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A musician, rapper and businessman, Kanye West was born in 1977 in the so-called Black Hollywood - Atlanta. He was raised in a respectable family. His father Ray West worked as a photojournalist in the local newspaper, while his mom Donda West was an English tutor at the university.
Despite the family's well-being, the marriage ended up with a divorce when Kanye was just 3 years old and his mother decided to move to Chicago. There she got an opportunity to be hired for the post of the dean and later on took part in the international interchange program and moved to China. Thus a 10-years old Kanye needed to learn Chinese in short terms. He successfully got ahead at learning the foreign language and in a few months started to speak to his classmates and teachers. It is also worth mentioning that Kanye had a brilliant mind and an excellent memory. Since his early childhood, he wrote poems, was fond of music and painting. At the same time young talent was consistent with rap.
With the appearance of a computer in their house, Kanye seriously thought over recording his own tracks. At the age of 13 his dream came true: his first recording “Green Eggs and Ham” saw the world. However, it was not enough for gaining popularity, so the young rapper continued his studying at school and then entered The University of Chicago. Kanye was as much interested in music as he gave up undergraduate studying and fully devoted himself to music art.
West started his way in show business by producing beats for other singers. Production companies and producers quickly noticed Kanye West's talent. His unusual beats, which consisted of powerful drums and samples of mostly soul music, were immediately liked by everyone who heard them. After a short time, his beats wanted to get rappers from all over the country. In the future, he will develop this style and actively use it in his own albums.
It is unbelievable, but Kanye, despite a huge amount of music and lyrics, could not enter the music world for a quite long period of time. Some say it is connected with his intelligent family and good upbringing and guesses the audience won’t believe in his sincerity, as far as he did not go through so many troubles as his colleague's rappers.
In 2003 an accident happened to Kanye - he had a car crash and got a serious jaw injury. After a few weeks in the hospital, he wrote his first successful song - “Through the Wire”, which was included in the rapper’s debut studio album - “The College Dropout”. The latter immediately hit the 2nd position in Billboard 200 and sold over half of a million copies during its first week. The silence had been broken and since that time Kanye shouldn’t worry about album sales and popularity. Kanye’s experiments with various music styles were met with appreciation by the critics and got tons of positive feedback. Because Kanye loved with each new beat to try something new, they never seemed the same or boring. Unusual percussion, a combination of various samples that few used and the feeling of what should be true hip-hop helped bring Kanye such desired recognition and fame.
Albums such as "The Collage Dropout", "Late Registration", "Graduation", "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", and others showed that those who didn't believe that Kanye could be a successful rapper were greatly mistaken. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" is still considered the best album in the artist's career, and the song "Power" played a big role in this. Kanye spent a lot of time on this song, and especially on writing the lyrics to it. It mentions a variety of aspects of the performer's life, including the very nature of fame.
Being inspired by Michael Jackson, Steve Wonder, David Boyi and other renowned artists Kanye West was titled as one of the greatest artists of the 21st century.
Moreover, the rapper received over 20 Grammy Awards in different categories: Best Rap Song, Best Rap Album, Best R&B Song, Best Rap Solo Performance, etc. Apart from music, Kanye is also fond of fashion and clothes design. Ye, as he calls himself, collaborated with multinational corporations and fashion houses, such as Nike, Louis Vuitton and Adidas.
In 2012 he founded his own brand YEEZY. Additionally, West is the holder of a creative agency “Donda” in honor of his mother, who joined the majority in 2007 and a recording company “GOOD Music”.
Kanye West, as well as many other celebrities, pays special attention to charity. He always donates money for the war, epidemic and natural disaster victims. In 2002 he was dating fashion designer Alexis Phifer. The pair were going to get married but unexpectedly broke up after 1,5 year of being together. The next love relationship of Kanye lasted a bit longer - 2 years with a model Amber Rose, but finished as in the first case. In 2013 the record producer was spotted with a TV reality show star Kim Kardashian and married her. The famous pair raises now 4 children: North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm, 2 of them were born from a surrogate mother.
The artist sued against copyright violation. He also got community service for several accidents with the paparazzi. Additionally, Kanye was criticized for his statements about former presidents Bush and Obama and for Trump's support.