Kanye West

Kanye West is an American rapper/producer who was raised by his mother in Chicago, IL.  He is one of the most popular rappers and producers of his time.  Unlike most rappers, Kanye grew up from a middle class family and was able to go to a decent high school and college.  Due to not having any interest in school, Kanye dropped out of college to pursue his dream, which was making music.  He began making beats for many top artists and landed his first major hit with Beanie Sigel’s “The Truth”.  Kanye would then produce many of the tracks on Jay Z’s The Blueprint.  This gained him a lot of fame from a producer’s standpoint, but what he really wanted to do was rap, and he couldn’t land a deal anywhere.  He began making beats and a demo for his debut album and one night driving home he was in an almost fatal car accident.  One of his first hits from his debut album titled “Through the wire” was inspired by the accident.  When he finally landed a deal as a rapper his debut album, College Dropout was a huge success.  It featured many guest stars, and singles and made him famous overnight.  Since then he has released two more hit albums proving that his debut was not a fluke.  He still continues to use his trademark in his producing which is using a sped up sample of a song, usually an older soul song.  In late 2007 Kanye’s mother had passed away during a cosmetic surgery.  On his most recent tour he has performed “Hey Mama” and “Don’t stop believing” in dedication to his mother.  Along with rapping, Kanye still continues to produce for other artists.

The college dropout - 2004      Late registration - 2005     Graduation - 2007

Ideal compilation - SG

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