Kanye West2: After Nearly 18 years of Kanye | A ‘Ye Retrospective

Some say he married and divorced the girl of his dreams, after first rapping about her in one of his most iconic songs, also, he has realized his dream of becoming a fashion designer, in the last year he portrayed himself as becoming evangelistic, he has fronted a ‘fake’ friendship with a former president, and he even ran for president also…  Just who the heck does Kanye think he is?

Kanye West is among the critically acclaimed musicians and having sold over 135 million records worldwide, he stands as one of the best-selling all-time music artists. Born on June 8, 1977, the superstar musician has also won 21 Grammy Awards, meaning that he is among the most awarded music artists of all time and also the most awarded artist of his generation.

Nearly 18 years have passed since Kanye Omari West entered the music industry as a producer and eventually released his first album “The College Dropout,” labeled “Good Music,” on February 10, 2004.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Kanye West started his music career in the early 2000s as a producer for the big-name Roc-A-Fella Records at a time when Mark Zuckerberg was still working to bring Facebook to life.

He experimented with various musical genres and released many albums, including Late Registration (2005), Graduation (2007), 808s & Heartbreak (2008), Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), Yeezus (2013), The Life of Pablo (2016), and Ye (2018). Kanye also released full-length collaborations, which are Throne released in 2011 and Kids See Ghosts released in 2018 with Jay-Z and Kid Cudi respectively.

Three of his albums ranked on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list in 2012, and he has topped the Pazz & Jop poll the greatest number of times ever, with four of his albums ranking as number one. Time Magazine also named him on the list of 100 most influential people.

Kanye entered the hip-hop industry at a time when it was dominated by materialistic rappers, who felt that there was no room for exploration of issues like family and religion. Several labels, reportedly, rejected him after he played “Jesus Walks” to them, something that they possibly regretted after the song won the Grammy for Best Rap Song of the year 2005.

“They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus/ But if I talk about God my record won’t get played, huh?” Kanye challenged the notion of the labels in the second verse of this song.

“Kanye entered the hip-hop industry at a time when it was dominated by materialistic rappers, who felt that there was no room for exploration of issues like family and religion. Several labels, reportedly, rejected him after he played “Jesus Walks” to them, something that they possibly regretted after the song won the Grammy for Best Rap Song of the year 2005.”

Still, in the debut album, Ye went ahead to push issues like knives, guns, and crime aside in favor of the middle-class themes such as family, religion, and education. That altered the rules of hip-hop and encouraged more people to identify with him.

The most influential of his albums was “808s & Heartbreak,” where the heavy-hearted West experienced a personal crisis and expressed it as surpassing ballads intertwined in the TR-808 drum machine and auto-tune. The results were unique projects that the critics did not want to label as rap.

Kid Cudi, who also contributed to the creation of “808s & Heartbreak,” saw the albums that he based on the archetype make it to the top-five list on Billboard Top 200. The Auto-tune further became more

popular as a rap technique through many hip hop artists like Future, T-Pain, the Weekend, Travis Scott, and Young Thug.  

“I [have] the utmost respect for Kanye West. I’d even go as far as to say he’s the most influential person as far as a musician that I’d ever had in my life,” said Drake, who has also made a name by using sorrow and emotional breakdown in his music tracks.

Kanye West’s style of music also inspired many artists like Lupe Fiasco, Childish Gambino, and Kendrick Lamar. Each of the stars is successful in his own right and lauds Kanye for the benchmark he set earlier on. Others, like Chance the Rapper, have attributed their success directly to him.

Ye’ has sold over 135 million records worldwide and won 21 Grammy Awards, therefore, standing as the most awarded music artist of all time and also the most awarded artist of his generation. As a music producer in Roc-A-Fella Records, Kanye produced several hit singles for artists like Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, and Ludacris. Many people refer to him as the father of modern RnB and rap.

Since this article was published, there are updates… A recent appearance on the Drink Champs podcast has dominated the conversation in Hip-Hop since its premiere on Thursday (Nov. 4), as the rapper, producer, and fashion mogul split time between giving insights into his career and airing dirty laundry… See below: