Kanye Omari West: Personal Life, Early Life, Career and Awards

Kanye Omari West was born on June 8, 1977. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, West’s production success hiked up as an American producer, rapper and fashion designer. He was also well known to be a solo artist during his career course.

West started his career in the mid-1990s when he was nineteen years old. He developed his interest in music at his early age. However, he studied English at Chicago State University, instead of continuing his study, he dropped out of school to pursue a music career.

West’s experiment in the musical field has pronounced him an influential artist. Kanye has won more than 20 Grammy Awards, which declared him one of the most awarded artists of all time.

Early life

Kanye West was born in Atlanta, Georgia; some other sources mentioned it to be in Douglasville, located at the West of Atlanta. He grew up with his mother in Chicago, Illinois, as his parents divorced when he was just at the age of three. His mother recalled West to be an art lover when he was in Grade three.

West exhibited various artistic talents like drawing, writing poems at the age of five. When studying in grade seven, he started his musical composition and selling them to other artists. At the age of thirteen, he convinced his mother to record his rap song called ‘Green Eggs and Ham.’

At twenty, Kanye dropped out of college to fulfill his passion for music. This saddened his mother, who was a professor. But sometimes, it is not required to be a scholar becoming successful and to chase the dreams. West’s album called College Dropout is an example of accepting oneself.

Musical Career and Genre

Kanye West kicked off his career initially working for local artists, ultimately initiating a style of speeding vocal samples from the genre of classic soul records. In 1996, he produced eight tracks for ‘Down to Earth,’ debut album for Grav, who was a Chicago rapper. West was nineteen at that time.

Hip Hop company established in 1978, owned by Gee Roberson and Kyambo Joshuato, assigned West in 1998 to management-production, however before West Hip Hop got none to manage the production.

West spent the late 1990s working for famous artists and musical groups like Foxy Brown, Jermaine Dupri, Nas, Drag-On, Carl Thomas and more. Several albums were released during these times, like Chyna Doll, The movement, World Party, Tell them Why U Madd’ in which West’s productions were recorded.

The year 2000 for him turned out to be the year of success and recognition for West for producing Roc-A-Fella records and ‘The Blueprint.’ The constant top rank of ‘The Blueprint’ brought him critical and financial success. Later he produced hit songs for Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys and Ludacris too.

On October 23, 2002, West’s breakthrough came when he did a recording at Record Plant studio even, and he met an accident by falling asleep while driving home, which shattered his jaw that had to be wired shut in the surgery process.

West consistently introduced a new musical style and shifted from one style to another, making him an influential artist among other artists. Both musically and lyrically, he tried very constructive experiments which took hip hop to the next level.

West’s wordplay usually contains witticisms and creative, multi-syllabic rhymes. His lyrics and vocal delivery depend on lines loaded with transformative and slant rhymes, repeatedly altering the pronunciation.

During the 1990s and 2000s, West was into hip hop. He worked on his style to further develop his debut album, ‘The College Dropout’ in 2004. 2005, he progressed on adventurous and maximalist production. For his second album, he associated with film score composer Jon Brion and experimented on wider genres.

In 2007, he moved towards rock music and fastened with electronic instruments for his third alum, ‘Graduation.’ His creation this time was to perform for the larger mass, so he worked on an electronic instrument which is louder and gave digital auto-effects.

In 2008, for his fourth album, ‘808s & Heartbreak,’ he abandoned hip hop and shifted to emotive, melodic songs sang with auto tune. Even his album ‘808s & Heartbreak’ was announced as his most vulnerable and brilliant work as per journalist Matthew Trammell for Rolling Stone.    

In 2010, West published his fifth album, ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ with a maximalist aesthetic and incorporation of elements from his previous albums. His sixth album ‘Yeezus’ had been described as a protest to music as West used an abrasive style combining a variety of unconventional influences.

Other Ventures

In 2005, West expressed his interest in Fashion and wished to work with the clothing designing industry. For four years, he produced his clothing line. In 2009 he got associated with Nike to release a shoe named Air Yeezys. He produced women’s wear and worked with other famous brands like Adidas, Fendi etc.

In 2004, he founded a record label and production company, later in August 2008, he planned to open 10 Fatburger restaurants in Chicago, he co-owned music streaming service Tidal, he expressed his interest in opening an automobile factory as well in September 2018.

West also worked for philanthropy cause creating ‘Kenye West Foundation’ in Chicago in 2003, with the motive of battling dropout and illiteracy rates, associating with community organizations to provide music education to underprivileged youths.

West participated in acting and filmmaking; he provided his voice for an animated sitcom, ‘The Cleveland Show.’ He wrote, directed and starred in musical short films and made a cameo appearance too. He once was a TV representative and started a film production company called Half Beast, LLC.

In May 2013, West became interested in architecture. In May 2018, he announced the architecture firm that acts as an arm of Yeezy fashion label named Yeezy Home. In June 2018, the first architectural affordable prefabricated home was announced associated with designer Jalil Peraza.

West continues to donate to political causes. He even announced time after time that he would intend to be president of the United States. He is very active in social media, commenting on political issues and about his political interests.

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Awards and Achievements

Kanye West has won innumerable awards and nominated on several criteria. He has won 260 different awards and nominated in 763 criteria. He was awarded and nominated by around sixty-six different organizers.

Nevertheless, The Recording Academy organizes annual Grammy Awards to honor outstanding achievements in the music industry, known as the music industry’s highest honor and dream of every artist, awarded him twenty-one awards out of seventy nominations.

Personal Life

Kanye West very successful and talented artist. West was brought up by his mother since his parents divorced. He was into a musical career when he was nineteen years old. During his career, West was involved in different industries and politics as well.

West’s mother died on November 10, 2007, out of coronary artery disease. There is ‘Donda West Law’ signed off by the California governor, which says patients must receive clearance through a physical examination before undergoing cosmetic surgery.

He got married on May 24, 2014, to reality star Kim Kardashian with four children. Both the couples being successful personalities become subject of heavy media coverage. There is controversy ongoing about them discussing divorce reported by CNN on January 2021.

 

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