West was raised in a middle-class household in Chicago, Illinois, and began rapping in the third grade, becoming involved in the city's hip hop scene. West attended art school for one semester before dropping out to pursue music entirely in the late 1990s. Although his real desire was to become a rapper, record executives did not take West seriously, viewing him as a producer first and foremost. After being signed to Roc-A-Fella in 2002, West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004 to commercial and critical acclaim. The baroque-inspired Late Registration followed in 2005, and Graduation in 2007. West switched rapping for singing on his emotive 2008 effort 808's & Heartbreak, and embraced maximalism on 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Following several collaborations, West released his sixth album, Yeezus, in 2013.
West is one of the world's best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 21 million albums and 66 million digital downloads. He has won a total of 21 Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all-time and the most Grammy-awarded artist of his age Time has named West one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He has also been included in a number of Forbes annual lists. Three of his albums rank on Rolling Stone's 2012 "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list; two of West's albums feature at #8 and #1 respectively in Pitchfork Media's The 100 Best Albums of 2010-2014.
West's background and style, from his debut album, deviated from the then-dominant "gangsta" persona in hip hop, and he would later alter the genre stylistically as rappers adopted his alternative aesthetic. An outspoken and controversial celebrity, West has often been the source of incidents at award shows. His interest in fashion has also attracted media attention and differentiates West from other artists. West runs his own record label GOOD Music and has directed several short films.
Sessions for West's sixth solo effort begin to take shape in early 2013 in his own personal loft's living room at a Paris hotel. Determined to "undermine the commercial,"he once again brought together close collaborators and attempted to incorporate Chicago drill, dancehall, acid house, and industrial music.Primarily inspired by architecture, West's perfectionist tendencies led him to contact producer Rick Rubin fifteen days shy of its due date to strip down the record's sound in favor of a more minimalist approach.Initial promotion of his sixth album included worldwide video projections of the album's music and live television performances.
Yeezus, West's sixth album, was released June 18, 2013 to rave reviews from critics. It became the rapper's sixth consecutive number one debut. Def Jam issued "Black Skinhead" to radio in July 2013 as the album's lead single. On September 6, 2013, Kanye West announced he would be headlining his first solo tour in five years, to support Yeezus, with fellow American rapper Kendrick Lamar, accompanying him along the way
On November 24, 2013, West stated that he was working on and recording his next studio album, hoping to release it by mid-2014. The album is being produced by Rick Rubin and Q-Tip. In April 2014, he appeared in Future's single titled "I Won". West released a single, "Only One", featuring Paul McCartney, on December 31, 2014.
"FourFiveSeconds", a single jointly produced with Rihanna and McCartney, was released on January 23, 2015. West had played the song before radio programmers at the iHeartMedia Music Summit, but, at the time of release, an indication was not given about whether it will appear on the next albums of either West or Rihanna.
"I am God's vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live."
-Kanye West
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