137 Facts About Kanye West

Kanye West founded the record label GOOD Music later that year.

Kanye West's discography includes the two full-length collaborative albums Watch the Throne with Jay-Z and Kids See Ghosts with Kid Cudi.

One of the world's best-selling music artists, with over 160 million records sold, Kanye West has won 24 Grammy Awards and 75 nominations, the joint tenth-most of all time, and the joint-most Grammy awards of any rapper along with Jay-Z.

Six of Kanye West's albums were included on Rolling Stones 2020 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list with the same publication naming him one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.

Kanye West is the founder and head of the creative content company Donda.

In 2020, Kanye West launched an unsuccessful independent presidential campaign that primarily advocated for a consistent life ethic.

Kanye West was born on June 8,1977, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kanye West's father, Ray West, is a former Black Panther and was one of the first black photojournalists at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Kanye West was raised in a middle-class environment, attending Polaris School for Individual Education in suburban Oak Lawn, Illinois, after living in Chicago.

At the age of 10, Kanye West moved with his mother to Nanjing, China, where she was teaching at Nanjing University as a Fulbright Scholar.

Kanye West demonstrated an affinity for the arts at an early age; he began writing poetry when he was five years old.

Kanye West started rapping in the third grade and began making musical compositions in the seventh grade, eventually selling them to other artists.

Kanye West began his early production career in the mid-1990s, creating beats primarily for burgeoning local artists around his area.

In 1998, Kanye West was the first person signed to the management-production company Hip Hop Since 1978.

Kanye West spent much of the late 1990s producing records for several well-known artists and music groups.

Kanye West produced the third track on Foxy Brown's second studio album Chyna Doll, which became the first hip-hop album by a female rapper to debut at the top of the US Billboard 200 chart.

Kanye West is often credited with revitalizing Jay-Z's career with his contributions to Jay-Z's 2001 album The Blueprint, which Rolling Stone ranked among their list of greatest hip-hop albums.

Kanye West crafted hit songs for Ludacris, Alicia Keys, and Janet Jackson.

Meanwhile, Kanye West struggled to attain a record deal as a rapper.

Desperate to keep Kanye West from defecting to another label, then-label head Damon Dash reluctantly signed Kanye West to Roc-A-Fella.

Kanye West recorded the remainder of the album in Los Angeles while recovering from the car accident.

Kanye West was inspired by Roseland NYC Live, a 1998 live album by English trip hop group Portishead, produced with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, incorporating string arrangements into his hip-hop production.

Kanye West collaborated with American film score composer Jon Brion, who served as the album's co-executive producer for several tracks.

When his song "Touch the Sky" failed to win Best Video at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, Kanye West went onto the stage as the award was being presented to Justice and Simian for "We Are Your Friends" and argued that he should have won the award instead.

On November 7,2006, Kanye West apologized for this outburst publicly during his performance as support act for U2 for their Vertigo concert in Brisbane.

Kanye West later spoofed the incident on the 33rd-season premiere of Saturday Night Live in September 2007.

Kanye West was removed from the remainder of the show for his actions.

Kanye West was criticized by various celebrities for the outburst, and by President Barack Obama, who called Kanye West a "jackass".

In 2012, Kanye West released the compilation album Cruel Summer, a collection of tracks by artists from Kanye West's record label GOOD Music.

In September 2013, Kanye West announced he would be headlining his first solo tour in five years, to support Yeezus, with fellow American rapper Kendrick Lamar accompanying him as a supporting act.

Kanye West subsequently released a number of singles featuring Paul McCartney, including "Only One" and "FourFiveSeconds", featuring Rihanna.

In November 2013, Kanye West stated that he was beginning work on his next studio album, hoping to release it by mid-2014, with production by Rick Rubin and Q-Tip.

In May 2015, Kanye West was awarded an honorary doctorate by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for his contributions to music, fashion, and popular culture.

The next month, Kanye West headlined at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK, despite a petition signed by almost 135,000 people against his appearance.

Kanye West announced in January 2016 that SWISH would be released on February 11, and later that month, released new songs "Real Friends" and a snippet of "No More Parties in LA" with Kendrick Lamar.

On January 26,2016, Kanye West revealed he had renamed the album from SWISH to Waves.

Several days ahead of its release, Kanye West again changed the title, this time to The Life of Pablo.

Kanye West released the album exclusively on Tidal on February 14,2016, following a performance on SNL.

In February 2016, Kanye West stated on Twitter that he was planning to release another album in the summer of 2016, tentatively called Turbo Grafx 16 in reference to the 1990s video game console of the same name.

In June 2016, Kanye West released the collaborative lead single "Champions" off the GOOD Music album Cruel Winter, which has yet to be released.

Later that month, West released a controversial video for "Famous", which depicted wax figures of several celebrities sleeping nude in a shared bed.

On November 21,2016, Kanye West cancelled the remaining 21 dates on the Saint Pablo Tour, following a week of no-shows, curtailed concerts and rants about politics.

Kanye West was later admitted for psychiatric observation at UCLA Medical Center.

Kanye West stayed hospitalized over the Thanksgiving weekend because of a temporary psychosis stemming from sleep deprivation and extreme dehydration.

Kanye West has suggested that he scrapped the original recordings of the album and re-recorded it within a month.

The week after, Kanye West released a collaborative album with Kid Cudi, titled Kids See Ghosts, named after their group of the same name.

That same month, Kanye West announced that he would be changing his stage name to "Ye".

In January 2019, Kanye West pulled out of headlining that year's Coachella festival after negotiations broke down due to discord regarding stage design.

On January 6,2019, Kanye West started his weekly "Sunday Service" orchestration which includes soul variations of both Kanye West's and others' songs attended by multiple celebrities including the Kardashians, Charlie Wilson, and Kid Cudi.

Kanye West previewed a new song, "Water" at his "Sunday Service" orchestration performance at Coachella 2019, which was later revealed to feature on his upcoming album Jesus Is King; Kanye West released the album on October 25,2019.

On December 25,2019, Kanye West and Sunday Service released Jesus Is Born, containing 19 songs including several re-workings of older Kanye West songs.

Kanye West released a single titled "Wash Us in the Blood" on June 30,2020, featuring fellow American rapper and singer Travis Scott, along with the music video, which was set to serve as the lead single from his tenth studio album Donda.

However, in September 2020, Kanye West stated that he would not be releasing any further music until he is "done with [his] contract with Sony and Universal".

Kanye West held several listening parties at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for his upcoming album Donda in the summer of 2021, where he had taken up temporary residence in one of the stadium's locker rooms, converting it into a recording studio to finish the recording.

Kanye West claimed the album was released early without his approval and alleged that Universal had altered the tracklist.

Kanye West released a delux edition of Donda, including five new songs, to streaming services on November 14,2021.

On January 5,2022, Kanye West was announced as one of the 2022 headliners of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

In December 2022, after weeks of controversial antisemitic statements, Kanye West released a new song "Someday We'll All Be Free" on his Instagram.

Kanye West imparts that he strives to speak in an inclusive manner so groups from different racial and gender backgrounds can comprehend his lyrics, saying he desired to sound "just as ill as Jadakiss and just as understandable as Will Smith".

Early in his career, Kanye West pioneered a style of hip-hop production dubbed "chipmunk-soul", a sampling technique involving the manipulation of tempo in order to chop and stretch pitched-up samples from vintage soul songs.

On his debut studio album, The College Dropout, Kanye West formed the constitutive elements of his style, described as intricate hip-hop beats, topical subject matter, and clumsy rapping laced with inventive wordplay.

Early in his career, Kanye West made clear his interest in fashion and desire to work in the clothing design industry.

Kanye West launched his own clothing line in spring 2006, and developed it over the following four years before the line was ultimately cancelled in 2009.

In 2009, Kanye West collaborated with Nike to release his own shoe, the Air Yeezys, becoming the first non-athlete to be given a shoe deal with the company.

Kanye West has additionally designed shoewear for Italian shoemaker Giuseppe Zanotti.

In fall 2009, Kanye West moved to Rome, where he interned at Italian fashion brand Fendi, giving ideas for the men's collection.

In October 2011, Kanye West premiered his women's fashion label at Paris Fashion Week.

In March 2012, Kanye West premiered a second fashion line at Paris Fashion Week.

In 2015, Kanye West unveiled a Yeezy clothing line, premiering in collaboration with Adidas early that year.

In June 2016, Adidas announced a new long-term contract with Kanye West that extended the Yeezy line to a number of stores, planning to sell sports performance products like basketball, football, and soccer, although Adidas terminated the partnership with West in October 2022 due to his antisemitic remarks.

In May 2021, Kanye West signed a 10-year deal linking Yeezy with GAP in September 2022, Kanye West announced that he was ending the deal.

Kanye West founded the record label and production company GOOD Music in 2004, in conjunction with Sony BMG, shortly after releasing his debut album, The College Dropout.

In November 2015, Kanye West appointed Pusha T the new president of GOOD Music.

In February 2011, Kanye West shut down the Fatburger located in Orland Park.

In January 2012, Kanye West announced his establishment of the creative content company Donda, named after his late mother.

In May 2018, Kanye West announced he was starting an architecture firm called Yeezy Home, which will act as an arm of his already successful Yeezy fashion label.

In March 2015, it was announced that Kanye West is a co-owner, with various other music artists, in the music streaming service Tidal.

In October 2022, in direct response to bans he received on Twitter and Instagram stemming from his antisemitic comments, Kanye West reached an agreement in principle to acquire the alt-tech social network Parler for an undisclosed amount.

Kanye West has contributed to hurricane relief in 2005 by participating in a Hurricane Katrina benefit concert after the storm had ravaged black communities in New Orleans and in 2012 when he performed at a Hurricane Sandy benefit concert.

Kanye West made cameo appearances as himself in the films State Property 2 and The Love Guru, and in an episode of the television show Entourage in 2007.

Kanye West provided the voice for "Kenny Kanye West", a rapper, in the animated sitcom The Cleveland Show.

Kanye West wrote, directed, and starred in the musical short film Runaway, which heavily features music from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

In 2012, Kanye West wrote and directed another short film, titled Cruel Summer, which premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival in a custom pyramid-shaped screening pavilion featuring seven screens constructed for the film.

Kanye West made a cameo appearance in the comedy Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues as a MTV News representative in the film's fight scene.

In September 2018, Kanye West announced starting of film production company named Half Beast, LLC A documentary shot over 21 years featuring footage of Kanye West's early days in Chicago through the death of his mother to his presidential run was announced to debut in 2021.

On July 4,2020, Kanye West announced on Twitter that he would be running in the 2020 presidential election.

Various political pundits speculated that Kanye West's presidential run was a publicity stunt to promote his latest music releases.

Kanye West aligned himself with the philosophy of a consistent life ethic, a tenet of Christian democracy.

Kanye West's platform advocated for the creation of a culture of life, endorsing environmental stewardship, supporting the arts, buttressing faith-based organizations, restoring school prayer, providing for a strong national defense, and "America First" diplomacy.

In July 2020, Kanye West told Forbes that he is ignorant on issues such as taxes and foreign policy.

Kanye West has stated his intentions to run for president again in the 2024 presidential election.

On October 24,2020, while running for president, Kanye West told Joe Rogan on his podcast that he would be open to running for Governor of California.

On November 20,2022, Kanye West announced his intention to run in 2024.

Kanye West has been an outspoken and controversial celebrity throughout his career, receiving criticism from the mainstream media, industry colleagues and entertainers, and three US presidents.

Kanye West has voiced his opposition to abortion in 2013, citing his belief in the Sixth Commandment, and in 2022 deemed abortion "genocide and population control" of black people.

Kanye West has stated that the 400-year enslavement of Africans "sounds like a choice", before elaborating that his comment was in reference to mental enslavement and argued for free thought.

In late 2022, Kanye West made a series of antisemitic statements, resulting in the termination of his collaborations, sponsorships, and partnerships with Vogue, CAA, Balenciaga, Gap, and Adidas.

Kanye West was widely condemned after appearing at a dinner hosted by Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago beside Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist.

In July 2020, during a presidential campaign rally of his, Kanye West revealed that he had previously considered abortion during Kardashian's first pregnancy but has since taken anti-abortion views.

In September 2018, Kanye West announced that he would be permanently moving back to Chicago to establish his Yeezy company headquarters there.

Kardashian resides with their children in a home that the now-divorced couple owns in California, whereas Kanye West moved into a home across the street to continue to be near their children.

In fall 2021, Kanye West began the process of selling his Wyoming ranch.

In July 2020, Kanye West acknowledged the possibility of Kardashian ending their marriage due to his adoption of anti-abortion views.

Later that month, Kanye West wrote on Twitter that he had been attempting to divorce Kardashian.

Kanye West wrote that the Kardashian family was attempting "to lock [him] up".

The divorce settlement was finalized in November 2022, and Kanye West was ordered to pay $200,000 in monthly child support and be responsible for half of the children's medical, educational, and security expenses.

Kanye West began an on-and-off relationship with the designer Alexis Phifer in 2002, and they became engaged in August 2006.

Kanye West continued to say that he wanted his "family back" and publicly lashed out at Kardashian's new boyfriend, comedian Pete Davidson.

Less than two months after confirming their relationship, Fox said that she and Kanye West had split up but remained on good terms.

Kanye West later said that she dated West purely to "give people something to talk about" during the COVID-19 pandemic and to "get him off Kim's case".

In January 2023, it was reported that Kanye West had informally married Australian architect Bianca Censori, who works for Kanye West's Yeezy brand, in a private ceremony in Beverly Hills.

Kanye West's attorneys argued that the music video amounted to satire and therefore was covered under the First Amendment.

In 2014, after an altercation with a paparazzo at the Los Angeles Airport, Kanye West was sentenced to serve two years' probation for a misdemeanor battery conviction, and was required to attend 24 anger management sessions, perform 250 hours of community service, and pay restitution to the photographer.

In 2014, Kanye West referred to himself as a Christian during one of his concerts.

In September 2012, Kanye West donated $1,000 to Barack Obama's re-election campaign, and in August 2015 he donated $2,700 to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

Kanye West donated $15,000 to the Democratic National Committee in October 2014.

In December 2016, Kanye West met with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago.

Kanye West subsequently stated he would have voted for Trump had he voted.

In February 2017 Kanye West deleted all his tweets about Trump in purported dislike of the new president's policies, particularly the travel ban.

Kanye West reiterated his support for Donald Trump in April 2018.

In October 2018, Kanye West donated to progressive Chicago mayoral candidate Amara Enyia.

On November 19,2016, Kanye West abruptly ended a concert before being committed at the recommendation of authorities to the UCLA Medical Center with hallucinations and paranoia.

Kanye West was reportedly paranoid and depressed throughout the hospitalization, but remained formally undiagnosed.

Kanye West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, though his diagnosis was not made public until his 2018 album Ye.

Kanye West told President Donald Trump that it was a misdiagnosis.

Kanye West had reportedly accepted the diagnosis again by 2019, but again suggested that it had been a misdiagnosis in 2022.

Kanye West is among the most critically acclaimed popular music artists of the 21st century, earning praise from music critics, fans, industry peers, and cultural figures.

AllMusic editor Jason Birchmeier described Kanye West as "[shattering] certain stereotypes about rappers, becoming a superstar on his own terms without adapting his appearance, his rhetoric, or his music to fit any one musical mold".

Kanye West is the fourth-highest certified artist in the US by digital singles.

Kanye West had the most RIAA digital song certifications by a male artist in the 2000s, and was the fourth best-selling digital songs artist of the 2000s in the US.

In Spotify's first ten years from 2008 to 2018, Kanye West was the sixth most streamed artist, and the fourth fastest artist to reach one billion streams.

Kanye West has the joint-most consecutive studio album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200.

Kanye West has been nominated for 75 Grammys, out of which he has won 24.

Kanye West has been the most nominated act at five ceremonies, and has received the fourth-most wins overall in the 2000s.

In 2008, Kanye West became the first solo artist to have his first three albums receive nominations for Album of the Year.

Kanye West has won a Webby Award for Artist of the Year, an Accessories Council Excellence Award for being a stylemaker, International Man of the Year at the GQ Awards, a Clio Award for The Life of Pablo Album Experience, and an honour by The Recording Academy.

Kanye West is one of eight acts to have won the Billboard Artist Achievement Award.