West is facing a complicated future because of his past choices. photo by Kevin Lamarque
An in depth look at how a popular artist lost everything.
Kanye West, a hip-hop artist known for producing and creating record-breaking music, is an individual who has gained and lost fame many times throughout his career. His ability to change people’s views and to get people to overlook his problematic behavior is truly remarkable. However, this skill shouldn’t hide his true self and his horrible past, present, and future. Throughout his life, and even after many questionable actions, West has been able to get his fans to defend him and excuse his actions as simply mental health problems or as the result of attributes of his life. His experiences and life challenges shouldn’t excuse his actions; the truth and story behind West is infamous. His accomplishments are exciting, but his actions and how he got there are suspicious. While his future is undecided, it’s clear that he is heading down a dark path with little chance of turning around.
Before West found fame, he attended Chicago State University for one year in 1997 until he dropped out to pursue a career in music. The first major album he produced was Jermaine Dupri’s album Life in 1472, which was released in 1998. He continued to produce more and more music, making a name for himself in the industry. Another one of West’s most notable albums that he produced was Jay Z’s album BluePrint, which was released in 2001. This album is known for revitalising Jay Z’s career, all thanks to West. After the success of the album, West was asked to join Roc-A-Fella Records in 2002, which was started by Jay-Z. This success then encouraged West to create and produce his own music.
Before West was able to create music, however, he unfortunately got into a life-altering car crash in 2002. After a long night of producing music, West was driving home from the studio when he fell asleep at his steering wheel at 3 a.m. The result of that crash was multiple nasal fractures and a broken jaw. Because of his severe injuries, West had to get a surgery on his jaw and have it wired shut for six weeks. Even though West’s mouth was wired shut, he was able to record verses for his song “Through the Wire.” The song ended up as the lead single for his debut album and would hit No. 15 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
West’s first ever album was The College Dropout, released in 2004. The album was a massive success, earning the Best Rap Album at the 2005 Grammys. West rode the train of success that began after the release of The College Dropout, quickly releasing his next album, Late Registration, in 2005. This album earned him three more Grammy awards. Another of the most notable achievements of his second album is the song “Gold Digger,” which reached spot No. 1 on the Billboard’s “Top 100.” Three years after the major success of his second album, West released one of his most popular albums, Graduation, in 2007. As his popularity grew, West was awarded four more Grammys for the album. After the excitement of this album, he announced and released his fourth album, 808s and Heartbreak, which was released to the public in 2008. This new album caused quite a stir as it was very different from West’s typical genre and style. It pursued ideas of loss and grief after his mother’s death from a heart attack that year. This fresh and different album helped West become the artist he is today, as it helped him become known for his sophistication, clever word play, and an ability to mix genres well.
The next year, 2009, West would become known for something negative instead of positive. At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), rising artist Taylor Swift won the award for Best Music Video. During Swift’s acceptance speech, West rushed the stage and pointed at Beyoncé, claiming that she “had one of the best videos of all time.” This interruption caused a lot of drama across the internet as the video of it was uploaded more and more. West then took to Twitter, releasing a series of apologies in a stream of consciousness narrative. Even though many grew to dislike what he had done to Swift, West’s anger led him to release his fifth studio album in 2010, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The album exploded in popularity, not only for its well-created songs but also for the extensive list of large artist features on the album, including Bon Iver, John Legend, and Jay-Z. The album became known for an interesting journey through all of the songs, with varying instrumentals and creative lyrics.
As West continued his career, releasing more albums and gaining popularity, he slowly started to lose everything. Before that, though, he announced and released his seventh album Yeezus in 2013, which explored new genres such as soul and dance music. The album took listeners on a journey through West’s life, where he reflected on who he truly is and what it means to authentically be yourself. The most popular song on the album was “Bound 2,” which gained popularity partly for the exciting aspect of the music but also for the racy and controversial music video made for the song featuring his girlfriend at the time, Kim Kardashian. After the music video gained popularity, West partnered with Adidas, a shoe brand, and created Yeezys, which began as a clothing and footwear brand but slowly began to lean more into specifically shoes. The creation of the brand led to his eighth studio album, Life of Pablo, which was released in 2016. West was able to debut tracks from the album during showcases for his brand. The album gained mixed reviews from the public; some seemed to love the new style, but others really disliked it and said it seemed discontinuous. Because of this, West decided to continue to work on the album after its release, tweaking songs and even completely removing some and adding new ones. West’s tour for the new album was abruptly cancelled in November of 2016. At this time he was hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation after acting strange at his trainer’s home. Before his hospitalization, West performed a few shows that were different from the norm. He would go onto the stage and sing a couple songs, but afterwards he would give long speeches to the crowd, criticizing the music industry and artists he had worked closely with and praising Donald Trump.
The relationship between West and Kardashian grew over time until they married in 2014. Their relationship became very public and they were frequently seen together. The couple had four children together: North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm. Kardashian filed for divorce in 2021, but the two had been having trouble since 2016. West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental health condition where an individual faces extreme highs (manic episodes) and extreme lows (depressive states). Kardashian tried to find a balance to deal with West’s behaviour until it eventually got out of hand, and the divorce became official in November of 2022. One of the most extreme behaviours of West’s that pushed Kardashian towards divorce was his support of Donald Trump in 2015, who was a presidential candidate at the time. Following his repetitive vocal support for Trump, West went on many Twitter rampages just as he had before. He said whatever he thought should be said and started drama with other artists for no apparent reason. After a couple of years, things between the two seemed to die down until, during one of his manic episodes, West decided to run for president. He announced this decision in a tweet and claimed he aimed to have a pastor be his vice president. Even though Kardashian claimed to have been in support of this decision, it led to more and more tension between the two, leading to the inevitable divorce in 2022.
After disappearing from the public eye for about two months, West reappeared with the release of his eighth album in 2018, Ye. The album explores mental health, religion, and marks the point when West shared with the world that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. A year later, West came out with Jesus is King, a religious album that discusses West’s return to his faith and what he truly believes is his end goal in this world. During the presidential election in 2020, West accumulated a total 0.04% of the nation’s votes, and many assumed this is why he returned back to music. He released Donda 1 in 2022 and Donda 2 in 2023, which were albums dedicated to his mother. Shortly after the release of the albums, West legally changed his first name from Kanye to Ye.
In 2022, West began to lose everything in a matter of months. At the premiere of Yeezy Season 9, West took to the stage wearing a shirt saying “White Lives Matter.” Activists began criticizing West, saying that he was making fun of the Black Lives Matter movement, which had been gaining popularity throughout that year. Five days after West wore the shirt, he took to Instagram, making claims such as “Diddy is being controlled by the Jews.” Before this statement, West was known for saying controversial things that were sometimes antisemitic, but this really put him out there. West was banned from Instagram. Three days later, West tweeted for the first time in two years, making extremely antisemitic comments towards Jewish people. Twitter followed Instagram and banned West as well. On October 11th, West appeared in an interview on InfoWars by Alex Jones, in which he spoke more antisemitic comments and blamed it all on his bipolar disorder. However, just because West has this disorder doesn’t mean anyone should excuse him for being antisemitic under any circumstances. Through all of West’s controversies, many brands who had previously worked with West—including Balenciaga, Gap, and JP Morgan—began to end business with him. Adidas was heavily pressured to follow. On October 25th, Adidas dropped West. He no longer had Yeezys, and he no longer was a billionaire. West’s new net worth was estimated around $500 million. West later reappeared on InfoWars where he wore a face covering and talked about sin and the devil, as a praising Adolf Hitler.
The end of West’s rampage of obscenity came in December of 2023, when he made a post on Instagram apologizing to the Jewish community as a whole. While he will never be able to recover from his horrible acts, this was a step in the right direction. Later in 2024, West released Vultures 1 and Vultures 2. Both albums had many notable features, and Vultures 1 reached number 1 on Billboard’s Top 100 for a week.
West is a man with a dark past that will haunt him forever. While his future is undetermined, it is likely he will have more manic episodes and repeat some of his actions again. And while he struggles with a mental disorder that is very difficult to overcome, his actions should not be excused. He still made horrible claims and said horrible things that deeply hurt a large community. People who excuse West’s actions today should realise who they really are supporting. They should understand that this man is capable of committing violent acts and genuinely hurting many people. West has lots of power, which can be very scary. But the world will not stop; at some point we all must realize who we are and who we’ve become, the power we carry in all of our relationships, the excitement we have when something new happens. West is an example of truly accepting yourself for who you are, even if it comes with a negative impact.