Kanye Omari West also known as Kanye West or Ye, was born on June 8, 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia. The prolific rapper and music producer has been an undeniable influence on an entire generation, becoming one of the most influential figures in hip-hop history. Whether you stand by the new Kanye or just miss the old Kanye, it’s important to remember that we’re still lucky to have a Kanye at all.
18 Things You Didn’t Know About Kanye West
1. His famous for his “chipmunk soul” sampling style
Mr. West effortlessly flipped some of music’s most worldly songs and turned them into hip-hop anthems — not only himself, but for others as well. Almost every Kanye beat is built from bits and pieces of different songs, to which Kanye pitches down, speeds up the tempo, changes the octave, or whatever he sees fit.
2. His father was a former Black Panther member
Ray West, Ye’s father, started off as a photojournalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and captured many famous faces like Maya Angelou, Ronald Reagan and civil rights activist Ralph David Abernathy. He also has been a passionate advocate for social justice for his entire life. He embarked on his activism journey when he joined the Black Panthers in the 60s and 70s. While he put that part of his life to the side when he started his photojournalism career, he returned to it when he founded his own charity. Even though Kanye was primarily raised by his mother and was extremely close to her, he spent summers with his dad in Atlanta and always maintained that his father helped take care of them despite their money woes.
3. His mother was a professor
Kanye enjoyed an intellectually stimulating and middle-class upbringing as the only child of an English Literature professor mother. On “Jeen-Yuhs,” the rapper’s documentary, partly features Ye and his mother Donda West who died in 2007 from heart failure following complications from cosmetic surgery. At the tail end of the first episode, Ye returns to his mother’s home in Chicago. The pair discuss Ye’s childhood and his current success as a music producer when Donda halts and offers her son some advice on how to remain a hungry but humble genius. The death of his mother brought West back to earth, along with his breakup with fiancee Alexis Phifer, whom his mother reportedly hoped he’d marry. These events inspired his 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak, which was a departure from his previous effort.
4. Kanye West got signed to Roc-A-Fella
In 1995, rapper Jay-Z teamed up with Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem Burke to launch Roc-A-Fella Records. Roc-A-Fella has been behind hit artists over the years, and was a crucial part of Kanye West‘s rise to stardom. Kanye started making music for other well-established artists and would go on to self-produce most of his songs as a recording artist. West soon developed a reputation as a producer, scoring a breakthrough when he got signed to Roc-A-Fella Records in 2000. He produced music with the intention of becoming a rapper. However, no one took Kanye seriously as a rapper. Damon Dash, the co-founder of the label was also hesitant to sign him as Kanye didn’t fit the image of a ‘thug rapper’. His gift for sampling, in particular, was at the core of his artistic integrity, but Kanye knew that he wanted to be more than Jay-Z’s producer. Even as West was preparing to release his debut album, there was a relatively lack of fanfare that surrounded the project. It made it near impossible to fully comprehend just how influential The College Dropout would become in the years that followed.
5. He was involved in a near-fatal car accident
West was driving home from a late-night studio session when a car accident almost took his life. His jaw was smashed deep into his face, and re-constituted through a mesh of wire. Nonetheless, West saw and seized an opportunity. The accident provided West with some form of cred, something he could rap about, something painful that could be transformed into expressive force. Ultimately, his debut album The College Dropout not only proved that West had talent behind the mic, but it also positioned him as a triumphant underdog, one who was forced to overcome both physical adversity and a perceived lack of respect from his peers, too.
6. Kanye West rose to fame through his debut album The College Dropout
Kanye’s bid for rapper stardom was thwarted for several years, but it wasn’t until he released his debut album The College Dropout that he rose to fame. Particularly, “Through The Wire” a hit single on the album. He tells the story of his car accident and recovery that almost left him killed in 2002. The song was recorded while his jaw was still essentially wired shut while he recovered from reconstructive surgery in hospital. The Chicago native takes a sample from Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire,” and reimagines it to reflect his own near-death experience. By speeding the tempo of Chaka Khan’s soulful lyrics, and increasing the vocals’ octave, Kanye chops up the sample and sprinkles it throughout the song – making the lyrics “through the fire,” sound like “through the wire.” The album won Best Rap Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards.
7. Music producer No I.D. became one of West’s mentor
Production legend No ID may not have a name as commercially recognizable as a Swizz Beatz or a Timbaland, but he’s one of the all-time greats. When West found out that producer No ID – the reigning champion Chicago beatmaker in the mid-90s – was the child of his mother’s friend, he began pestering him at all hours, even camping out in his driveway until he came home. “He wouldn’t ever take no [for an answer],” No ID told VH1. Kanye also credits Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest as a major influence on his rapping and production style. His interpolation of soul music and R&B has been an aspect of every one of his musical projects.
8. He has his own record label ‘GOOD Music’
Before West made it big, he was refused by several record labels because he did not resemble the quintessential street image that was being portrayed in hip hop at the time. However, his ability to sell records and make influential music were key ingredients in his success as an artist. Furthermore, being a mentor to some of the biggest artists not only in rap but in all of music, paved the way for him to create his own record label, ‘G.O.O.D Music’. Kanye West started the label in 2004 and has actually found success with several albums reaching gold or platinum status. The biggest hits also have come courtesy of pre-established artists like John Legend, Common, and Pusha T. No question G.O.O.D. Music’s roster is composed of some very talented individuals; they’re real confident, too. This is just one of the few reasons why Kanye is not only the greatest artist of this century, but also how well he checks the boxes of what it takes to be a great artist.
9. Kanye dropped his documentary ‘Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’
Kanye’s long-awaited documentary Jeen-yuhs dropped on Netflix, giving fans an insight into everything Kanye and his career. Filmed over the course of 21 years, the three-part film goes into how his the music maverick came to be one of the biggest rapstars of the 21st century. Filming at a party in 1998, Coodie Simmons interviewed the up-and-coming producer Kanye West, who grabbed Simmons’s mic and began shouting out his friends. That encounter, Simmons says in Jeen-Yuhs, “would be the beginning of a brotherhood that would last more than 20 years.” The resulting documentary pulls from hundreds of hours of footage that Simmons accumulated while following West around.
10. Kanye West married and divorced Kim Kardashian
Kardashian began dating Ye in 2012, and they married in May 2014. The couple had their first daughter, North West, in June 2013, and had three more children — Saint, Chicago, and Psalm — after their marriage. After seven years of marriage, Kardashian filed for divorce in February 2021, and have since gone through a messy split. Kardashian was declared legally single in March 2022 as Ye resisted divorce proceedings.
11. His number hit single “Stronger” samples French house duo Daft Punk
Kanye West has always been a master of the art of sampling. His Grammy-winning hit song “Stronger” is no different as the artist weaves through familiar territory with unique samples while jumping into the electronic space. Daft Punk released “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” in 2001, sampling from funk musician Edwin Birdsong’s “Cola Bottle Baby” in 1979. Kanye then released “Stronger” in 2007, using the electronic vocals from the second half of Daft Punks’ version, creating an all-together unique beat that will go down in history forever. The song’s production process was challenging, with West and his team reportedly mixing the track over 75 times, including after its release as a single. To this day, “Stronger” is Kanye’s most popular song on Spotify, having reached over 1 billion streams.
12. His album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is considered by critics his best work
While many albums are praised right away then forgotten, or ignored into cult-status before an eventual admission of greatness, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has maintained a consistency of recognition. In 2010 Kanye released the crowd-pleasing album, which received perfect ratings from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NME and many other outlets. Ever since, Kanye has gone on to perfect his musical craft by experimenting with the harsh drums and tones of “Yeezus,” the critically acclaimed psychedelic, out-of-this-world vibe of “Kids See Ghosts” and even gospel music in his most recent project, “Jesus Is King.” However, throughout My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye’s trademark versatility and confidence in himself is in full display — every track is a masterpiece, with seamless transitions and no song is left feeling like unnecessary filler. To Kanye, MBDTF was more than just a throwaway album — it was a career-defining moment that would either solidify his legendary status or cast him away into the abyss of forgotten names in hip-hop. The album won Best Rap Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards.
13. He has won more than 20 Grammy Awards
Kanye West is one of the most polarizing music artists to emerge in the last decade. He’s also one of the most successful, with more than 20 Grammy Awards. The “Jesus Walks” rapper has been nominated for over 75 Grammys throughout his professional career. Recently, “Hurricane,” his song with The Weeknd, was crowned Best Melodic Rap Performance, and he and Jay-Z also went on to win Best Rap Song for their collaboration “Jail,” meaning that the two rappers are now tied for the most wins for a hip-hop artist ever, with a total of 24 Grammys each.
14. Kanye West once feuded with Jay-Z
The feud between Jay-Z and West is one of the most epic in hip-hop history. The two artists have worked together since the early 2000s when Kanye signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, founded by Jay-Z. But their relationship began to sour when Kanye crashed Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. But the first time the public began to question the solid brotherly bond was when Jay-Z and Beyoncé failed to attend West and Kim Kardashian’s wedding. Also, when Kardashian was robbed in Paris, Ye claimed he got no support from the Carters. Then, in 2017, Jay-Z released his album 4:44, and it contained several lines seemingly directed at West. After that, Ye also gave a 17-minute rant at one of his 2016 shows. He talked about Donald Trump and asked Jay-Z not to have him assassinated. The two musicians have had a rocky relationship over the years, but have since tried to make things work out for the better.
15. He interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Awards
At the MTV Video Music awards that year, at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift to announce that her best female video award winner “You Belong With Me” was, in fact, inferior to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”. Beyoncé was horrified and Swift reportedly started crying. All the viewers at home saw was an egotistical man disrupting the biggest moment of a 19-year-old girl’s life. Nonetheless, Kanye’s performance has extended beyond the stage, into his personal life, and every tic of his outsized personality was reflected back to his fans via his own Twitter and Instagram feed, and an insatiable celebrity-obsessed media.
16. As a fashion designer, his collaborated with big brands such as Nike, Louis Vuitton and Adidas
Hip-hop has connected with footwear and apparel almost since the genre was born, from Run-D.M.C.’s Adidas shell toes in the mid-1980s to Jay-Z and 50 Cent’s Reeboks two decades later. West was the first to do it at Nike on the level of an NBA superstar. Everyone knows about his time at Nike, which birthed two of his most iconic and sought-after sneakers: the Nike Air Yeezy 1 and the Air Yeezy 2. Kanye’s eclectic tastes for high fashion and streetwear led to major collaborations with Adidas, Nike, Louis Vuitton, and even Gap. Whether it’s Polo Bear sweaters, Maison Margiela face masks, Yeezy Adidas sneakers, or industrial Red Wing boots mixed with Yeezy Gap Round Jackets, Kanye’s style has never stopped evolving. Although Kanye West has worked with these big brands, the success of Yeezy cannot be realized without his genius marketing strategy and his own celebrity effect.
17. He was good friends with Virgil Abloh
Abloh was an acclaimed menswear designer for Louis Vuitton, founder of haute-streetwear label Off-White and prolific DJ. However, he died in 2021 aged 41 after a private, two-year battle with cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare cancer. The famed artist was a longstanding collaborator of Kanye West, and served as creative director for the rapper’s design agency Donda. He was also the creative brains behind the concepts of West’s album covers for “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and “Yeezus.” Their partnership took Abloh to Paris in 2009, after West had inked a sneaker deal with Louis Vuitton.
18. He’s among the first black billionaires in the music industry
West has always addressed his issues with materialism and hedonism while trying to stay on the straight and narrow. At one point, West griped to industry colleagues that Forbes never officially acknowledged him as a billionaire. After much review by the magazine, Kanye West officially became a billionaire. Forbes says the rapper and fashion designer, who has long coveted the status, gave us a glimpse into his personal finances, which led it to value his net worth at $1.3bn (£1.04bn). That includes his stake in the Yeezy sneaker line, which Forbes described as “one of the great retail stories of the century”, worth $1.26bn (£1.0bn). Added to that, Forbes said the statement of assets supplied to them by West’s team lists $17m in cash (£13.6m) and $35m in stocks (£28m).
Stream top tracks by Kanye West
Connect with Kanye West
You may also like: