the singer recently provided documents that show "a true look at the artist's financial assets." After analyzing them, Forbes experts determined that Kanye is in fact a billionaire, as he announced during a speech at the Fast Company festival in the fall of 2020.
"When I was filming for Forbes, I showed them the receipt for $890 million, and they told me, 'Not a billionaire yet,'" Kanye told the crowd at the time.
Forbes later explained why West was not on the list of billionaires: “An issue of the magazine with this rating is published once a year, usually in the spring. At the beginning of 2020, we estimated West's net worth at $240 million. Although I don’t remember the aforementioned 890 million check being among the materials he and his team provided, it still wouldn’t be enough to confirm his billionaire status.” However, then Kanye still achieved a record, becoming the highest paid rapper.
According to new estimates from Forbes, the rapper is worth just over $1 billion, with most of his income coming from his Yeezy sneaker brand with Adidas. However, the rapper was not satisfied with this either: he insists that his assets are much greater: “It’s not a billion. That's $3.3 billion because no one at Forbes knows how to count."
It is noted that when calculating, Forbes cut this amount in half due to the liquidity of assets. Experts also deducted $100 million for debts, including mortgages and advances, leaving Kanye's net worth at $1.3 billion, about $300 million more than his 22-year-old sister-in-law Kylie Jenner, who became the world's youngest billionaire. stories.
Amid these calculations, West's team also sent out statements listing $17 million in cash, $35 million in stock and about $102 million in real estate and land. It is also noted that Kanye makes about $90 million from the music he makes. Forbes did not comment on this information.
Let us remind you that in October Kanye released the album “Jesus Is King”. It includes 12 tracks and almost all of them are devoted to a church theme, which is reflected in the titles - “God Is”, “Baptized”, “Sweet Jesus” and others.
In a situation of quarantine and self-isolation, we are switching to home movie watching. In order not to get lost in all the diversity, we advise you to find the film in the “Afisha” selections or a huge catalog by genre or year with unbiased film reviews from our readers.
Personal life
In his youth, Kanye West dated designer Alexis Phifer and even got engaged to her, but a year and a half after the engagement, the young people announced their separation.
The rapper then had a two-year romance with model Amber Rose.
And in 2012, West began a relationship with reality TV star and model Kim Kardashian, whom he had known for five years. A year later, at Kim's 33rd birthday party, the musician proposed to her. This happened in a solemn ceremony at the AT&T Park stadium in San Francisco, and all the family members and friends of Kanye and Kim witnessed the declaration of love.
The wedding took place in Florence, Italy in May 2014, and during the time between the engagement and the wedding, West managed to become a father: Kardashian gave birth to his daughter North, whose family name is Nori. At the end of 2015, the rapper again experienced the joy of fatherhood - he and Kim had a son, Saint.
In January 2020, Kanye and his wife became parents again. Now the couple has three children. The surrogate mother gave birth to a daughter, who was named Chicago.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
He demonstrated in October 2020 that family is more important to him than career, fame and money. When Kanye West's wife was attacked by robbers and taken hostage, the rapper canceled the concert, which was in full swing, and hurried to the woman he loved. The attackers took several million dollars worth of jewelry from Kardashian. No one was injured during the robbery. Kim was in shock, but everything worked out.
Kanye West with his wife and children
In 2007, grief struck Kanye West’s family: the singer’s beloved mother, Donda West, passed away. The day before her death, she had liposuction and breast reduction surgery. This led to cardiac arrest. When the woman turned to doctor Andre Abolian, he demanded that she check her health. Donda did not do this and went to another plastic surgeon, Jen Adams, who performed the operation without the necessary preliminary examination. Adams' medical license was later revoked.
The musician dedicated the first performance that West performed after the death of his mother to Donda. He sang the song “Hey Mama” in honor of his parent. During the performance, the musician burst into tears right on stage. He later admitted in an interview that he blamed himself for his mother’s death. Kanye stated that if he had not moved to Los Angeles, she would still be alive.
Kanye West with his wife
In 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring patients planning to undergo plastic surgery to undergo a medical examination.
Thousands of fans follow the life and creative biography of Kanye West on Instagram. At one time, the rapper deleted his microblog account. He did the same with Twitter. But in February 2018, he returned again and posted 55 photos on Instagram on Valentine’s Day. Then the musician began sharing recordings with readers on Twitter.
In May 2020, information appeared in the press that the Kardashian-West family was going through difficult times, and Kim was even thinking about divorce. An insider said that the rapper's wife is unhappy with her husband's psychological state. The fact is that in 2020, West had a cosmetic procedure and, as a result, became addicted to painkillers. It even went as far as rehabilitation in the hospital.
All the details of the rap scandal: Kanye West vs. Drake
Kanye West can rightfully be called the king in any matter, be it the music or fashion business, or even conflicts. Kanye is used to not standing on ceremony with offenders and immediately sorting things out, preferably on Twitter. Back in May of this year, a confrontation began between two popular artists Kanye West and Drake, when West acted as the producer of Pusha T’s new album. It would seem, what does Pusha T have to do with it? Let's explain.
As is customary with all real rappers, it all started with clothes. Back in 2006, Vibe magazine featured Lil Wayne on its cover wearing clothes from the BAPE boutique, which until that moment had always been worn by members of the duo Clipse, which included Pusha T, Malice, and their producer Pharrell Williams. In this regard, the track “Mr. Me Too / Mr. “me too”” , which was dedicated to Lil Wayne and the past shooting: “Niggas bite the style from the shoes to the watche. We cloud hoppers, tailored suits like we mobsters / Niggas copy our style from shoes to watches. We're experts in getting high, tailor-made suits like we're the mafia."
But they didn’t stop there either, giving a series of interviews where they said that real rappers don’t steal other people’s style, for example, from Clipse, don’t copy Jay-Z’s rapping style, don’t sell cocaine after releasing five albums and don’t kiss men (reference to a photo that appeared online in 2006 - in which Lil Wayne kisses his mentor Birdman)."
In 2012, Pusha T recorded one of the most powerful tracks “Exodus 23:1 / Exodus 23:1” , in which he again went through Lil Wayne, who was betrayed by Birdman, his closest person (their joint album in 2006 was called “Like Father, Like Son / Like father and son” ), with the following lines: “Taking half of everything you get. Them niggas ain't dying for you. Them niggas using you as a pawn/ Let them take away half of everything you have! These niggas won't die for you! These niggas are using you like a pawn." The following was dedicated to Drake: “Beef is when you hide behind them other niggas/ Beef is when you hide behind other niggas.”
Some time later, in 2020, Drake’s track “Two Birds, One Stone/Two Birds, One Stone” , in which he says that Pusha T’s drug dealing and street life is a legend, invented to increase sales: “If you ask me though, you ain't linin' the trunk with kilos, You baggin' weed watchin' Pacino with all your niggas. Like, “This is what we need to be on,” but you never went live/ If you ask me what I think, you don't line your whole trunk with drugs, You smoke weed while you watch Pacino with all your niggas. Like: “This is what you should strive for,” but you yourself haven’t developed yourself.”
And now in 2020, Pusha T released the track “Infrared” from his new album “Daytona”, where the rapper expresses respects to Kendrick and J. Cole, as well as, traditionally, a dissit of Drake. In one of the tracks, the musician stated that Drake is deceiving listeners, and the author Quentin Miller writes the songs for him: “How could you ever right these wrongs. When you don't even write your songs? / How can you even correct your mistakes, If you don't even write your own songs?
In response to this diss, Drake immediately released the track “Duppy Freestyle/ Stupid” , in which he noted that he himself helped the “boss” of former Clipse member Kanye West with the lyrics, and also drew attention to the low sales of Pusha T: “So if you rebuke me for working with someone else on a couple of Vs. What do you really think of the nigga that's making your beats?/ In short, if you reproach me for collaborating with someone else. What do you really think about the dude who makes your beats? In addition, the rapper added that he would send West a check in the amount of $20 thousand for promoting the album “Daytona” (the result of the release in the first week was estimated at about 20 thousand copies).
And here comes the apogee of all the scandals: in a new track called “Story of Adidon”, released the next day, Pusha T reveals Drake’s main secret - he has a son with former porn star Sophie Brussaux: “Let 'em know who you chose as your Beyoncé. Sophie knows better as your baby mother/ Let's tell everyone who you chose as your Beyoncé. Sophie... Also known as the mother of your child." By the way, the reference to Beyoncé is here for a reason. Drake has repeatedly compared himself to Jay-Z, in particular, in the song “Summer Sixteen/Summer of the Sixteenth” he says that he would like to turn into Jay. To this, Pusha-T sharply remarks to him: “Since you’re Jay, let’s see who’s your Beyoncé?”
It was after this that Drake accused Kanye West of spreading rumors: “I came to his studio in Wyoming and, impressed by West’s speech about the importance of openness and honesty, I gave him a listen to several tracks from the Scorpion album that had not yet been released, showed him a photo of his son and spoke about the difficulties in communicating with the child’s mother. And he leaked all this information for a diss track.”
Kanye West's response: “Let me start by apologizing for missing your album release date... We've been building our relationship and working on music while trying to work out our issues with Cudi in our office. When I announced the dates for our releases, I was a little on edge. I wrote 25 tweets a day. Shortly after this, the TMZ scandal happened... Now it's time for me to get on the plane, I'll write more when I land.
The plane is now heading towards the runway. You and I talked about doing the song “Lift Yourself” together. I should have given you a chance to do this together before I released it.
Because we were building friendships and brotherhood, I had to talk to Pusha T about the Quentin Miller line. As a result, there should not have been a single song with my participation that would have had anything negative about you. I never heard the diss track that followed, but I heard quotes from the songs after they were released. I haven't talked to Pusha T about your baby. I haven't mentioned other people's kids since I talked to Wiz Khalifa about it a few years ago.
As a man, I understand Pusha T. If someone mentions your fiancée, the man gets into a fight. I've done this myself before. I love you and I love Pusha T, and we all admire each other's creativity. This is something on the level of the Jedi. I will come to your concert next week to express my love and be inspired by the art you create."
Against the backdrop of this try-on, a new scandal broke out. This story began after one Twitter user named Tyler Morrison conducted his own investigation, concluding that Drake repeatedly refers to Kim in his songs. Thus, in the popular song “In My Feelings” there are the lines “Kiki do you love me? / Kiki, do you love me?”, and Kiki is a diminutive name for Kardashian. In the song "8 Out of 10/ 8 out of 10" Drake sings about someone's wife (Morrison thought it was Kanye West's wife), as well as about the block where the Kardashian-West couple live. The track “Elevate” also contains a very suspicious line: “I already hit her when you left her lonely/ I already fell for her when you left her.” Kanye did leave his wife for a while when he was trying to deal with his mental issues in 2020, and then while writing the album in early 2020.
Kanye West once again asked Drake to dispel rumors that he and Kim Kardashian allegedly had an affair. "If I had a girl from Chicago named Renita and your wife was Rihanna, I wouldn't write a song called 'Riri.' Don't write songs that are misleading," West said.
And on the night of December 14, Kanye West wrote more than a hundred tweets saying that Drake was threatening him and his family.
Kim Kardashian also publicly warned Drake and wrote to him not to dare threaten her family.
“My husband is the most wonderful person, the most brilliant person I know. He has broken so many boundaries from music to fashion to culture and will continue to change the world. @drake, don't try to threaten me or my family. Kanye did everything for Drake to appear,” she tweeted. Share:
Kanye West now
In April 2020, Kanye West hinted on Twitter that he was planning to run for president in 2024. The singer attached posters with his photograph and the slogan: “Keep America Great” to the recording. Thus, West made a reference to the slogan of the current leader of the country, Donald Trump. During the election, Kanye supported Trump's candidacy and, after his victory, met with the new head to discuss the policy of multiculturalism in the United States.
Donald Trump and Kanye West
Kim Kardashian is not happy with her husband's posts in favor of the president. It is known that the socialite herself voted for Hillary Clinton.
In May 2020, the rapper caused a storm of criticism when he called slavery in North America “a deliberate choice of black people.” West later stated that his words had been misinterpreted. The singer meant that African Americans live with unfree thinking, and he himself calls for free thinking.
Musician's Star Trek
In New York, Kanye had to fight for a place in the sun, but patience and talent did their job: Lil' Kim, Jay Z, Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, Paul Wall became the aspiring composer's clients. Jay Z was especially pleased with the collaboration: his sixth album Blueprint received a new sound thanks to the efforts of Kanye, and the lyrics were so apt that the collection went double platinum. Later, Kanye and Jay Z often worked together, recording duets, and became not just colleagues, but also good friends.
For a long time, Kanye did not dare to step out of the shadow of his patrons and begin speaking on his own behalf. Chance came to the rescue. In the fall of 2002, West was in a car accident while returning home from a recording studio. He suffered a broken jaw and miraculously survived, and his outlook on life underwent a change. He put all his experiences into several singles, which he dedicated to God and his incredible salvation. It made no sense to give them to another singer, because they told the personal story of Kanye himself, and he released his debut disc, The College Dropout. The album received platinum status three times.
The accident revealed another side of Kanye - he became a philanthropist. In 2003, West founded the Kanye West Foundation in Chicago and actively organized concerts, the proceeds of which went to the education of low-income Latino and African-American children. The musician also took part in the campaigns of the World Water Fund and provided support to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
2005 became one of the most successful years in the artist’s career: his album Late Registration sold 860 thousand copies just a week after the start of sales. For this disc, the musician received three Grammy awards.
But Kanye failed to receive the MTV EMA award for best video that year, which extremely upset the artist. During a performance by award-winning band Justice vs Simian, West criticized the event's organizers, accusing them of bias. This incident was one of many events that confirmed the fact that the rapper has an explosive temper. In addition to unflattering remarks about other artists (for example, after the death of Michael Jackson, he said that he loved this musician, “but times have changed”), he was involved in a sex scandal when a Kanye sex tape was leaked online in 2002 , and in 2008, the singer broke a paparazzi camera, for which he was forced to pay a fine.
The success of the second album freed Kanye from his fear of solo work, and the discs began to appear one after another. In 2007 the world heard the album Graduation, in 2008 808s & Heartbreak, in 2010 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released. Three years later, Yeezus went on sale. All of the artist’s works met with incredible fan support in the USA and around the world.
