Kanye West, born Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. He is one celebrity who has a lot of drama surrounding his personal life and career. Read on to see what I mean
Early Life
West was born on June 8, 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia. After his parents divorced when he was three years old, he moved with his mother to Chicago, Illinois. His father, Ray West, is a former Black Panther and was one of the first black photojournalists at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Ray later became a Christian counselor, and in 2006, opened the Good Water Store and Café in Lexington Park, Maryland, with startup capital from his son. West’s mother, Donda C. West (née Williams), was a professor of English at Clark Atlanta University and the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University before retiring to serve as his manager.
West was raised in a middle-class environment, attending Polaris School for Individual Education in suburban Oak Lawn, Illinois, after living in Chicago. At the age of 10, West moved with his mother to Nanjing, China, where she was teaching at Nanjing University as a Fulbright Scholar. According to his mother, West was the only foreigner in his class, but settled in well and quickly picked up the language, although he has since forgotten most of it. When asked about his grades in high school, West replied, “I got A’s and B’s.”
West demonstrated an affinity for the arts at an early age; he began writing poetry when he was five years old. West started rapping in the third grade and began making musical compositions in the seventh grade, eventually selling them to other artists. West crossed paths with producer No I.D., who became West’s friend and mentor. After graduating from high school, West received a scholarship to attend Chicago’s American Academy of Art in 1997 and began taking painting classes. Shortly after, he transferred to Chicago State University to study English. At age 20, he dropped out to pursue his musical career. This greatly displeased his mother, who was also a professor at the university, although she would later accept the decision.
Career
Kanye also known as Ye, gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the early 2000s, producing singles for several artists and developing the “chipmunk soul” sampling style. Intent on pursuing a solo career as a rapper, he released his debut studio album, The College Dropout (2004), to critical and commercial success. He founded the record label GOOD Music later that year. West explored diverse musical elements like orchestras, synthesizers, and autotune on the albums Late Registration (2005), Graduation (2007), and 808s & Heartbreak (2008). His fifth and sixth albums My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) and Yeezus (2013) were also met with critical and commercial success. West further diversified his musical styles on The Life of Pablo (2016) and Ye (2018) and explored Christian and gospel music on Jesus Is King (2019). His tenth album Donda (2021) was released to continued commercial success but mixed critical reception. West’s discography also includes the two full-length collaborative albums Watch the Throne (2011) with Jay-Z and Kids See Ghosts (2018) with Kid Cudi.
One of the world’s best-selling music artists, with over 160 million records sold, West has won 24 Grammy Awards and 75 nominations, the joint tenth-most of all time, and the joint-most Grammy awards of any rapper along with Jay-Z. Among his other awards are the Billboard Artist Achievement Award, a joint-record three Brit Awards for Best International Male Solo Artist and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Six of West’s albums were included on Rolling Stone’s 2020 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list with the same publication naming him one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. He holds the joint record (with Bob Dylan) for most albums (4) topping the annual Pazz & Jop critic poll. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005 and 2015. As a fashion designer, he has collaborated with Nike, Louis Vuitton, Gap, and A.P.C. on clothing and footwear and led the Yeezy collaboration with Adidas. He is also the founder and head of the creative content company Donda.
West’s outspoken views have received significant media coverage; he has been a frequent source of controversy due to his conduct on social media and at awards shows and public settings, as well as his comments on the music and fashion industries, U.S. politics, race, and slavery. His Christian faith, high-profile marriage to Kim Kardashian, and mental health have also been topics of media attention. In 2020, West launched an unsuccessful independent presidential campaign that primarily advocated for a consistent life ethic. In 2022, he was widely condemned and lost many sponsors and partnerships—including his collaborations with Adidas, Gap, and Balenciaga—after making a series of antisemitic statements. In November 2022, he announced his 2024 presidential campaign, appearing publicly with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist. West later publicly praised Adolf Hitler, denied the Holocaust, and identified as a Nazi.
Personal Life
West began an on-and-off relationship with the designer Alexis Phifer in 2002, and they became engaged in August 2006. They ended their 18-month engagement in 2008. Phifer stated that the pair had split amicably and remained friends. West dated model Amber Rose from 2008 until mid-2010. In an interview following their split, West stated that he had to take “30 showers” before committing to his next relationship with Kim Kardashian.In response, Rose stated that she had been “bullied” and “slut-shamed” by West throughout their relationship.
In April 2012, West began dating reality television star Kim Kardashian, with whom he had already been long-time friends. West and Kardashian became engaged in October 2013, and married at Fort di Belvedere in Florence in May 2014. Their private ceremony was subject to widespread mainstream coverage, with which West took issue. The couple’s high-profile status and respective careers have resulted in their relationship becoming subject to heavy media coverage; The New York Times referred to their marriage as “a historic blizzard of celebrity”.a
West and Kardashian have four children: North West (born June 2013), Saint West (born December 2015), Chicago West (born via surrogate in January 2018),and Psalm West (born via surrogate in May 2019). In July 2020, during a presidential campaign rally of his, West revealed that he had previously considered abortion during Kardashian’s first pregnancy but has since taken anti-abortion views.
Although Kanye announced that he would be permanently moving back to Chicago to establish his Yeezy company headquarters there in September 2018, West purchased two ranches near Cody, Wyoming, where he recorded his eighth solo studio album, Ye instead. Kardashian resides with their children in a home that the now-divorced couple owns in California, whereas West moved into a home across the street to continue to be near their children. In fall 2021, West began the process of selling his Wyoming ranch.
In July 2020, West acknowledged the possibility of Kardashian ending their marriage due to his adoption of anti-abortion views. Later that month, West wrote on Twitter that he had been attempting to divorce Kardashian. He also wrote that the Kardashian family was attempting “to lock [him] up”. In January 2021, CNN reported that the couple were discussing divorce. A month later, Kardashian filed for divorce, with the couple citing “irreconcilable differences”, agreeing to joint custody of their children, and declining spousal support from each other.The divorce was finalized in November 2022, and West was ordered to pay $200,000 in monthly child support and be responsible for half of the children’s medical, educational, and security expenses.
In January 2022, actress Julia Fox confirmed in an Interview essay that she was dating West. West continued to say that he wanted his “family back” and publicly lashed out at Kardashian’s new boyfriend, comedian Pete Davidson.His treatment of Davidson and Kardashian has been described by commentators as harassment and abusive; the 64th Annual Grammy Awards dropped him as a performer in response to his “concerning online behavior”. Less than two months after confirming their relationship, Fox said that she and West had split up but remained on good terms.She later said that she dated West purely to “give people something to talk about” during the COVID-19 pandemic and to “get him off Kim’s case”.
In January 2023, it was reported that West had informally married Australian architect Bianca Censori, who works for West’s Yeezy brand, in a private ceremony in Beverly Hills. The ceremony had no legal standing; the couple did not file for a marriage license. In response to West’s subsequent trips to Australia to visit Censori’s family, Australian Minister for Education Jason Clare commented that West may be denied a visa due to his recent antisemitic remarks. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry further argued against granting West entry.
In December 2006, Robert “Evel” Knievel sued the rapper for trademark infringement of his name and likeness in West’s video for “Touch the Sky”. Knievel took issue with the “vulgar and offensive” and “sexually charged video” in which West takes on the persona of “Evel Kanyevel” that Knievel claimed damaged his reputation. The suit sought monetary damages and an injunction to stop distribution of the video.West’s attorneys argued that the music video amounted to satire and therefore was covered under the First Amendment. Days before his death in November 2007, Knievel amicably settled the suit after being paid a visit by West, saying, “I thought he was a wonderful guy and quite a gentleman.”
In 2014, after an altercation with a paparazzo at the Los Angeles Airport, West was sentenced to serve two years’ probation for a misdemeanor battery conviction, and was required to attend 24 anger management sessions, perform 250 hours of community service, and pay restitution to the photographer. A separate civil lawsuit brought by the paparazzo was settled in 2015, a week before it was due for trial.vAccording to TMZ, an appeal to have West’s conviction expunged from his criminal record was granted by a judge in 2016.
On the religious scene, After the success of his song “Jesus Walks” from the album The College Dropout, West was questioned on his beliefs and said, “I will say that I’m spiritual. I have accepted Jesus as my Savior. And I will say that I fall short every day.” In a 2008 interview with The Fader, West stated that “I’m like a vessel, and God has chosen me to be the voice and the connector”. In a 2009 interview with online magazine Bossip, West stated that he believed in God, but at the time felt that he “would never go into a religion”. In 2014, West referred to himself as a Christian during one of his concerts.Kim Kardashian stated in September 2019: “He has had an amazing evolution of being born again and being saved by Christ.” In October 2019, West said with respect to his past, “When I was trying to serve multiple gods it drove me crazy” in reference to the “god of ego, god of money, god of pride, the god of fame”, and that “I didn’t even know what it meant to be saved” and that now “I love Jesus Christ. I love Christianity.”
In September 2012, West donated $1,000 to Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, and in August 2015 he donated $2,700 to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. He also donated $15,000 to the Democratic National Committee in October 2014. In December 2016, West met with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago. West subsequently stated he would have voted for Trump had he voted. In February 2017, however, West deleted all his tweets about Trump in purported dislike of the new president’s policies, particularly the travel ban. West reiterated his support for Donald Trump in April 2018. In October 2018, West donated to progressive Chicago mayoral candidate Amara Enyia. That same month, he voiced support for the Brexit movement, a campaign started by conservative commentator Candace Owens, whom he had previously associated with.
On the medical scene, Kanye’s mental health is one topic that can’t be overlooked seeing as a lot of sensitive decision makings have been linked to his mental state. On November 19, 2016, West abruptly ended a concert before being committed at the recommendation of authorities to the UCLA Medical Center with hallucinations and paranoia. While the episode was first described as one of “temporary psychosis” caused by dehydration and sleep deprivation, West’s mental state was abnormal enough for his 21 canceled concerts to be covered by his insurance policy. He was reportedly paranoid and depressed throughout the hospitalization, but remained formally undiagnosed.Some have speculated that the Paris robbery of his wife may have triggered the paranoia. On November 30, West was released from the hospital.
In his song “FML” and his featured verse on Vic Mensa’s song “U Mad”, he refers to using the antidepressant medication Lexapro, and in his unreleased song “I Feel Like That”, he mentions feeling many common symptoms of depression and anxiety. In a 2018 interview, West said that he had become addicted to opioids when they were prescribed to him after liposuction. The addiction may have contributed to his nervous breakdown in 2016. West said that he often has suicidal ideation. West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, though his diagnosis was not made public until his 2018 album Ye. He told President Donald Trump that it was a misdiagnosis. He had reportedly accepted the diagnosis again by 2019, but again suggested that it had been a misdiagnosis in 2022. In December 2022, he suggested that he may be autistic.
Net Worth
It may come as a surprise that most of Kanye West’s net worth was from his Yeezy line, according to Forbes. In their 2020 update to Kanye West’s net worth, the publication explained that Kanye “has created a brand that’s challenging Nike’s Air Jordan for sneaker world supremacy,” and as such, it should come as no surprise that the brand made an estimated revenue of about $1.3 billion in 2019 alone. Kanye, who technically owns 100 percent of the brand, was estimated to take home an 11 percent royalty from adidas (who is behind the production, marketing, and distribution of Yeezy footwear), which amounts to over a $140 million salary from Yeezy sales in 2019 alone. On October 25, 2022, adidas terminated its partnership with Kanye, saying in a statement: “adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.” This would lead to a “short-term negative impact of up to €250 million ($247 million) on the company’s net income in 2022
As of the time of writing this, Kanye’s Net Worth is estimated to be about $400 million. His current fortune includes cash, real estate, the value of his music catalog and a 5% stake in his ex-wife Kim Kardashian West’s shapewear brand Skims.This is according to Forbes.
