Kanye West to begin with made his mark on the music industry as a producer for main artists. He showcased his very own talents as a rapper with his 2004 debut, college Dropout, and cemented his location atop the hip hop international through such chart-topping albums as past due Registration (2005), My stunning darkish Twisted myth (2010), Yeezus (2013) and Ye (2018). The winner of nearly dozen Grammy Awards, West is likewise regarded for his awards-display theatrics, forays into style and marriage to Kim Kardashian.
formative years
Kanye Omari West became born in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 8, 1977. His father, Ray, turned into a photojournalist for the Atlanta magazine newspaper and turned into also politically energetic within the Black Panthers; he later has become a Christian counselor. West’s mother, Donda, become a trainer who became a professor of English at Chicago nation college, and sooner or later, her son’s manager before she died on the age of 58 from heart ailment after beauty surgical procedure in 2007. Her passing could profoundly have an effect on West musically as well as in my opinion.
Ray and Donda divorced amicably when West turned into 3. After that he became raised on Chicago’s center-class South Shore community through his mom, and spent summers with his father. at the age of 10, West moved for an yr. with Donda to China, in which she taught as part of a university-trade program; he become the simplest foreigner in his magnificence. After returning to Chicago, West become drawn to the South facet’s hip-hop scene, and he befriended the DJ and manufacturer No I.D., who have become his mentor. West graduated from Polaris excessive faculty and won a scholarship to have a look at Chicago’s American Academy of artwork — but dropped out of college altogether to pursue song, an act that could tell the identify of his first solo album years later.
tune producer
After spending time producing for neighborhood artists, West evolved a signature style, dubbed “chipmunk soul,” characterized via sped-up soul samples. He then moved to the big apple in 2001. here he was given his huge wreck coping with the production for the Jay-Z music “this can’t Be existence,” which regarded on the 2000 album Dynasty: Roc la Familia. the following yr. he cemented his burgeoning recognition by producing four songs on Jay Z’s The Blueprint, widely appeared as one of the greatest rap albums of all time. From there, West went on to produce for different stellar abilities, which includes the rappers Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Ludacris, and the singers Alicia Keys and Beyoncé.
however, West was no longer content material to be a backroom player. He wanted to be the headline act however to start with struggled to be taken severely as a rapper. He pleaded with Roc-A-Fella facts to let him rap, however as co-founder Jay-Z later instructed Time magazine, “all of us grew up road men who needed to do something we had to do to get by means of. Then there may be Kanye, who to my knowledge has never hustled a day in his life. I did not see how it could work.” West were given a similar reaction from other labels. “I might leave meetings crying all the time,” he recalled.
With reluctance, Damon sprint signed West to Roc-A-Fella in 2002, but he did so in general to keep him as a manufacturer. That October, as West changed into using domestic from a recording consultation in a California studio, he was concerned in a head-on car collision that left him with a shattered jaw. He wrote and recorded a track approximately the revel in, “via the twine,” with his jaw nonetheless stressed-out close following reconstructive surgical treatment. He then wrote a great deal of the relaxation of his debut album while recuperating in L.A. but once the album was complete, it became leaked online. In reaction, West determined to make it better: he revised and rewrote songs and delicate the production, including stronger drums, gospel choirs and strings (he paid for orchestras out of his personal pocket).
‘The college Dropout’
The album was in the end released in February 2004 — it offered 2.6 million copies and made West a celebrity. Titled The college Dropout, it broke the gangster-rap mold, with issues including consumerism (he became important of it back then), racism, higher schooling and his non secular beliefs. at the unmarried “Jesus Walks” he rapped, “they are saying you may rap about something besides for Jesus/meaning guns, intercourse, lies, videotapes/but if I speak about God, my report won’t get played.” The university Dropout peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard hot 200 chart, and West acquired 10 Grammy nominations, winning 3 awards together with first-class Rap song for “Jesus Walks” and satisfactory Rap Album. rapidly after the album turned into launched, West founded his document label, properly track — an acronym for purchasing Out Our dreams — at the side of Sony BMG. He would position out tune with the aid of John Legend, large Sean, common, Pusha-T and extra.
‘Past due Registration’
West spent a year and $2 million on his sophomore album, hiring an orchestra and operating with the composer Jon Brion, who had in no way labored with a rapper earlier than. West, the restless bourgeois-creative, desired to “see how a way he could enlarge” hip hop, he informed the big apple times. The results were impressive, yielding another three Grammy wins — great Rap Album once more, plus nice Rap music for “Diamonds from Sierra Leone,” and great Rap Solo performance for “Gold Digger.” past due Registration debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard warm two hundred — a feat West could repeat with each subsequent solo album release.
“On past due Registration, the Louis Vuitton Don does not simply set out to create pop tune — he wants to be pop song,” wrote Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone’s five-celebrity evaluation of the album. “So, he steps up his lyrical game, suggests off his epic manufacturing talents, reaches higher, pushes harder, and claims the whole international of music as hip-hop turf.”
In September 2005, a month after past due Registration’s release, West seemed on an NBC broadcast to raise finances for the victims of hurricane Katrina. He triggered a country wide media storm — his first, however by no means his ultimate — when he opined live on air that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black human beings,” articulating vast grievance of the president for no longer touring the devastated metropolis of recent Orleans proper away. Bush turned into deeply stung through West’s comment, later calling it a “disgusting second.”
‘commencement’
After touring with U2 in 2005-2006, West become inspired to make hip hop more anthemic, to be executed in stadiums and arenas. He started to draw have an impact on from both rock ‘n’ roll (the Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Killers) and house song (which originated in his hometown of Chicago). This led to his 1/3 album, graduation, on September 11, 2007. It dropped the same day as 50 Cent’s album Curtis, in what was hyped as a warfare for hip-hop’s soul — the erudite showman versus the bullet-scarred street thug. but with graduation’s groundbreaking (for hip-hop) palette of layered electronic synthesizers, and sloganeering wordplay — “I’m just like the fly Malcolm X/buy any jeans important,” he smirked on “good Morning” — there ought to most effective be one winner. West’s album bought 957,000 copies in its first six days, going immediately to No. 1.
With the tune enterprise starting to wring its palms about the effect of the internet on its income margins, West absolutely embraced the trade together with his video for the unmarried “cannot inform Me not anything,” for which he employed the comic Zach Galifianakis to lip-sync alongside to the lyrics on an alternate version, growing a viral sensation on YouTube.
mother’s loss of life
West become on pinnacle of the world, hailed because the artist who had killed gangster rap. and then, in November 2007, tragedy struck. His liked mom, Donda, died from a heart assault following beauty surgical treatment. at some point of his first live performance following the funeral, he devoted an overall performance of “hi their Mama” to her. Months later, West broke up along with his fiancée, Alexis Phifer. His next album, 808s & Heartbreak, released 365 days after his mom died, was shot through with grief, pain and alienation. West even deserted rapping altogether, preferring to sing thru an automobile-track vocal processor, which lent his voice a robot tone — a method now ubiquitous in hip hop. He categorized the new album as “pop artwork” (no longer to be burdened with the visible art movement) and announced: “Hip hop is over for me.” (It wasn’t — he gained two Grammys for guest raps he made that 12 month, on Estelle’s “American Boy” and TI’s “Swagga Like Us.”)
Taylor rapid VMA Diss and Feud
The fragility of West’s country of thoughts changed into called into question on the MTV Video music Awards the following year. on the ceremony in Radio city track corridor in the big apple, he invaded the degree at some point of Taylor Speedy’s popularity speech for the first-class female Video award (for “You Belong to Me”) to protest that Beyoncé should have received rather.
The reverberations from that second are still being felt. West apologized, then retracted his apology in a NY times interview in 2013. by 2015 they’d come to be pals and were even spotted at dinner collectively. Then in 2016 Kanye rapped on his track “well-known”: “I experience like me and Taylor may still have intercourse/Why? I made that b**** well-known.” rapid hit lower back from the stage on the 2016 Grammy Awards — this time uninterrupted — with the phrases: “I need to mention to all the young women out there: There might be human beings alongside the manner who will try and undercut your achievement or take credit score for your accomplishments… don’t permit those people sidetrack you.”
fashion
After the swift debacle, West took a break from music to recognition on style. He had already been taking part with labels which include a washing Ape and Nike on restrained-edition shoes when you consider that 2006. He even reportedly interned at gap in 2009, and later Fendi, to gain experience. He released his first collection in Paris in 2011 — but it became extensively panned. “You can’t simply sell off some fox fur on a runway and contact it luxury,” sniffed lengthy Nguyen, fashion director of Flaunt mag. West gave a wounded-sounding speech at the display’s after-party. “Please be smooth,” he stated. “Please give me a danger to grow.” After his 2nd collection a 12 months later received a lukewarm reception, West announced he could now not be showing in Paris.
He collaborated with the French label APC on a pill series in 2013 and signed a $10 million cope with Adidas, launching his first apparel series Yeezy Season 1, with the brand in October 2015. the road has had a blended reception — despite the fact that his Season five series in February 2017 gained praise from Anna Wintour. “I liked it plenty,” she advised the New York put up. “a touch bit more recognition than sometimes we’ve got seen from him.”
‘My stunning dark Twisted fable’
West returned to music in November 2010 together with his fifth album — with paranoid superstar and rampant consumption the dominant issues: it changed into a bombastic and towering monument to self-aggrandizement that sounded “like an immediately finest hits” according to Pitchfork. It became the excellent and worst of Kanye West rolled into one: a magnum opus that bordered at the delusional. It yielded four singles, along with “Monster,” on which West, Jay Z and Rick Ross have been memorably battered into runners-up spots through a blistering visitor verse from Nicki Minaj. West and his old sparring accomplice Jay Z then launched a collaborative album, Watch the Throne in 2011 — it yielded seven singles which include “Otis” and “Niggas in Paris”; and delivered three more Grammy wins to West’s and Jay Z’s respective hauls.
Marriage to Kim Kardashian and kids
In 2012 West launched a compilation album, merciless summer time, showcasing artists on his exact song label. but that year the headlines were greater worried over his relationship with the fact-television big name Kim Kardashian, which commenced in April. They were given engaged in October 21, 2013, after West proposed at the AT&T baseball stadium in San Francisco, and they married on may also 24, 2014, inside the ancient castle di Belvedere in Italy. Andrea Bocelli sang as Kardashian walked down the aisle, in the front of guests that covered the clothier Rachel Roy, the tennis champion Serena Williams, the film director Steve McQueen and tune stars Legend, Q-Tip, Rick Rubin, Tyga and Lana Del Rey. The couple have three youngsters: daughter North (born June 15, 2013) son Saint (born December 5, 2015) and some other daughter (born via surrogate January 15, 2018). The couple welcomed their fourth child, son Psalm, through surrogate in might also 2019.
In February 2021, Kardashian filed for divorce from West.
‘Yeezus’
all people listening to West’s 6th album, Yeezus, which came out in June 2013, could pay attention little proof that the rapper changed into living an idyllic lifestyle. Sonically the album changed into abrasive, raw and almost totally melody-loose — West had enlisted the producer Rick Rubin to make wholesale modifications simply days earlier than the discharge. Lyrically, West sounded paranoid and narcissistic to the factor of bathos, especially on “I’m a God,” which contained the immortal line “Hurry up with my rattling croissants.”
West claimed the album became an “assault on the commercial,” and honestly it contained little that changed into radio-pleasant — barring the staggering glam-rock-inspired unmarried, “Black Skinhead” (the first of most effective singles from the album). Yeezus remains the best West album to have offered fewer than 1 million copies in the US. yet it become critically nicely acquired — now not least by way of the rock legend Lou Reed, who informed Rolling Stone that “every tune is like creating a movie… the guy absolutely, clearly, definitely is gifted.”
Jimmy Kimmel red meat
A Twitter spat erupted that September with West and Jimmy Kimmel, after the communicate-show host mocked an interview West had given to the BBC within the United Kingdom. Kimmel employed toddler actors to recite a number of West’s extra bombastic fees on his display. however, West was a long way from amused. “Jimmy Kimmel is out of line to try to spoof in any manner the first piece of sincere media in years,” examine one in all a series of irritated tweets. Kimmel gleefully examine out West’s tweets in the course of his next display — sparking extra opprobrium from the rapper, who shared a hyperlink to a Slate article titled: “Kanye was right.”
the following month West seemed in man or woman on Jimmy Kimmel stay — the interview lasted maximum of the episode, and featured several free-flowing Kanye monologues, covering the entirety from his career to his thoughts on the paparazzi, Steve Jobs and Jesus. “I don’t know in case you know this, but loads of human beings assume you’re a jerk,” joked Kimmel, although he went directly to praise West’s character. It grew to become out the 2 had acknowledged each other prior to the spat, which become why West have been hurt by Kimmel’s portrayal of him. Kimmel admitted that thinking about a superstar’s emotions turned into “now not something that comes to mind whilst I am cooking up a comedy cartoon.” via the stop of the display that they had cleared the air.
Collaboration with Paul McCartney, Rihanna and more Public Outbursts
at the start of 2015 West have become the handiest rapper in records to record with Paul McCartney, releasing a single, “four 5 Seconds,” with the Beatles legend and Rihanna. however, a month later came another award-show disruption, this time on the Grammys, wherein West objected to Beck triumphing the quality Album award. “Beck needs to appreciate artistry, and he must have given his award to Beyoncé,” West said after the ceremony. Months later he retracted his announcement in an interview with The Sunday times newspaper in England. “I was misguided with the idea of a gentleman who performs 14 devices no longer respecting artistry,” he stated.
In March, West became introduced as a co-proprietor of the track-streaming service Tidal, together with numerous different artists which include Beyoncé, Jay Z, Rihanna, Madonna, Chris Martin and Nicki Minaj. In June he headlined the Glastonbury pageant in the Uk, notwithstanding a petition of one hundred thirty-five,000 signatures inquiring for him to be eliminated from the bill.
‘The life of Pablo’
there was extra controversy inside the run-up to his seventh album, The existence of Pablo. earlier than its launch on February 14, 2016, West hit the headlines for a series of debatable tweets – along with one that proclaimed invoice Cosby, on trial for drugging and raping ladies, to be harmless. He started a beef with the rapper Wiz Khalifa, whom he mistakenly believed to have criticized his wife, Kim Kardashian (“I am your OG and that I could be reputable as such,” West tweeted.). He additionally apologized to Michael Jordan for appearing to diss the basketball legend in his lyrics. after which the day after his album came out, West bizarrely urged his fans to foyer Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to make investments $1 billion into West’s “ideas.” He additionally claimed to be $fifty-three million in debt.
The album itself became any other exchange of course, and every other triumph. It blanketed a much broader sonic sweep than Yeezus, incorporating a significant array of sounds, styles and impacts, from lure to gospel to automobile-music crooning, to Avant-pop, traditional soul and dancehall. visitor vocalists protected Frank Ocean, chance the Rapper, Rihanna, Designer and kid Cudi. It became West’s sixth solo album in succession to debut at No. 1 at the Billboard two hundred chart.
excursion Cancellation and go back to the highlight
On November 20, 2016, while on his Saint Pablo excursion, West stopped a live performance in Sacramento to embark on a garbled rant approximately radio playlists, MTV, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Beyoncé and Jay Z (“Jay Z, name me, Bruh… I understand you bought killers. Please don’t ship them at my head…”). It was the second one time within a week that he had ranted onstage and voiced aid for Trump, and this time it sounded like a public breakdown — he did no longer entire the display. day after today he canceled the closing 21 dates of his tour bringing up exhaustion, finally spending 8 days hospitalized at the UCLA clinical center in loss angels.
In February 2017, the good track president, Pusha T, said in an interview that West turned into operating on a brand-new album. Rumors surrounding the album’s development persisted to surface, with some reviews saying the award-winning artist had retreated to the mountains of Jackson hole, Wyoming, for creative idea.
West started running his way back into the information cycle in April 2018 with the declaration that he was writing a philosophy-themed eBook, wreck the Simulation. Days later, he showed the rumors approximately new material in a rapid-hearth collection of tweets, declaring he might drop albums within every week of one another in June, the second regarding longtime collaborator child Cudi.
The artist then brought on a stir while his tweets veered towards his guide for President Trump, calling him “my brother” and noting how they shared “dragon electricity,” even posting a selfie in which he wears Trump’s “Make the us brilliant once more” hat. West later sought to make clear matters through saying he cherished Hillary Clinton too and failed to trust the whole thing the president stated. “I do not agree 100% with every person however myself,” he wrote.
In an early can also interview with TMZ, West discovered that he has been addicted to opioids prior to his November 2016 onstage meltdown and hospitalization, which he commenced taking after present process liposuction due to the fact “I didn’t want y’all to name me fats.” He also raised eyebrows with the aid of describing the history of African American enslavement in the U.S. as a “preference,” his phrases again inflaming social media outrage and prompting another strive at a clarifying clarification later.
Topping the Charts with ‘Ye’
On may additionally 31, West held a one of a kind listening party in Jackson hole for enterprise insiders and choose celebrities, like Chris Rock and Jonah Hill, to debut his new studio effort, Ye. The seven-song album, which covered contributions from youngster Cudi and Minaj, touched on problems starting from the sexual attack accusations facing Russell Simmons, to the Tristan Thompson-Khloé Kardashian cheating saga, to the rapper’s personal debatable remarks approximately slavery and being bipolar.
West elevated at the bipolar topic in a next interview, confirming that he had recently been diagnosed. Echoing his music’s lyrics about how it’s miles his “superpower,” he insisted that the circumstance fueled his creativity, but additionally admitted that it caused unfortunate effects. “Think about humans who’ve intellectual troubles that aren’t Kanye West … think about somebody that does precisely what I did at TMZ but they simply do it at work,” he stated. “Then Tuesday morning they arrive back and that they lost their activity.”
On June 12, it changed into discovered that Ye had debuted at No. 1 at the Billboard two hundred; it marked West’s eighth consecutive chart-topping album, matching the report held with the aid of the Beatles and Eminem. additionally, all seven tracks from Ye had cracked the top 40, with “Yikes” charting maximum, at No. eight.
Sunday provider sessions
In early 2019, West debuted his Sunday carrier sessions — performances of the rapper and associates making a song gospel version of his hit songs from diverse locations. Little turned into recognized approximately those invite-only classes, with the general public getting glimpses via social media clips.
West then added a bigger-scale model of his new task to Coachella in April for a unique Easter Sunday display, wherein he and a big contingent of singers and dancers, dressed in matching mauve gowns, carried out atop a person-made mountain.
‘Jesus Is King,’ ‘Jesus Is Born,’ ‘Emmanuel’ and Operas
meanwhile, the artist continued operating on a new album. Titled Yaindhi, with a deliberate launch date of September 29, 2018, the album became pushed lower back to November 23, earlier than being not on time indefinitely. In August 2019, it became announced that some other studio venture, Jesus Is King, would be launched on September 27, although that date also passed with no signal of the promised album. The gospel-tinged Jesus Is King changed into subsequently unveiled on October 25, the equal day as a 35-minute IMAX movie of the same title that documented one of the artist’s Sunday carrier classes.
at the Hollywood Bowl in November, West debuted Nebuchadnezzar, an opera offering Sunday carrier-fashion choir singing with its creator studying Bible passages from off to the facet of the level. He observed with Mary, an opera primarily based at the nativity tale, before releasing the nineteen-song gospel album Jesus Is Born on Christmas Day.
Hip-hop artist, song producer
Kanye West is a quadruple danger: producer, rapper, songwriter, and document government. His albums have sold hundreds of thousands; his lyrics are sung with the aid of renowned recording artists together with Brandy, Usher, and Alicia Keys. In 2005, West became named to Time mag’s list of a hundred maximum Influential humans within the world. He became in suitable organization, with a peer institution that blanketed speak show host Oprah Winfrey (1954–), actor Jamie Foxx (1967–; see access), and actor Clint Eastwood (1930–). West’s lyrics had been criticized for encouraging kids and teenagers to drop out of school, an allegation he claims is primarily based on a misunderstanding. His latest album, late Registration, became launched in August 2005.
Southern born, Chicago raised
Kanye (Swahili [African] for “simplest one”) West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 8, 1977. His parents divorced when West changed into three. He changed into raised on Chicago’s South facet with the aid of his mother, an English professor, and spent summers with his father, an award-triumphing photographer who have become a church counselor.
West graduated from Polaris high faculty and completed 12 months of artwork college at Chicago nation college. He defined his selection to drop out of school to Kimberly Davis in a 2004 interview with Ebony magazine. “I dropped out of college because I wasn’t getting to know speedy enough…. I found out from actual existence better.” actual lifestyles at that time included rapping and working with local artists. West felt it became time to pursue his song profession complete time, so he moved to NY in 2001. His mixes and beats have been getting him a popularity as a person who knew his jams. respected rapper Jay-Z (1969–) hired him to produce songs for his 2001 album The Blueprint. income of that album surpassed 420,000 inside the first week by myself. West went on to provide for a handful of stars consisting of rapper Ludacris and singer Beyonce. He turned into doing properly, creating a name for himself. but he desired greater.
Releases university Dropout
whilst appearing as producer to the stars, West reduce his very own demo (a recording that offers listeners a concept of the fashion and capability of the musician) and began purchasing it round. in spite of his stable popularity, nobody back his calls. Then in 2002, Roc-A-Fella facts, the label that signed Jay-Z, decided to provide West a threat as a rapper. The business enterprise already knew he become a skilled document producer. West signed a report deal that year and started out recording inside the studio.
“My [future] is in God’s arms. If He desires me to make any other album, then he will supply me the foundation to achieve this. I can’t force it.”
on the manner domestic from a recording session in la, West fell asleep on the wheel and became worried in a head-on car collision that left him with a broken face and fractured jaw. The artist nearly died inside the crash. He persevered months of recuperation, which includes reconstructive surgical procedure that left his jaw stressed out close. That didn’t prevent West from moving ahead with the album. He defined the ordeal to Ebony magazine: “I experience like the album became my medicinal drug. it’d take my mind far away from the pain— far from the dental appointments, from my tooth killing me, from my mouth being wired shut, from the fact that I looked like I simply fought [boxer] Mike Tyson…. I nearly died. it is the fine element that may take place to a rapper.”
So along with his jaw stressed shut, West again to the recording studio to sing on a regular basis until he turned into satisfied along with his debut release. One music in particular, “via the wire,” became the primary tune of several singles at the university Dropout to grow to be a raging hit. The song chronicles West’s ordeal. The album itself, which was released in 2004, went multiplatinum, promoting 2.6 million copies. “The nice thing is being capable of get my creative ideas out,” West instructed Ebony. “It truly is why I rap in the first vicinity—so my voice may be heard.”
The college Dropout turned into hailed as one of the great albums of the 12 months. Critics praised West for taking hip-hop in a brand-new route. Songs at the album consciousness on walking with God whilst seeking to “be real,” and the producer/rapper says it all with a gospel choir backing him up. Hip-hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari labored with West on the album. Ben-Ari informed Ebony, “He has an imaginative and prescient for things, as an instance, to bring stay instrumentalists lower back to the game and create tune like they did return in the day. Kanye is very open to new things; he isn’t afraid to suppose otherwise, to take a risk and to mention his mind out loud.”
An interview on UniversalUrban.com referred to as West “one of a valuable rapper with actually something to say in his songs.” West admits to writing lyrics on subjects that aren’t usually included in rap song. “It is like if you winna rap like Jay [Jay-Z], it’s difficult to rap like Jay and now not rap about what Jay is rapping approximately,” he instructed Universal Urban. “Once I discovered out exactly a way to rap about pills and exactly the way to rap about say no to pills, I knew that I could fill the exact medium between that. simply consider anything you have been through within the past week, and I’ve a music approximately that on my album.”
Rewarded for his originality
West won four Billboard song Awards in 2004: Male New Artist of the yr., New R…B/Hip-Hop Artist of the 12 months, R…B/ Hip-Hop manufacturer of the yr., and Rap Artist of the yr.
West mounted his very own record label as well. G.O.O.D. (Getting Out Our dreams) has already signed and released an album by using John Legend (1979–), the label’s first artist. West’s 2d album, late Registration, was launched in August 2005. This became his first album made together with his new manufacturing partner, movie composer/musician/ songwriter Jon Brion. His contributions to the album include gambling guitar and keyboards as well as supporting with track composition. The partnership amazed people in the track industry. Brion is quality regarded for his orchestral preparations for female artists Aimee Mann (1960–) and Fiona Apple (1977–). other recording artists who collaborated with West on overdue Registration consist of Jay-Z, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine (1979–), and Brandy (1979–).
West’s first unmarried from the album, “Diamonds from Sierra Leone,” received excessive marks from music critics. West wasn’t so positive. The twenty 8-year antique advised youngster humans, “it’s tough when humans are relying on you to have an album it truly is now not just desirable, however inspired…. I want my songs to touch humans, to provide them what they need. every time I make an album, I am looking to make a therapy for cancer, musically. That stresses me out!”
West labored with award-winning video director Hype Williams to provide a video for “Diamonds.” The singer used the video to elevate focus of the so-called “blood diamond” alternate of Sierra Leone. tens of millions of Africans have misplaced their lives to the mining of those diamonds. The video positions the glamorous life depicted in a modern diamond business in opposition to the pics of the brutal blood diamond trade. “I desired to do something I should to learn more and educate humans about the problem,” West told enterprise cord.
The track’s lyrics speak for themselves:
although it’s heaps of miles away, Sierra Leone hook up with what we undergo today
Over here it’s the drug change, we die from pills. Over there, they die from what we purchase from capsules
The Diamonds. The chains, the bracelets, the charms are
I concept my Jesus piece was so harmless, until I visible a picture of a shorty armless, and right here’s the war.
Christian, Margena A. “Why everybody is spoken me approximately manufacturer-grew to become-rapper Kanye West.” Jet (January 31, 2005).
Davis, Kimberly. “Kanye West hip-hop’s new big shot: talks about his next sudden actions and why marriage is the key to lifestyles.” Ebony (April 2005).
Davis, Kimberly. “The various faces of Kanye West: producer-became-hit rapper takes hip-hop in new direction.” Ebony (June 2004).
Foxx, Jamie. “Kanye West: in only a few short years, he has emerged as one of track’s surest behind-the-scenes hitmakers. however, it took a close to-fatal crash—and one of the 12 month’s most inventive songs—for him to take middle level.” Interview (August 2004).
“Throw Your Diamonds inside the Sky: Kanye West Returns with Epic New Video ‘Diamonds from Sierra Leone’; Hype Williams-Directed Video Set to Air This Week as hot New Remix Feat. Jay-Z Blasts off at Radio.” commercial enterprise cord (June 15, 2005).
