Photos: Kanye West’s Career Highs — and Lows
A teenaged Kanye West begins producing music for local Chicago acts. His first official credits come at the age of 19 on the 1996 album Down to Earth, the debut of an artist named Grav. In this early stage of his career, he is also affiliated with the artists GLC, Timmy G and Arrowstar, and they are collectively known as the Go Getters.
By Amos Barshad
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1997
Image Credit: Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library Kanye West in art class during his senior year at the Polaris High School in Oak Lawn, Illinois, 1995.Enrolls in the American Academy of Art for one semester on a partial scholarship, then transfers to Chicago State University, where his mother Donda West is head of the English Department. After one semester, against his mother's protestations, he drops out to pursue music full time. On "Spaceship," Kanye references this period in the second person, saying "Lock yourself in a room doin' five beats a day for three summers."
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2000
Def Jam A&R Hip Hop starts buying beats from Kanye: first for Beanie Sigel's "The Truth" (from The Truth), then for Jay-Z's "This Can't Be Life" (from Dynasty: Roc La Familia).
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2000
Image Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImage Kanye with his mother Donda West in New York City, 2004.As he recalls on "Last Call," Kanye is evicted from his Chicago apartment, and then drives a U-Haul to Newark, N.J. — where, through a family friend, he'd set himself up an $850 a month apartment — alongside his mother. After hitting IKEA, he sets up his recording equipment. The first beat he produces in Newark is "Heart of the City."
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2000
Image Credit: Theo Wargo/WireImage Kanye is at Just Blaze's Baseline Studios for a Beanie Sigel recording session. "Jay walked in. I remember he had a Gucci bucket hat on. And Hip Hop said, 'yo, play that one beat for him.' And I played 'Heart of the City.' … and I remember that Gucci bucket, he took it and like put it over his face and made one of them faces like oooooh," Kanye recounts on "Last Call." Kanye would go on to produce four tracks on The Blueprint, including the Nas dis "The Takeover" and lead single "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)"
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2002
Image Credit: Getty Images After a parade of industry meetings, Kanye finally lands an artist deal with Capitol, but it falls through at the last minute. Roc-a-Fella's Damon Dash, who was present at the Baseline sessions, steps in. Says Kanye: "I'm sure Dame figured, 'if he do a whole album, if his raps is wack at least we can throw Cam['ron] on every song and save the album."
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2002
Two weeks after his Roc-a-Fella deal is officially announced, Kanye survives a serious car accident in L.A. — while driving home from a recording sessions at 4 a.m. he falls asleep at the wheel of his rental Lexus, crashing into an oncoming car. The other driver breaks both his legs; Kanye's jaw is shattered. Two weeks after the accident, which his mouth still wired shut, he records "Through the Wire," his first single.
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2004
Image Credit: Theo Wargo/WireImage The College Dropout is released, and sells 441,000 copes in its first week — good for second on the Billboard charts. The critical acclaim is immediate, but the release of third single "Jesus Walks" catapults the adulation to a new level.
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2004
Image Credit: Angelo Baque/Getty Good Music Label Artists John Legend, Kanye West, GLC and Conseguence in New York City, November 1, 2004.
Get Lifted, the debut from Kanye discoveree John Legend, is released as the first album on Kanye's GOOD Music label. The second GOOD release, in 2005, is Common's Kanye-produced, career-resuscitating Be.
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2005
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur At the 2005 Grammys, Kanye is nominated for 10 awards and wins three, including Rap Album of the Year. College Dropout loses Album of the Year to Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company.
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2005
Image Credit: Peter Kramer/Getty Kanye records his follow-up, Late Registration, with Jon Brion — best known for his work with Fiona Apple — co-producing. It's released in August 2005, and it's another instant critical and commercial smash, so potent that its lead single magically transforms Jamie Foxx into a legitimate radio act.
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2006
Image Credit: Photograph by David LaChapelle for RollingStone Kanye poses on cover of Rolling Stone as Jesus.
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2006
Image Credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty A proud history of award show interruptions starts small: at the 2006 EMAs, Kanye does what is still at that point known as "pulling an ODB" and jumps the stage when Justice vs. Simian's "We Are Your Friends" beats "Touch the Sky" for Best Music Video Award: "This video cost a million dollars, fam! I had Pam Anderson! I'm jumping across canyons and shit!"
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2007
Image Credit: Photograph by Albert Watson for RollingStone.com When Kanye's Graduation and 50 Cent's Curtis are both scheduled for release on September 11, the two engage in a friendly (both are being released by subsidiaries of Universal Music Group) public sales battle. 50 promises to retire if he loses.
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2007
Image Credit: Brad Barket/Getty With 957,000 copies sold in its first week, Graduation beats Curtis handily (50 does not retire). The second single "Stronger" — which co-opts Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" — is a particular critical darling.
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2007
Image Credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty After getting shut out in all five categories he's nominated in, Kanye is captured on video backstage at the 2007 VMAs ranting effusively, to wit: "Fuck MTV. Y'all heard what the fuck I said …Give a black man a chance. I'm tryin' hard. I got the fuckin' No. 1 record. I'm tryin' man. I don't even get a fuckin' chance. They don't want a fuckin' black man in that position."
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2007
Image Credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty Kanye with his mother Donda at his 30th Birthday party in New York City, June 7, 2007.Donda West dies from complications related to a cosmetic procedure. A week later, at the Paris stop of the Glow in the Dark world tour, Kanye breaks down in tears while the "Hey Mama" beat plays. He continues the tour, regularly stopping the show to dedicate Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" to his mom. His commitment to touring allegedly leads to the breakup with his fiancée, Alexis Phifer, with whom he'd been in a six-year relationship.
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2008
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage At the 2008 Grammys, Kanye wins four awards, including Rap Album of the Year. He loses Album of the Year, though — to Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters.
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2008
Kanye West performs with Lil Wayne at the Hot 97 Summer Jame in East Rutherford, New Jersey, June 1, 2008.
Tha Carter III is released, cementing Lil Wayne's superstar status. Kanye has a small stake in the process: he produced album standouts "Comfortable" and "Let the Beat Build."
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2008
Image Credit: Mike Marsland/Getty Kanye premieres "Love Lockdown" at the VMAs. Soon after, at an LA listening party featuring lots of naked women, Kanye reveals that 808s&Heartbreak will be all auto-tune singing and no rapping.
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2008
Image Credit: Karl Walter/Getty Amidst much consternation from critics and bloggers, 808s & Heartbreak is released. It has its vocal detractors, but sells well. On a the remix to DJ Class's "I'm the Shit," 'Ye — auto-tuned, of course — says "And I dropped another album / before we finished up the tour / and its still top 10, 'bout 15 weeks later / So that's a middle finger for you 808 haters."
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2009
Image Credit: Foc Kan/WireImage Kanye begins spending a lot of time in public with Amber Rose, a buxom socialite best known for music video appearances and spreads in magazines like Smooth.
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2009
Image Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic At the 2009 VMAs, Kanye jumps the stage while Taylor Swift is receiving the award for Best Female Video: 'Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish — but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!" The backlash is swift and severe, and Kanye apologizes profusely, most notably with a droopy appearance on The Jay Leno Show. With the vitriol still strong he lies low, eventually decamping for Japan for a while. Kanye would later claim to have received death threats during this period, and indicate that the fallout from the incident included the cancellation of his tour with Lady Gaga and his clothing line. The footnote: While Kanye has always expressed remorse for the incident itself, he's still mad about Beyonce getting shut out. "We can't let them say the aliens built the pyramids" is a favorite allusion.
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2010
After months of rumblings about a return-to-rap album, the silence is broken: Kanye returns, sans Amber but with sharply fitted suits, first at the offices of various social networking companies rapping a cappela, and then with the massive "Power." A barrage of Tweets, epic music videos and awesome free music follows.
By Amos Barshad