Kanye West is as prolific as he is opinionated and popular. A prodigiously talented producer, rapper and fashion designer, with a mammoth ego to boot, West has altered the hip-hop landscape since storming ashore with the classic debut College Dropout in 2004, a multidimensional masterpiece outlook on life, sex and spirituality and West has been sailing on higher planes ever since.
In between laying down tracks for rap king, mentor and globetrotting road dog Jay-Z and mixing it up romantically with reality show queen Kim Kardashian, West has served the public a potpourri of controversial, bodacious and mesmerizing statements and songs: he has out against homophobia and materialism; he was the rare and confident talent to come out with “Jesus Walks” on his first official CD; he famously slammed White House inaction after Hurricane Katrina, saying, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”; and he also, in a volatile exhibition of mourning for his late mother, stole the mic from country star Taylor Swift during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
But at the end of the day, it is West’s music that makes us care about the complex character in the first place. After bringing a soulful, distinctive sound to artists like Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Ludacris, Common, Alicia Keys and a score of other A-list stars, West won multiple Grammy Awards for his rap debut, The College Dropout, and his follow-up, Late Registration.
Take a look at Kanye West: black millionaire blueprint for success.
–terry shropshire
