Kanye West

**Kanye Omari West** (/ˈkɑːnjeɪ/; born June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and fashion designer. His musical career has been marked by dramatic changes in styles, incorporating an eclectic range of influences including soul, baroque pop, electro, indie rock, synth-pop, industrial, and gospel. Over the course of his career, West has been responsible for cultural movements and progressions within mainstream hip hop and popular music at large.

Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West first became known as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the early 2000s, producing singles for recording artists such as Jay-Z, Ludacris and Alicia Keys. Intent on pursuing a solo career as a rapper, West released his debut album *The College Dropout* in 2004 to widespread critical and commercial success, and founded the record label GOOD Music. He went on to experiment with a variety of musical genres on subsequent acclaimed studio albums, including *Late Registration* (2005), *Graduation* (2007), and the polarizing but influential *808s & Heartbreak* (2008). He released his fifth album *My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy* in 2010 to further rave reviews, and has since succeeded it with *Yeezus* (2013), *The Life of Pablo* (2016) and *Ye* (2018), as well as full-length collaborations *Watch the Throne* (2011) and *Kids See Ghosts* (2018) with Jay-Z and Kid Cudi respectively.

West's outspoken views and life outside of music have received significant media attention. He has been a frequent source of controversy for his conduct at award shows, on social media, and in other public settings, as well as his comments on the music and fashion industries, U.S. politics, and race. His marriage to television personality Kim Kardashian has also been a source of substantial media attention. As a fashion designer, he has collaborated with Nike, Louis Vuitton, and A.P.C. on both clothing and footwear, and have most prominently resulted in the Yeezy collaboration with Adidas beginning in 2013. He is the founder and head of the creative content company DONDA.

West is among the most critically acclaimed musicians of the 21st century and one of the best-selling music artists of all time with over 140 million records sold worldwide.[2] He has won a total of 21 Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all time and the most Grammy-awarded artist of his generation.[3] Three of his albums have been included and ranked on *Rolling Stone*'s 2012 update of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list and he ties with Bob Dylan for having topped the annual Pazz & Jop critic poll the most number of times ever, with four number-one albums each. *Time* magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005 and 2015.

## Musical

### General

West's musical career has been defined by frequent stylistic shifts and different musical approaches.[31] In the subsequent years since his debut, West has both musically and lyrically taken an experimental approach to crafting hip-hop music while maintaining pop sensibilities.[159][160] He has incorporated new musical elements into his sonic palette with each album and explored a variety of music genres encompassing soul, baroque-pop, stadium rock, electro, house-music, indie rock, synth-pop, progressive rock, industrial, punk and gospel.[161] He also surveys and analyzes lyrical trends in the evolving landscape of hip-hop culture, often changing his approach to rhyming couplets for his songwriting and delivery.[162] West's early sound was largely influenced by 1990s hip-hop music, particularly that of East Coast.[163] West claims that he used to make tracks reminiscent of record producer DJ Premier, with an emphasis on looped samples and dense drum beats or percussion channeled through modern record production.[164][163] He subsequently developed a hip-hop production style driven by melodic and rhythmic hooks derived from samples of classic soul records.[165] West incorporates live instruments, manipulated vocal samples and dramatic arrangements to supplement his beats.[166] Later musical works increasingly relied on the application of digital audio workstations and computerized synths, bass, and drums.[166][167]

West composes several of his songs utilizing an Akai MPC2000XL (*pictured*) done in combination with elaborate live orchestration.[168]

Lyrically, West admits his rapping ability is not as dexterous as peers Jay-Z, Eminem and Nas, so he compensates with subject matter. He elaborates, "the songs offer melody and message. That's the main goal. I saw it as a simple math project: If I can rap 70 to 80 percent as good as the beats are, I'll be successful."[160] West drew influence from mainstream rappers such as Mase and his Roc-A-Fella labelmates Jay-Z and Cam'ron in conjunction with underground hip-hop artists like Mos Def, Talib Kweli and dead prez. Kanye stated that dead prez in particular helped him discover a style of making "raps with a message sound cool."[163] West imparts that he's conscious of the circumstances of his surroundings and strives to speak in an inclusive manner in which 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."[169]

Asked about his early musical inspirations in 2008, he named artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, George Michael, LL Cool J, Phil Collins and Madonna.[170] Other musicians West has invoked as general inspirations include David Bowie, Miles Davis and Gil-Scott Heron.[171][172] West was formatively mentored by Chicago producer No I.D., who introduced him to hip hop production in the early 1990s, allowing a teenage West to sit in on recording sessions.[173] West has cited Wu-Tang Clan producer RZA as a prominent influence on his style.[12] He stated, "Me and my friends talk about this all the time... We think Wu-Tang had one of the biggest impacts as far as a movement. From slang to style of dress, skits, the samples. Similar to the [production] style I use, RZA has been doing that."[174] On his part, RZA has responded favorably to comparisons between him and West. He said, "All good. Kanye West, I got super respect for Kanye. He came up to me about a year or two ago. He gave me mad praising and blessings. He had a lot to say about things I did."[175]

### 1990s-2000s

Early in his career, West pioneered a style of hip-hop production dubbed "chipmunk-soul"[176][165] His method of sampling technique is reminiscent of record production from the 1990s, involving the manipulation of tempo in order to chop and stretch pitched-up samples from soul songs.[177] This is done on an Akai MPC or an Ensoniq ASR-10 and combined with his own instrumentation.[178] West further developed his style on his debut studio album, *The College Dropout* (2004). On the album, West formed the constitutive elements of his style: intricate hip-hop beats, topical subject matter, and inventive wordplay. His songwriting and vocal delivery places an emphasis on lyricism laden with transformative and slant rhymes, often altering the pronunciations of his words.[159] After a rough version was leaked, West meticulously refined the production, adding string arrangements, gospel choirs, and improved drum programming.[27] The album saw West diverge from the then-dominant gangster persona in hip hop in favor of more diverse, topical lyrical subjects[32] including higher education, materialism, self-consciousness, minimum-wage labor, institutional prejudice, family, sexuality, and his personal struggles in the music industry.[179][180]

For his second album, *Late Registration* (2005), he collaborated with film score composer Jon Brion and drew influence from non-rap influences such as English trip hop group Portishead.[47] Blending West's primary soulful hip hop production with Brion's elaborate chamber pop orchestration, the album experimentally incorporated a wide array of different genres and prominent orchestral elements, including string arrangements, piano chords, brass flecks, and horn riffs,[48] amid a myriad of foreign and vintage instruments.[181] Critic Robert Christgau wrote that "there's never been hip-hop so complex and subtle musically."[182] With his third album, *Graduation* (2007), West moved toward a more atmospheric, rock-tinged, electronic-influenced style,[183] drawing on European Britpop and Euro-disco, American alternative and indie-rock, and his native Chicago house.[184][185] West retracted much of the live instrumentation that characterized his previous album and replaced it with distorted, gothic synthesizers,[186] house beats, electro-disco rhythms, and a wide array of modulated electronic noises and digital audio-effects.[54][185] In addition, West drew musical inspiration from arena rock bands such as The Rolling Stones, U2, and Led Zeppelin.[55][56] In comparison to previous albums, *Graduation* is more introspective, exploring West's own fame and personal issues.[187]

The Roland TR-808, the titular drum machine which served as a primary instrument on *808s and Heartbreak*.

West's fourth studio album, *808s & Heartbreak* (2008), marked a radical departure from his previous releases.[188] He largely abandoned rapping over hip-hop beats in favor of emotive, melodic singing and a stark synth-driven electropop soundscape.[189][190][191] On *808s*, West juxtaposed Auto-Tuned sung vocals and the distorted Roland TR-808 drum machine with droning synthesizers, lengthy strings, somber piano, and tribal rhythms.[192][193] Prior to its release, West cited inspiration from 1980s synthpop artists such as Phil Collins, Gary Numan, and Boy George and confessed an affinity with the work of post-punk and new wave groups such as Joy Division, The Police and TJ Swan.[194][195] He would later described *808s & Heartbreak* as "the first black new wave album."[163] Discussing the album's subsequent influence on popular music, journalist Matthew Trammell for *Rolling Stone* described *808s* as "Kanye's most vulnerable work, and perhaps his most brilliant."[196]

### 2010s

West recorded his fifth album, *My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy* (2010), with a wide range of collaborators. The album engages with themes of excess, celebrity, and decadence,[197] has been noted by writers for its maximalist aesthetic and its incorporation of elements from West's previous four albums.[198][199][200] *Entertainment Weekly*'s Simon Vozick-Levinson noted that such elements "all recur at various points", namely "the luxurious soul of 2004's *The College Dropout*, the symphonic pomp of *Late Registration*, the gloss of 2007's *Graduation*, and the emotionally exhausted electro of 2008's *808s & Heartbreak*."[199] In a positive review, Andy Gill of *The Independent* called it "one of pop's gaudiest, most grandiose efforts of recent years, a no-holds-barred musical extravaganza in which any notion of good taste is abandoned at the door".[201]

Describing his sixth studio album *Yeezus* (2013) as "a protest to music,"[202] West embraced an abrasive style that incorporated a variety of unconventional influences. Music critic Greg Kot described it as "a hostile, abrasive and intentionally off-putting" album that combines "the worlds of" 1980s acid-house and contemporary Chicago drill music, 1990s industrial music, and the "avant-rap" of Saul Williams, Death Grips and Odd Future.[90] The album also incorporates elements of trap music,[203] as well as dancehall, punk, and electro.[203][204][205] Inspired by the minimalist design of Le Corbusier[163] and primarily electronic in nature, Yeezus also continues West's practice of eclectic and unusual samples.[206] *Rolling Stone* called the album a "brilliant, obsessive-compulsive career auto-correct".[207] West's seventh album *The Life of Pablo* was noted for its "raw, occasionally even intentionally messy, composition" in distinction to West's previous album.[208] *Rolling Stone* wrote that "It's designed to sound like a work in progress." Carl Wilson of *Slate* characterized the album as creating "strange links between Kanye's many iterations—soul-sample enthusiast, heartbroken Auto-Tune crooner, hedonistic avant-pop composer, industrial-rap shit-talker." West initially characterized the release as "a gospel album." Greg Kot of the *Chicago Tribune* wrote in his review of *The Life of Pablo*, "West's version of gospel touches on some of those sonic cues — heavy organ, soaring choirs — but seems more preoccupied with gospel text and the notion of redemption."[