Who Is Kanye West? Wiki, Rapper, Net Worth, Instagram And Facts You Need To Know

Kanye West born June 8, 1977 is a rapper, singer, songwriter, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. Kanye West was born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, After school West became a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records. He produced hits for artists like as Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004 and founded the record label GOOD Music. His albums include Late Registration Graduation 808s & Heartbreak My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Yeezus The Life of Pablo Kanye West is not only known for his controversial breaking the boundaries music but his actions. The two most notable being his interruption of Taylor Swifts first award winning moment and saying that George Bush hated black people during a telethon for hurricane Katrina. Kayne West not only loves music but a lot of art in general including fashion. He has collaborated with Nike, Louis Vuitton, and A.P.C. and resulted in the YEEZY collaboration with Adidas.

Early life West was born on June 8, 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia. When he was three years old his parents got a divorce and he moved with his mother to Chicago. Ray West, Kanye West's father was a former black panther. He had trail blazed his own path in the world becoming one of Atlanta Journal-Constitutions first black photojournalists Dr. Donda C. (Williams) West, Kanye's mother was very educated and was an English professor at Clark Atlanta University, then when they moved she took a spot at Chicago State University as the chair of the English department. When Kanye West was ten he and his mother lived in Nanjing China for a bit. His mother's educational background gave Kanye a great foundation for the written word. He began writing poetry when he was only five years old and that clearly contributed to his songs, which are essentially poetry. He was very business and art-minded at a young age. He started rapping when he was around eight and started writing music when he was around thirteen years old. The music he wrote he sold to other artists. Kanye West got a scholarship to Chicago's American Academy of Art in 1997. There he began taking painting classes and eventually transferred to Chicago State University to major in English. Though his time there did not last long realizing that his studies cut into his music making and he dropped out. His mother a proponent of education and learning was upset at first but understood. "It was drummed into my head that college is the ticket to a good life... but some career goals don't require college. For Kanye to make an album called College Dropout it was more about having the guts to embrace who you are, rather than following the path society has carved out for you."

"Gold Digger" was a song created by Kanye West featuring guest vocals by Jamie Foxx. Gold Digger was featured on his album Late Registration. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2005. Gold digger broke the record for the most digital downloads in a week for a single. Which happened to be 80,000 at the time. It also as the fastest selling download of all time. "Gold Digger" won Kanye West a Grammy for Best Solo Rap Performance. "Gold Digger" was certified as 5 times platinum on April 10, 2014. "Gold Digger" also became West's first Top 10 single on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, peaking at number two.

Stronger is another single from Kanye West. It was the second single from his third album Graduation. The song is a mix of synthesizers and electronic sounds. Kanye West featured in the song a sample of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk. Stronger is a song about struggles and coming to terms with those struggles. There is a portion of the song that references the famous saying "What does not kill him, makes him stronger." by Friedrich Nietzche. Kanye West and his team reworked the song more than seventy-five times. Stronger was finally released Released July 31, 2007. Reached the Top ten in more than five countries. Kanye won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. Named one of the best songs by Rolling Stone. It served as inspiration to unearth disco and electronic music and was certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America

Graduation the third studio album by Kanye West. Graduation was released on September 11, 2007, through Roc-A-Fella Records. like most of his other albums, it took a few years to create. It was produced by West, with help from DJ Toomp, as well as Mike Dean, Nottz, Brian "All Day" Miller, Eric Hudson, Warryn Campbell, Gee Roberson, Plain Pat and Jon Brion. Graduation features several guest voices from Mos Def, Dwele, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, DJ Premier and Chris Martin of Coldplay. The album's cover art was designed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Graduation was inspired by indie rock bands and house music, The album was about self analyzation. It reflects his opinion of himself and how he measured his fame. The album debuted at number one Billboard 200, sold 957,000 copies in its first week. It featured five singles "Can't Tell Me Nothing", "Stronger", "Good Life". "I wonder" "Flashing Lights" This album gave him his third Grammy win. He won for Best Album. The final count of sold copies was 2,700,000 copies in the US and went double platinum For Graduation (2007), Kanye West moved in the direction of atmospheric rock with a hint of electronica. He replaced the live instrumentals of his previous album and replaced with synthesizers, disco rhythms and modulated voices. Kanye West was influenced by The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and many others for this album.

In 2008 his musical inspiration was pulled from several artists- A Tribe Called Quest, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, George Michael, LL Cool J, Phil Collins and Madonna then Puff Daddy, David Bowie, Miles Davis and Gil-Scott Heron. Kaye West was the first person to really bring notice to "Chipmunk Soul" "Chipmunk Soul" is when you sample vocals from different songs but they are higher than originally made. Kanye West is not one to follow the crowd. While the rap scene was filled with gangster ideals and baggy pants Kanye West went towards what he wanted, a musical, diverse orchestration of music that divulged into the deep topics that trouble the world within his own life. He is fond of touching on education, prejudice, his family personal struggles in general and sexuality. For his album, Late Registration Kanye West worked with Jon Brion, a famous score composer. He worked with Jon to pull inspiration from other types of music to infuse into his music. Regarding his work, there have been a lot of critics looking at him. Critic Robert Christgau wrote, "there's never been hip-hop so complex and subtle musically."

Kanye West released "Heartless" on November 4, 2008. It was released digitally as a part of his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak. It reached number two on the billboard hot 100 The music video for Heartless was directed by Hype William. The video is animated mostly and is an homage to Ralph Bakshi's film American Pop. The animation is mostly rotoscoped. It reached 5x platinum. Heatless was from the album 808s and Heartbreak The primary instrument on the album was the Roland TR-808. A drum machine. Again changing his background music completely from his other albums. Leaving orchestral music and synth music behind. Though hip-hop was the main focus of previous albums despite the background music this album he left the realm of hip-hop completely. His inspiration was pulled from Gary Numan, and TJ Swan. This album was considered "the first black new wave album." Journalist Matthew Trammell from Rolling Stone described 808s as "Kanye's most vulnerable work, and perhaps his most brilliant."

Below is the Heartless music video. Heartless was released November 5th 2008 by Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam records.

The Life of Pablo was Kanye Wests seventh studio album. Released February 14th in 2016 it took around four years to make. The album featured a bunch of guest vocalists, including The Weekend, Ty Dolla Sign, Designer, Kid Cudi, The-Dream, Chance the Rapper, Rihanna, Sampha, Post Malone, Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean. The album was launched exclusively on Tidal at first. Kanye West is never completely satisfied with the final versions of his songs, so he adapted to his constant desire to better everything and established that the album is something that is living, and he would continue to update and renew the tracks. The Life of Pablo debuted at number one on the Billboard top 200. Kanye's eighth platinum album. The Life of Pablo was nominated for Best Rap Album at the Grammy Awards. The Life of Pablo was reveared for its constantly changing unfiltered work. Rolling Stone wrote that "It's designed to sound like a work in progress." Carl Wilson described the album as: "strange links between Kanye's many iterations—soul-sample enthusiast, heartbroken Auto-Tune crooner, hedonistic avant-pop composer, industrial-rap shit-talker."

Kanye West was very close to his mother and she was his manager in the beginning of his career. Unfortunately, she died On November 10, 2007. She was only 58. She died while under for cosmetic surgery caused by coronary artery disease and various other factors. Because of this tragedy the governor of California at the time, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the "Donda West Law", a law which makes it mandatory for patients to provide medical clearance for elective cosmetic surgery.

Featured on Instagram - Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and North

Personal life Relationships and family Kanye West was known for pursuing Kim Kardashian as soon as they met but she didin't give in to his romantic advances until much later. Kanye Wests first public relationship was with Alex Phifer in 2002. She is a fashion designer and they dated from 2002 to 2008. They were engaged from 2006 to 2008 and then broke it off. Kanye West then famously dated Amber rose from 2008 to 2010. Kim Kardashian finally agreed to date Kanye in 2012 and it was a perfect match. Kanye West proposed to her in 2013 and they got married May 24, 2014 at Fort di Belvedere in Florence, Italy. Currently, they have three children: North West (born 2013) Saint West (born 2015) Chicago West (born 2018) Kanye likes his privacy which is difficult with his famous persona and his famous wife. Kim Kardashian has a reality show that's been going on for ten years, she also posts regularly on social media like Instagram. Kanye West, on the other hand, has had an Instagram account in the past but foes through spells where he deactivates it to get some privacy. When he first acquired Instagram he got 500,000 Instagram followers in mere hours.

Instagram post of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in a romantic embrace.

Studio albums The College Dropout (2004) Late Registration (2005) Graduation (2007) 808s & Heartbreak (2008) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) Watch the Throne (2011) Yeezus (2013) The Life of Pablo (2016) Tours School Spirit Tour (2004) Touch The Sky Tour (2005) Glow in the Dark Tour (2008) Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga (canceled) (2009–10) Watch the Throne Tour (with Jay-Z) (2011–12) The Yeezus Tour (2013–14) Saint Pablo Tour (2016) Supporting Truth Tour (with Usher) (2004) Vertigo Tour (with U2) (2005-06) A Bigger Bang (with The Rolling Stones) (2006)

Every single one of Kanye Wests studio albums went platinum. He currently holds the record for having the most consecutive albums debut at number one on the top 200. West has had six songs exceed 3 million in digital sales before 2013 West has the fourth most RIAA singles certificates in history which runs at 68 Kanye West received an honorary doctorate from SAIC West has won a total of 21 Grammy Awards and has been honored with 68 nominations In its 2012 list of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time', Rolling Stone listed three of West's albums The College Dropout, Late Registration, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

In 2011 Kanye West premiered DW Kanye West, a womans fashion line. He had the honor of resenting it at Paris Fashion week, something all designers dream of. HIs looks were approved by the Olsen twins, Dan Caten and many others. IN 2013 Kanye collaborated with Adidas for a shoe collection. The first piece released were the Yeezy boosts. In 2015 Kanye released a clothing line called Yeezy In 2017 he launched the season five Yeezy collection and later in the same year launched a clothing line for kids with his wife called "Kids Supply".

Acting and filmmaking Kanye has done acting and film work. Mostly cameos as himself like in State Property 2 and The Love Guru (2008) He once starred in the Spike Jonze short film "We Were Once a Fairytale" as a fictionized version of himself. In 2010 Kanye wrote, starred and directed a musical short which featured his music from " My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy."

Kanye West has a large net worth which is an estimated $145 Million. This is no surprise given his music's popularity and his fashion endeavors.

Not only does Kanye have a large net worth but his wife Kim Kardashian has a net worth that is just as weighty. Kims net worth weighing in at $150 million. So their family total net worth for the two of them is $295 million.

It is rumored that Kanye West is working on his next album. He is allegedly working in Wyoming. His last album The LIfe of Pablo was released in 2016. According to several news sources he has been hauled up in a mountain viewed recording studio and has been visited by many famous artists hoping for a chance for collaboration.