Kanye West: Beautiful Twisted Fantasy
Chicago born Billionaire rapper Kanye West celebrated his 44th birthday yesterday, as we write on his ever evolving legacy as an artist.
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What’s good everyone?
Yesterday, one of the most influential hip-hop artists and probably global icons of our time, Kanye West turned 44.
West is a very complex and nuanced artist. Although regarded highly by the Hip-Hop community, many people have reservations about him, and especially his infamous bipolar nature.
What they can’t deny is the fact that even though the Chicago born rapper comes off as an erratic and a unique person, his record speaks for itself 👇🏻
And the crazy part is that this list does not even begin to cover Kanye’s achievements. The rapper turned pop star has collaborated with brands like Nike, Louis Vuitton, Gap and is the mind behind “Yeezy”, the billion-dollar sneaker empire in collaboration with Adidas.
Kanye also owns a content-creating company “DONDA”, launched in 2012, that proclaimed the company would "pick up where Steve Jobs left off" and would operate as "a design company which will galvanize amazing thinkers in a creative space to bounce their dreams and ideas"
The rapper, producer, and fashion designer has played a big part in changing the paradigm of what it means to be an artist.
But how did it all begin? Let’s get into it👇🏻
Kanye was into fine arts from the young age of 5. After being involved with rapper and family friend No I.D, Kanye started his career by producing tracks for artists such as Foxy Brown, Carl Thomas, Nas, Eminem, and D-Dot.
Being a very successful producer, Ye got his first big break in the year 2000 when he started producing songs for artists on the famous hip-hop label Roc-A-Fella Records.
Ye produced 5 tracks on Jay-Z’s chart-topping double-platinum album “The Blueprint” in 2002 which finally gave him recognition among the top sharks.
![Dissecting No I.D.'s Production Masterclass on "4:44" — CentralSauce Collective](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbd8d04cd-92bd-4caf-8ccf-37eacbb68b89_640x427.jpeg "Dissecting No I.D.'s Production Masterclass on "4:44" — CentralSauce Collective")
Although he was an excellent producer, all he ever wanted was to become a rapper. Record labels saw him as a producer first and that made it difficult for him to get a deal. Roc-A-Fella reluctantly signed him as an artist out of the fear of him defecting to another label, and losing a valuable producer.
In October 2002, West was in a California recording studio producing music for Beanie Sigel and The Black Eyed Peas, when after leaving the studio in his rented Lexus, he had a near-fatal accident and was taken to, as mentioned in the song “Through the Wire” as "the same hospital where Biggie Smalls died," and had his jaw wired to his face in reconstructive surgery.
West started rapping the lyrics to the song three days after the accident. Check out this hilarious incident narrated by Jamie Foxx of the time Kanye impressed him with his freestyle skills, with his jaw still wired shut and recorded the famous song ‘Gold Digger’ at Foxx’s house 👇🏻
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Early in his career, West pioneered a style of hip-hop production dubbed "Chipmunk-Soul”
In 2003, Ye finished his first album “The College Dropout”. But when the album got leaked, Kanye postponed the release and mixed and changed parts of it. The album was eventually issued by Roc-A-Fella in February 2004, shooting to #2 on the Billboard 200, and has sold over 3.4 million copies in the US alone.
The College Dropout would eventually be certified triple platinum in the US and garnered 10 Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year, and Best Rap Album.
His 2nd album “Late registration” sold over 2.3 million units in the United States alone by the end of 2005 and was considered by industry observers as the only successful major album release of the fall season, which had been plagued by steadily declining CD sales.
The most beautiful and tragic details can be heard in every album as the rapper’s life progressed. With growing fame and recognition, his third studio album “Graduation”, West moved towards an atmospheric soundscape influenced by rock music and laced with electronics.
The album changed the game for Hip-Hop and made it more mainstream than ever before, paving the way for rap artists who were not involved in the traditional or as referred to by record labels- “Gangster Rap”.
On the song, “Champion” Ye raps
“Cuz who the Kids gon’ listen to, Huh? I guess me if it isn’t you”
When I say that his music changed with his life, the perfect album to back my claim is “808s and Heartbreaks”. After Kanye’s mother, Donda West died. The album contains themes of love, loneliness, and heartache.
While it was criticized before its release, 808s & Heartbreak had a significant effect on hip-hop music, encouraging other rappers to take more creative risks with their productions.
On the song “Heartless”, Ye raps:
“You got a new friend, well I got homies, but in the end, it’s still so lonely”
Following the success of 808s & Heartbreaks, West was involved in probably the most famous controversy of all time, when he snatched the microphone from Pop Star Taylor Swift and proclaimed Beyonce as the deserved winner for that award 👇🏻
West’s next album, the appropriately titled My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy came from a heavily scrutinized time in Kanye West’s career.
After a series of canceled tour dates and memorable award show appearances, West went into a self-imposed exile from all media and created a masterful artistic response. Lead singles “Power” and “All of the Lights” were reported to have 5,000 hours of work put into them 🤯, each projecting larger-than-life sounds.
Similar examples where Ye completely changed the course of his music according to the events in his life are the albums “Ye”- where he based the album around his struggles with bipolarity and “Jesus is King”- where he based the album around his religious faith.
Our Take on Ye?
This Newsletter cannot possibly suffice to outline the story of West. From being in debt by $53 Million to running his own Billion dollar business empire, West has redefined what it means to be a successful artist in the 21st Century.
If you’re interested to learn more about this insane story, check out this thread 👇🏻
From controversial lyrics “I made that b***h famous” referring to when Kanye embarrassed Taylor Swift to a failed 2020 US Presidential bid, and countless Twitter rant episodes, West has always been a twisted genius.
As Aristotle said:
“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness”
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