Kanye West isn’t a stranger to controversy, and right now he’s in the middle of it. After seven years of marriage, Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kanye in February 2021. Kim recently made her relationship with Pete Davidson public, which sent Kanye spiraling on social media. His online behavior has caused him to be pulled as a performer from the Grammys, and there is a petition to get him removed from Coachella.
Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy premiered on Netflix last month and was met with raving reviews. Although Kanye knows how to stir the pot, the raw footage has reminded fans what they love about the self-proclaimed genius. Co-directed by Coodie and Chike Ozah, the three-part docuseries is almost five hours long and shows Kanye’s rise to greatness. Jeen-Yuhs takes it back to the beginning and explains how Kanye became who he is today.
Kanye has been in the music game for almost three decades. The documentary opens with a 21-year-old Kanye at Jermaine Dupri’s birthday party in 1998. Kanye was just an up-and-coming producer, mentored by artists like No I.D.
Before his career took off, he created success for other artists. He played a significant role in the sound of Jay-Z classic The Blueprint. From Common to Ludacris to John Legend to Alicia Keys, Ye has produced some fan favorite hits.
Kanye’s retainer is a symbol of his humble beginnings. While wearing the pink dental aligner, he’s heard speaking with a lisp throughout the documentary. The artist was aware of how the retainer changed his speech and is seen taking out his retainer before rapping several times.
He takes out the retainer and puts it on a table in front of rapper Scarface, during one scene. Scarface disgustingly tells Kanye that the retainer that’s been in his mouth doesn’t belong in any random spot.
Kanye’s evolution from producer to rapper wasn’t an easy one. He had to prove himself as a rapper when most people saw him as a beatmaker. Kanye and Coodie bum-rushed Roc-A-Fella’s office in New York to get more people to take him seriously. Almost everyone ignored his efforts as he rapped “All Falls Down.”
Roc-A-Fella A&R “Big Face” Gary told Kanye that he’s the best rapper-producer. Kanye defensively responded by saying that means nothing. He was on a mission to distinguish himself. While Roc-A-Fella was overlooking him, other labels were scouting him, including Capitol and Rawkus.
After facing rejection in New York, Kanye returns to Chicago to receive a sour welcome. Chicago producer/rapper Dug Infinite made a diss record about Kanye for not giving him credit in an XXL interview.
Kanye ran into Dug Infinite, and they ended up hashing it out, but shortly after, Kanye did a radio interview. “I feel like I’m just breaking down the barriers for everybody,” Kanye said. “At the end of the day, man, I don’t owe nobody nothing except for my mother.”
While Jay-Z was recording the Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse, Kanye entered the studio and asked if he could rap for him. Kanye believed that if he couldn’t convince Jay-Z that he could rap, no one at the label would take him seriously.
After hearing the verse, Jay-Z said, “Ye West! Hot! Fire! Put my money on him.” After “The Bounce” verse, Kanye was able to add a verse to Paid in Full Soundtrack song “Champions.” These two clips highlight Kanye’s hustle and grind to get his record label to believe in him.
Fans of Kanye are aware of the loving relationship between him and his mom. Jeen-yuhs captures touching moments they shared. Kanye worked hard to make his mom proud as she cheered him along the way. She’s seen rapping along to his songs throughout the documentary. Watching them sing “Hey Mama” together in her apartment is heart-wrenching.
Despite Kanye’s new fame and schedule, he ensured that she was by his side. Donda passed away at the age of 58 due to coronary artery disease and multiple post-operative factors after having cosmetic surgery. Donda’s death had a devastating impact on Kanye.
As longtime fans know, Kanye broke his jaw in three places after a car accident. Kanye recorded “Through the Wire” two weeks after the crash. Coodie followed Kanye to his dentist appointments, showing that nothing would get in the way of his success.
To get Roc-A-Fella’s support, he films people’s reactions to the song, including Pharrell Williams, and uses the footage to make a music video. Kanye paid $33,000 out of pocket for the video because there wasn’t a budget for him after the accident. Because of the video’s success, College Dropout got a release date, and the label opened up the budget for his album.
Kanye released his debut album College Dropout 18 years ago. The celebrated album’s creation was unconventional. Kanye had to work on the album in Los Angeles because he couldn’t get on a flight after the accident. This didn’t bring production to a halt, instead, they turned The W Hotel into a studio.
Outside of recording from his hotel room, he had to fight to get studio time. At one point in the documentary, he goes to Jamie Foxx’s house to record “Slow Jamz” and uses Ludacris studio time to record “Breathe in, Breathe Out.”
Kanye created momentum for himself by performing at Def Poetry Jam. Mos Def introduced him as “the future of hip-hop.” He launched into a spoken-word performance, “Self Conscious,” that would later become his song “All Falls Down.”
Kanye started the poem by saying, “this morning, I spent a lot of time, like, trying to like pick out my outfit because I’m really into clothes.” He foreshadowed his career in fashion by sharing, “Imma be the best-dressed rapper out in the game.”
Kid Cudi and Kanye relationship is strained, but before their recent argument, they created their joint album Kids See Ghost. The album focuses heavily on themes of mental health.
Kid Cudi shared that he liked that Kanye wanted the album to be positive. Kanye revealed that although he has it all, he still had moments where he suffered from addiction and suicidal ideations. The album was use to detail their pain and share the lessons learned from it.
