Kanye West

Kanye West at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival

Kanye Omari West [ ˈkɑːnjeɪ oʊˈmɑri wɛst ] (born June 8, 1977 in Atlanta , Georgia ), also known as Ye , is an American rapper , singer , record producer and fashion designer . He grew up in Chicago , Illinois . His career began with music productions for the rapper Jay-Z , on whose successful album The Blueprint he played a key role. West also worked closely with singer John Legend and rapper Common , both of whom were signed to his record label GOOD Music . Since the end of 2003 he has been releasing his own singles and albums, on which he appears mostly as a rapper and producer.

West is considered to be one of the formative musicians of hip-hop and pop music of the 21st century. Influenced by a variety of music genres, he was instrumental in the commercial departure of hip-hop from gangsta rap towards more emotional, often sung content. With over 60 million records and downloads sold in the US alone, West is one of the world's most successful musicians . The Time counted him in 2005 and 2015, the most influential of the 100 people in the world. Forbes Magazine estimates his net worth at $ 1.3 billion. In addition to the music, West is known for high-profile, controversial statements and appearances.

life and career

Early years, career start and accident

Kanye Omari West was born to African-American parents in Atlanta in the US state of Georgia was born, where his mother Donda West (born Williams) as a professor of English literature taught at Clark Atlanta University. After separating from her husband Ray, a former Black Panther , and moving to Chicago , she became chairman of the English department at Chicago State University . In Chicago, Kanye West grew up with his single mother. West differs from many other rappers because of his middle-class origins. He himself later described this succinctly: “While others were hanging out on the street, I was shopping in the mall.” In the third grade, West began to rap. He was mainly influenced by Run-DMC and Public Enemy , later by The Pharcyde and the Wu-Tang Clan . From the seventh grade onwards, he also worked as a music producer. At fourteen he met Chicago producer No ID , who was working with rapper Common at the time. No ID was an early mentor for him .

After graduating from high school in 1995, Kanye West attended the American Academy of Art and Chicago State University; at his mother's insistence, he should get at least a degree , while West pursued a music career instead. He later publicly criticized the American school system and made it part of his rap lyrics on his debut album. West earned his first money as a producer in 1996 working on the Chicago rapper Grav's album Down to Earth ; He was already rapping on the track Line for Line contained on it . In the same year he broke off his college education to devote himself full-time to music.

West's career in the music industry began in the late 1990s; Among other things, he produced pieces for commercially successful albums by rappers Jermaine Dupri and Foxy Brown . Through his contact with Beanie Sigel , he met Jay-Z, with whom West has worked regularly since then. The musician first became famous in 2001 through his work on several songs on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint , including the top ten single Izzo (HOVA) . The Blueprint was number one on the US charts for three weeks; Critics particularly praised the production, which was influenced by classical soul. West planned in the following to release a solo album. A planned record deal with Capitol Records did not materialize, however, as West was viewed more as a producer than a rapper; its commercial success was therefore rated as low. Shortly thereafter, then CEO Damon Dash signed him to Roc-A-Fella Records .

In October 2002, West suffered a triple jaw fracture in a car accident. West later said that this experience changed his life. Just three weeks after the accident, he recorded the piece Through the Wire , in which he processed the incident, still rapping a wired jaw.

The College Dropout and Late Registration (2003-2006)

West performing in Portland (2005).

In 2003 West produced the hits Stand Up for Ludacris (number one on the Billboard Hot 100 ) and You Don't Know My Name for Alicia Keys (number three). He also published several mix tapes under his own name. In September of that year, Through the Wire was released as West's first solo single and reached number 15 on the US charts. Slow Jamz , a tribute to classic slow jams , was released in collaboration with Twista and Jamie Foxx at the end of the year . Officially Twista's single, the song topped the Billboard charts in February 2004. For all three artists it was the first number one success. As a result, Kanye West wrote three songs with Janet Jackson for her album Damita Jo and the single Talk About Our Love was created in collaboration with singer Brandy . West worked with the German producer Melbeatz on Oh Oh for her album Rapper's Delight .

Due to a bootleg that had already come into circulation , West re-recorded large parts of his debut album The College Dropout , with which he thematically dealt with, among other things, his dropping out of school. The album was released in February 2004 after several postponements and entered the Billboard 200 at number two . It was received extremely positively by the critics. It won the Best Rap Album category at the 2005 Grammy Awards and was also nominated for Album of the Year . All four singles and You Don't Know My Name were also nominated and gave West two more Grammys with a total of ten nominations. In addition, the music video of Jesus Walks received several awards. The piece, in which West explores his beliefs , described the German hip-hop magazine Juice as the "defining moment for Kanye West as a mainstream artist."

In 2004, Kanye West founded the record label GOOD Music ; GOOD is an apronym for Getting Out Our Dreams . The label's first releases were John Legends' successful debut album Get Lifted and Be by Common. West was involved in the production of both albums, for Be he produced nine of eleven songs. He also contributed a song to Mariah Carey's comeback album The Emancipation of Mimi and was involved in the work on Leela James ' debut album. At the same time he was working on his second album Late Registration , which was released at the end of August 2005 and immediately ranked number one on the Billboard 200. West wrote the music for several pieces together with multi-instrumentalist and producer Jon Brion , who had previously appeared alongside artists such as Aimee Mann and Fiona Apple . The single Gold Digger , on which Jamie Foxx reinterpreted Ray Charles' vocals and the lyrics of his piece I Got a Woman , stayed at the top of the US charts for ten weeks and received several awards.

Graduation (2007-2008)

Kanye West's mother, Donda West, "most important person" for him , died in 2007 at the age of 58 as a result of an operation.

In early July 2007, West appeared at the Concert for Diana and Live Earth fundraisers ; In 2005 he had already participated in Live 8 . In September 2007 his third album Graduation was released . Since 50 Cents album Curtis was released on the same day, the media wrote of a "hip-hop showdown" . This was reinforced by a cover story for Rolling Stone , for which both rappers posed, and 50 Cents (later revoked) announcement that he would end his solo career if West sold more albums than he did. With 957,000 units sold, West's album went well ahead of Curtis at number one on the Billboard charts. Based on the first week of sales, Graduation was the fifteenth most successful album since the introduction of the Nielsen SoundScan in 1991. The single Stronger , based on a sample by Daft Punk , achieved top placements worldwide and received three platinum records . Another single, Good Life , premiered on an episode of the HBO television series Entourage , in which Kanye West also appeared. In 2008, the rapper received four Grammys, including the third time in a row for Best Rap Album , while - also for the third time in a row - he lost in the Album of the Year category . In April 2008 he started his world tour called Glow in the Dark Tour , which lasted until the end of the year and which also took him to Oberhausen and Hamburg in November.

808s & Heartbreak and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2008-2010)

Kanye West performing live in 2008.

At the MTV Video Music Awards 2008 West presented the song Love Lockdown as the first single from the album 808s & Heartbreak released in November 2008 . With the piece he tried his hand at singing for the first time. Love Lockdown stayed in the German single charts for 17 weeks , with eighth place as West's highest chart position in Germany to date. The worldwide sales of 808s & Heartbreak remained behind those of the previous works; the critics also rated the album very differently. Musically and in terms of content, 808s & Heartbreak was influenced by a separation a few months earlier and by the death of his mother Donda in November 2007. At the Grammy Awards in February 2008, Kanye West sang the song Hey Mama in her honor .

From 2009 to 2010, Kanye West was dating model Amber Rose . Partly together with No ID, the musician produced half of the tracks on Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 , including the two Grammy-winning track Run This Town , in which he can be heard alongside Jay-Z and Rihanna himself. A tour planned at the time with Lady Gaga was canceled at short notice. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti , West participated in the Artists for Haiti charity project .

In September 2010, West presented the ballad Runaway at the MTV Video Music Awards . The following month he released a 35-minute short film of the same name with model Selita Ebanks in the lead role. In November of that year, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released to almost consistently exuberant reviews and placed at number one in the US charts as West's fourth album in a row. While recording, he worked with a number of respected hip-hop producers, including Pete Rock , Q-Tip , RZA and DJ Premier ; guest musicians included Raekwon , Bon Iver and Elton John . In April of that year, the rapper headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival ; further appearances at the British festival The Big Chill and the SWU Music & Arts Festival in Brazil followed.

Watch the Throne and Cruel Summer (2011-2012)

In August 2011, Kanye West released the album Watch the Throne together with Jay-Z . With a chart entry at number one in Switzerland, number two in Germany and number twelve in Austria, Watch the Throne is the most successful work of the two artists in German-speaking countries. In the US, it was West's fifth album and Jay-Z's twelfth album. It set a record in the iTunes Store with 290,000 downloads in the first week. As in 2008, the rapper received four awards at the 2012 Grammy Awards. The following month West presented his first own fashion collection in Paris. In May 2012 his short film Cruel Summer premiered at the Cannes Film Festival . Similar to the film Runaway , Cruel Summer is inspired by an album by the musician that was produced at the same time. This was released in September 2012 as a compilation album in collaboration with the other artists on his Good Music label.

Yeezus and The Life of Pablo (2013-2016)

West performing live on the Yeezus Tour (2013)

For his next solo album, Yeezus , Kanye West worked again with a variety of other musicians, including Daft Punk, Frank Ocean , Arca and Rick Rubin . The latter was only included in the production shortly before the deadline in order to make the minimalism in West's pieces even more consistent. The rapper had a video for the song New Slaves projected onto 66 house walls around the world, including in Berlin. A day later he presented the two songs New Slaves and Black Skinhead live on Saturday Night Live . In accordance with the minimalist musical leitmotif of Yeezus - a suitcase word formed from Kanye West's nicknames Yeezy and Jesus - the album was published in a simple jewel case without a booklet or other design elements. In the first week, 327,000 units of the album were sold in the United States. These were - probably due to a premature leak - significantly fewer than expected; however, Yeezus also ranked number one on the Billboard 200.

Kanye West during the Saint Pablo Tour (2016)

After numerous announcements of various album titles and tracklists, which were summarized as a chaotic promotion phase, his seventh studio album The Life of Pablo was released on February 14, 2016, initially exclusively on the Tidal streaming platform . West had previously presented a much shorter version of the album at the presentation of his new fashion collection Yeezy Season 3 in New York. When the album was also available as a download on West's website from April 1st and was available from competing streaming services , the album rose to number one on the Billboard like his last five solo albums without being offered as physical sound carriers or on the market-leading download portals 200. TorrentFreak had previously reported that The Life of Pablo had set a new record with an estimated 500,000 illegal downloads within one day, particularly because of the limited availability.

In the months after its first publication, West The Life of Pablo underwent numerous changes, which the press described as a novelty, but was also questioned for its meaningfulness. These ranged from smaller musical details and individual changed lines of text to previously unreleased guest appearances and even a new song Saint Pablo , which also deals with the album as an outro from the retrospective. The first single was released seven weeks after the album, the song Famous , which caused a sensation mainly with its music video in which naked wax figures of various personalities share a bed.

The Saint Pablo Tour began in August 2016 . On November 21, 2016, West announced that the remaining 21 concerts of his tour would not take place after he had already canceled concerts the week before, only appeared briefly or had made extensive political comments instead of rapping. After the tour was canceled, West was handcuffed to a hospital in Los Angeles because of a nervous breakdown after his personal physician called an 911 about the artist's erratic behavior. West also stayed in the clinic over Thanksgiving weekend for psychiatric monitoring of his sleep-deprived and dehydrated temporary psychosis . For the next eleven months, West stayed away from the short message service Twitter and from the public in general.

Ye , Yandhi , Jesus is King and other collaborations (since 2017)

In May 2017 it was first reported that West was working on a new album in Wyoming . In April 2018, West finally announced plans to release two studio albums, a solo album and a collaboration album, for the summer months of the same year. West also announced that they would produce the upcoming albums by Pusha T , Teyana Taylor and Nas .

Shortly thereafter, West released the two non-album singles Lift Yourself and Ye vs. the People . Lift Yourself astonished fans with a mixture of a soul sample and a nonsense text about bowel movements rapped by West . In Ye vs. the People , West defends in a staged debate with rapper TI the policies of US President Trump , whom he had previously promised public support, which was sharply criticized by fans as well as other people in the public.

The West-produced album Daytona by rapper Pusha T was released in May; West's production was well received by critics. Just a week later, West's eighth studio album, Ye , was released in early June . In the week after, he released a collaboration album with long-time protégé Kid Cudi under the name Kids See Ghosts . West also completed his work as a producer on Nas' album Nasir and Teyana Taylor's album KTSE that same year . Five of the four albums, which were produced in Wyoming for his label GOOD Music and released within five weeks, have in common that they each contain only seven songs.

Yandhi album cover released in September 2018

In August 2018 West released the single XTCY , which should have been part of ye . Another single, the collaboration I Love It with rapper Lil Pump , was released in September and premiered on the Pornhub awards show, which West designed as creative director .

In September 2018, West announced its ninth studio album, Yandhi . However, he postponed the release date twice, so that the album, which was supposed to be released in September and then finally in November, is still not released today. It is expected to include collaborations with Timbaland , 2 Chainz , Lil Wayne , 6ix9ine , Ty Dolla $ ign , Nicki Minaj , Rihanna and the late XXXTentacion on Yandhi, among others . The album cover, which has already been released, shows the transparent packaging of a MiniDisc and is thus strongly reminiscent of the album cover of the sixth studio album Yeezus , which is why it is speculated that Yandhi should be understood as a follow-up album. In July 2019, some presumably unfinished songs that were supposed to appear on the album were leaked .

West also announced on Twitter in September 2018 that Watch the Throne 2 , a follow-up to his 2011 collaboration album with Jay-Z, would be released soon. Jay-Z has not yet commented on whether such a project is in the works.

Since January 6, 2019, West has been holding an exclusive weekly Sunday Service at changing locations, where he performs pieces from his past albums as well as other soul and RnB classics with the gospel choir The Samples and occasionally other star guests. The first Sunday Service open to the general public took place on Easter Sunday 2019 during the Coachella Festival .

On August 29, 2019, West's wife Kim Kardashian announced on Twitter that a new gospel- inspired album called Jesus Is King will be released on September 27; her tweet also included a list of twelve song titles. However, the album was not released at the announced date; instead, West presented it to a select audience in Detroit at a so-called listening party . A second release date, September 29th, passed without the album being made available to the public. The album was finally released on October 25th with eleven songs. Music videos were released for the songs Follow God and Closed On Sunday ; the former shows West with his father, the latter his wife and children.

Finance and ventures

On February 13, 2016, Kanye West announced via Twitter that he was in debt with $ 53 million. At the same time, he called on Mark Zuckerberg via Twitter to invest a billion dollars in Kanye West ideas. A similar appeal was made to Larry Page shortly thereafter .

Personal

After several years of friendship, Kanye West has been in a relationship with It-Girl Kim Kardashian since 2012 . Their first daughter was born in June 2013. The couple got engaged in October 2013 and married in Florence in May 2014. The second child, a son, was born in December 2015. The couple had their third child, another daughter born in 2018, carried by a surrogate mother . The same surrogate mother gave birth to another son for the couple in May 2019.

Style and development

Kanye West consciously stages his music as a work of art , which means that he wants to place himself in a row with music legends such as Jimi Hendrix , the Rolling Stones or the Beatles . This claim is also reflected in his concerts, his music videos, the design of his albums and his fashionable appearance.

music

West in his recording studio, with producer No ID (2008) in the background on the left.

West's musical style had a major influence on hip-hop and pop in the 2000s. This style has developed continuously since the beginning of his career , but the “ leitmotif ” is the use of excerpts from mostly older songs in the form of samples. He uses these especially on his later albums in an increasingly modern context. West uses the ASR-10 from Ensoniq and MPC 2000XL from Akai as samplers . Contrary to the typical hip-hop focus on “ beats and rhymes ” , West sees the melodies as the most important element of his pieces. Its very rare use of the fadeout is also unusual . According to an interview in 2005, he was inspired not only by hip-hop and soul, but above all by rock music. He stated that he enjoyed listening to System of a Down , The Strokes , Franz Ferdinand and The Killers , among others ; he also worked with Fall Out Boy and 30 Seconds to Mars . Nevertheless, according to West, his productions had "nothing to do with rock."

Since the beginning of the 2000s, many of his productions have been characterized by the continuous looping of older soul pieces and the voices of soul singers, supplemented by drum beats , handclaps or snaps (snapping fingers) that are usually also sampled . The musical basis is usually melodic and rhythmic ostinati . The idea of making use of the soul genre comes from West's former mentor No ID. In terms of production technology, West initially used RZA's music for the Wu-Tang Clan, but he corrected the pitch of the sampled voices upwards ( pitch shifting ), which means they sound similar to those of the chipmunks . West used the musical style called " Chipmunk Soul " prominently on his debut album The College Dropout , but also repeatedly later. In addition to the samples, the violinist Miri Ben-Ari can be heard in many pieces , and the musician occasionally also used choral singing . In addition to soul music, West occasionally used pieces from other genres such as rock ( The Doors ), reggae ( Max Romeo ) and hip-hop ( Tupac Shakur ) in his early productions .

After The College Dropout's commercial success , Kanye West began experimenting with other styles. There were many classical and orchestral elements on Late Registration . Live instruments were increasingly used, including many rather unusual ones; for example, in the outro of Heard 'Em Say a bianzhong and a berimbau to hear. Pieces like Hey Mama and We Major contain longer codas , Diamonds from Sierra Leone , Gone and Drive Slow , which ends with a screw passage, show changes in the dynamics . Fiona Apple and Portishead served as inspiration for the musical direction of Late Registration , while the sound of the first album was based on Lauryn Hill . From then on, West also integrated a string orchestra into many concerts.

West also worked with strings for his following works. On Graduation also influences talked of electronic dance music and rock catchment. In the piece Flashing Lights , for example, orchestral legato alternates with electronic staccato passages. Overall, the music was deliberately designed for stadium suitability, and the samples came from world-famous and successful artists such as Elton John, Michael Jackson, Steely Dan and Can .

808s & Heartbreak , on the other hand, was musically and lyrically much more introverted. In the songs, mostly composed in the minor key, West consistently used the voice-distorting and tone-correcting technique of the Auto-Tune program popularized by T-Pain , which allowed him to appear primarily as a singer. He did this at the time in pieces by Young Jeezy , DJ Khaled and Mr Hudson. In addition, the use of the Roland TR-808 pulled through 808s & Heartbreak . When recording 808s & Heartbreak , West was mainly inspired by the pop music of the 80s. West called the consciously aesthetic , but also commercial style of the album "Pop Art", after the art movement of the same name . According to Rolling Stone, it marked the final move away from the "swinging soul samples of his early tracks [towards the] ghostly synth- funk of his most recent works [end of 2009]."

On My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy West combined the styles of his previous albums and created more opulent songs with complex structures and arrangements; Based on the genre progressive rock , the website Pitchfork Media spoke of “ prog-rap ” . The musician followed a similar approach on his joint album Watch the Throne with Jay-Z; Samples of old soul pieces - mainly those by James Brown - are prominently used, for this purpose progressive rock samples can be found, as in the previous work. In addition, Watch the Throne also contains elements of more modern music styles such as Dirty South and Dubstep . The melodies are repeatedly broken by unexpected twists.

West on the Yeezus Tour (2013).

While West took a much more eclectic approach on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Watch the Throne , he compartmentalized the individual components of his songs much more strongly on Yeezus . In the song Bound 2, for example, he contrasts a soul sample - as he used it especially at the beginning of his career - in the chorus with an overdriven , punky bass line. The soul influences can only be heard sporadically, for example as an intermezzo in On Sight or in connection with a trap sample in Blood on the Leaves . The rock ballad Gyöngyhajú lány by the Hungarian band Omega can be heard in the outro of New Slaves . Otherwise, Yeezus has a much more electronic and aggressive sound than West's previous works. Critics compared the work to industrial rock . In order to create a stylistic connection to his hometown Chicago, West took inspiration from both the Chicago House and Acid House of the 1980s as well as the contemporary Chicago drill - a subgenre of the trap. Also Dancehall motifs characterize some songs. The opulent orchestral elements of the previous albums gave way to a minimalism influenced by the corresponding architectural style . Sound effects that are used in different ways also serve to alienate the musical motifs.

After working on The College Dropout , the proportion of other musicians in West's works increased. Jon Brion's involvement in Late Registration's musical direction is considered highly. The singer and rapper Kid Cudi is said to have had a significant influence on the sound of 808s & Heartbreak and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy . Since the 808s Heartbreak , West has also worked regularly with producers Mike Dean and Jeff Bhasker . For Watch the Throne he only produced the song Otis alone. West was occasionally criticized for the programming of the drums of his pieces, the weakness of which he himself admitted. He worked with Timbaland on the percussion of the singles Stronger and Good Life by Graduation .

Poetry

In 2010, the US hip-hop magazine XXL defined five “ key elements ” that make up Kanye West's poetry, namely vulnerability, humor, puns , arrogance and social criticism .

The renowned music journalist Robert Christgau praised the rapper's rhyming work in a review of Late Registration . His rhymes are mostly assonant , often polysyllabic. West often uses pictorial language with metaphors and comparisons , which he supplements with alliterations . This language has a strong Afro-American dialect , for example in his raps there is often no -s ending in the third person singular (example: “ […] tell him you like how he rap ” from the song Last Call ). In the song Who Gon Stop Me he uses the game language Pig Latin . The musician sometimes drafts the meter of his raps before the lyrics. Especially at the beginning of his career, he worked with overdubs - a supplementary sound recording on top of an existing recording - so that he didn't have to record his raps in one take .

The rapper's lyrics often revolve around topics that are rather untypical in mainstream hip-hop, such as racial conflicts, self-doubt and criticism of consumer society . For example, his stanza in the remix of the piece Diamonds from Sierra Leone is about the Sierra Leonean blood diamonds and his ambivalent attitude towards them. At the beginning of his career he could still be classified as a “ conscious rapper ” or conditionally as a “ backpack rapper ” , even though he refused to categorize himself in this way: “I don't see myself only as the voice of myself or the voice of people. Jay-Z is the voice of himself, Talib Kwali [ sic ] is the voice of the people and I am something of both. ” In order to avoid the usual clichés in hip-hop, West often ironizes his lyrics; so he rapped in Through the Wire : “ Thank God I ain't too cool for the safe belt. "(German:" Thank God I'm not too cool for the seat belt. ")

On the following albums, his subjects focused mainly on himself and his public perception. He deliberately shortened the texts to make them easier to understand for the audience and thus to intensify the effect on them. On graduation , however, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, "the urgency of his previous works" has largely given way to the "name dropping of trendy sneaker or jeans brands" . On 808s & Heartbreak and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy , however, he processed previous relationships, the loss of his mother and hostility as a result of the MTV Video Music Awards 2009.

The lyrics of the album Watch the Throne consist mostly of boasting about one's own prosperity, but also contain more profound statements in a few songs. In Murder to Excellence West raps about violence among African Americans and their consequent low life expectancy. The musician compares the murder rate in his hometown with that in the Iraq war : “ I feel the pain in my city wherever I go / 314 soldiers died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago. ”(German:“ I feel the pain in my city wherever I go / 314 soldiers died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago. ”) New Day , on the other hand, is addressed to its own - actually not yet conceived - son, the West before that wants to warn against repeating his father's mistakes.

Yeezus has been described by The New York Times as the artist's most lyrically provocative work. In the song New Slaves , West supplements the interspersed obscenities with criticism of materialism and modern racism as well as references to the supposed New World Order .

reception

With regard to some of his statements, Kanye West is often perceived as arrogant to snobbish . His bad relationship with the media also contributes to this. The episode Lick Me on the Stick of the 13th season of South Park alludes to West's egocentrism and alleged overconfidence and provoked a statement from West in which he asserted that he had changed. According to Juice, his haughty demeanor gives the rapper “an aura of legend” , which is underlined by the generally very positive response to his musical works. An article on stern.de from August 2011 calls Kanye West and Jay-Z the “two greatest rappers of our time.” The New York Times sees West's career as “ sui generis ” .

Music and lyrics

At the end of 2009, the German music magazine Rolling Stone wrote that no one had “influenced pop more in the last ten years than Kanye West; West also defined "the sound of US hip-hop anew" . According to Andi Schoon in the online edition of Die Zeit, he is “ crossing the border between art and commerce” and at the same time bowing to the music of the 20th century. Kanye West was ranked eighth on a list of the top fifty hip-hop producers by About.com.

The College Dropout was rated positively almost without exception and found itself on numerous best lists, for example at number ten of the one hundred best albums of the decade determined by Rolling Stone or at number one of the ten best albums of the decade, selected by Entertainment Weekly . West's subsequent albums were also well received, albeit with a slightly downward trend. Thus, 808s & Heartbreak , due to its heavily modified "sound aesthetic" added rather mixed and criticized for its alleged lack of substance as well as West's lack of singing talent. It was also his first album that did not receive a Grammy for Best Rap Album . Late Registration , which, according to the time, combines well-known sounds with ultra-modern sounds, was named by the author Matthew Gasteier - alongside Aquemini from OutKast and Phrenology from The Roots - as an example of the musical innovation of the hip-hop genre. Above all, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was received extremely positively, various publications called it West's “ magnum opus ” . With a Metascore of 94 out of 100 possible points, the work is one of the best-rated albums on Metacritic.com.

Right from the start of his career, Kanye West was seen as a “deeply contradicting figure” in terms of both his writing and his public relations , as “ wise and stupid, arrogant and insecure, often in the same breath. ”(German:“ wise and stupid, arrogant and insecure, often in the same breath. ”) The Rolling Stone saw in its lyrics a mixture of “ loudmouthedness, insecurity and wit. ” And this was proven by an excerpt from West's first album: “ Always said if I rapped, I'd say somethin 'significant / But now I'm rappin' 'bout money, hoes and rims again. ”(German:“ I always said, when I rap, I talk about something significant / But now I'm rapping again about money, hookers and rims. ”) It was precisely these authentic contradictions that made it possible for the broad masses to join in identify the content of his plays.

West's lyrics are also certified to break with mainstream hip-hop conventions by conveying a message. The Westdeutsche Zeitung rated his music as "highly socially critical" ; West castigates "consumption, godlessness, war - and school" . Jonathan Fischer praised the rapper on Spiegel Online for “not remaining trapped in the ghetto myths of hip-hop” and instead for “linking personal confessions with socially critical issues to high art” . However, the texts are often superficial.

In 2015, the Rolling Stone listed West 84th among the “100 best songwriters of all time” .

Success and influence

Kanye West's success as a musician is reflected in the number of awards he has received and in the sales of his singles and albums. With a total of fourteen awards, he won more Grammys than any other artist in the 2000s. He has also received two American Music Awards and three BRIT Awards, among others. The RIAA has so far awarded his works (as of May 2010) eighteen platinum records. According to a July 2009 Yahoo statistic, West sold nearly ten million albums in the United States, making him the nineteenth most successful artist of the 2000s. His debut album already sold over four million times worldwide.

Income according to Forbes (in US $):
2007: 17 million
2008: 30 million
2009: 25 million
2010: 12 million
2011: 16 million
2012: 35 million
2013: 20 million
2014: 30 million
2015: 22 million
2016: 17.5 million
2017: 22 million
2018: 27.5 million

Even after The College Dropout was released, West was considered one of the most influential artists in the music industry. The Time took him in 2005 in their list of the hundred most influential people of the world; as the only rapper so far, he was to be seen on the front page of the magazine in the same year . According to an estimate by Forbes Magazine , West made $ 30 million between June 2007 and June 2008. The following year, West was the third highest-earning hip-hop musician behind Jay-Z and Sean Combs, at $ 25 million. In addition to the album sales, the Glow in the Dark tour was particularly profitable. The Watch the Throne Tour with Jay-Z and his design activities secured the artist an income of around $ 35 million in the months around 2012. Since 2006 the AskMen.com web portal has consistently listed him among the most influential men of the year; In 2010 he finished fifth. In the same year MTV declared him Man of the Year .

West is recognized primarily as a hip hop producer. He was ranked eighth on an About.com list of the top fifty hip hop producers. The website UGO.com ranked him tenth on a similar list in 2008; West is “ the biggest hip-hop artist in the world. ”(German:“ the greatest hip-hop artist in the world. ”) In a vote by hip-hop magazine Vibe , the musician was among the last four producers. The Billboard magazine listed him in 2009 as the third most successful hip-hop producer of the decade. Although West's rapper skills were questioned early in his career, he was consistently featured on MTV.com's 2007 list of “Hottest MCs in the Game”. After a fifth place in 2007, he was voted first in 2008; In 2009 he was fourth and in 2010 third. In 2010, XXL Magazine voted him number one of the best rappers who started their career as hip-hop producers. That same year, West was ranked third on Black Entertainment Television's list of the best rappers of the 21st century.

Example of West's extravagant fashion taste (2013)

Due to his content orientation towards “middle class fear” and musical pop influences, West is considered to be the co-founder and “ figurehead ” of so-called “ hipster rap ”, which is an alternative to gangsta rap from the big city ghettos. His clothing style, which was complementary to the hipster image and influenced by the Ivy League , was formative for hip-hop fashion, for example he popularized the “Shutter Shades” by glasses designer Alain Mikli . The sneakers designed by West are very popular. In 2009, men's magazine GQ listed him on The 10 Most Stylish Men in America . His glow-in-the-dark stage show was also praised for its visual creativity, as MTV called the tour “ the greatest one-man show put on by a hip-hop artist, possibly ever. "(German:" the biggest one-man show that, possibly ever, was put on by a hip-hop artist. ")

Through his collaboration with both respected artists and newcomers , Kanye West was instrumental in the careers of other musicians. At the beginning of his musical career he worked - like Just Blaze - as the house producer of Jay-Z with the albums The Blueprint and The Black Album, which are considered "classics" of the hip-hop genre . With the single Slow Jamz he helped the rapper Twista to his commercial breakthrough; Talib Kweli and the Dilated Peoples were also able to celebrate their first chart successes with West's help. In 2005 he ensured a musical reorientation of the rapper by producing a large part of Commons Be , which culminated in the number one success of the successor Finding Forever - also largely produced by West. West also got a number of other musicians under contract with GOOD Music as well as Keyshia Cole and Lupe Fiasco first media attention.

With his music, Kanye West influenced artists as diverse as the German rapper Denyo , the comedian Chris Rock and U2 . The rapper Drake said of him: “ [West is] the most influential person, as far as a musician, that I'd ever had in my life ” (German: “West is the most influential person as a musician that I have in mine Ever had life. ”) The US-American President Barack Obama counts West's single Touch the Sky among his favorite songs.

Controversy

In addition to his music, Kanye West caused a media sensation through some controversial appearances and statements. These were rated very differently, from "brave" to "self-dismantling" . According to his own statement, his political and socially critical views are clearly shaped by his parents.

Statements about politics

Statements about AIDS and the crack epidemic

On the occasion of his Live-8 appearance, Kanye West claimed in July 2005 that AIDS was a “ man-made disease ” (German: “man-made disease”) . He put this view in the song Heard 'Em Say . An equally targeted distribution of the drug crack in the 1980s, he subordinated to the US government in the same year. The latter introduced the extremely quickly addictive drug in the poorer areas in order to split up the black community, which until then had served as protection against police brutality and racism. With the piece Crack Music West wrote a whole song about the drug. In it he made the then governor of California Ronald Reagan responsible for the crack epidemic, because he wanted to stop the Black Panther Party.

Criticism of the Bush administration after Hurricane Katrina

At a fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina on NBC in September 2005 Kanye West reiterated its critical of the government. Deviating from the text of the teleprompter , he said, among other things, that the aid measures would be hampered by the deployment of many National Guards in the Iraq war, while the National Guards sent to New Orleans were allowed to shoot at residents. In addition, both the media coverage and the failure of the government to help are racist :

I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, 'They're looting.' You see a white family, it says, 'They're looking for food.' And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. [...] the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way - and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

“ I hate the way they portray us in the media. When you see a black family, it says 'They are looting.' When you see a white family, it says, 'They're looking for food.' And you know it's been five days [waiting for covenant help] because most of the people are black. [...] the Red Cross is doing everything it can. We are already aware that many people who could help us are at war right now and are fighting in a different way - and they have given them permission to go down and shoot us! "

- Kanye West : Washington Post article , 2005

West concluded: “ George Bush doesn't care about black people. ”(German:“ The blacks don't care about George Bush ”). The last comment was cut from the broadcast to the US West Coast. The statement attracted a lot of public attention and subsequently many political discussions. George W. Bush himself described West's public accusation of racism in 2010 as the worst moment and “ all-time low ” (German: “absolute low point”) of his presidency. In 2008 the director Marc-Aurèle Vecchione used excerpts from the speech for his documentary Black and Proud - The History of Black Music .

Holocaust comparison in the song Who Gon Stop Me

A line of the song Who Gon Stop Me by Kanye West and Jay-Z received media attention in August 2011 . West raps in the piece: “ This is something like the Holocaust / Millions of our people lost. ”(German:“ This is something like the Holocaust / lost millions of our people ”). In doing so, he compares the genocide of the Jews with the systematic social disadvantage of African-Americans . Jan Küveler recognized in his text, published on the online branch of the world , an indirect re-emergence of the historians' dispute , which dealt with the question of the extent to which this genocide was a historical singularity . The author of the article compared West with the “ revisionist ” main actor in the historians' dispute, Ernst Nolte . Also in a National Socialist context, West expressed himself in the same month at the festival The Big Chill . There he claimed that he was often stared at by people as if he were Hitler .

Criticism of Hillary Clinton and support for Donald Trump

After the US presidential election , West revealed at a concert in San José on November 17, 2016 that he had not voted. However, if he had voted, he would have given Trump his vote, West said. On November 19, 2016, West interrupted his concert in Sacramento to give an angry speech during which he criticized the defeated presidential candidate Hillary Clinton , among other things . According to West, this would have underestimated the importance of feelings in the election campaign; the people of the American Midwest would have shown her how they felt when they voted for their adversary Donald Trump. West underscored his statements with Trump's campaign slogan " Make America Great Again " .

During the presidential transition phase , Trump received the rapper West on December 13, 2016 at Trump Tower . The conversation between the two took place in camera; goodbye they hugged in the lobby. West later wrote in a tweet, he would want to meet with Trump to "issues of multiculturalism " ( " Muticultural issues" to discuss). Trump praised West as a "good man " with whom he has long been friends and discussed "life " .

In February 2017, however, West deleted tweets in which he spoke out in favor of Trump after learning of the so-called Travel Ban , which bans citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country. In April 2018, however, he reassured the presenter Ebro Darden that he “loved ” Donald Trump . In addition, after his return to Twitter in the same month, he posted pictures of himself wearing one of the well-known red caps with the imprint Make America Great Again ( MAGA ), which are identification marks of Trump supporters. In further tweets he endorsed Trump's politics and referred to him as his brother (" my brother" ), which Trump rated and retweeted as "very cool " .

He also expressed appreciation for the ideas of Candace Owens , a right-wing Afro-American activist who advocates the strengthening of a black conservative movement, supports President Trump and speaks out against the Black Lives Matter movement. Statements by West in May 2018 in the editorial offices of the Internet gossip portal TMZ , according to which 400 years of slavery was the free choice of the slaves , also caused a stir . West's statements were violently contradicted and he later apologized and made it clear that he only wanted to draw attention to the ongoing "spiritual enslavement" of the black population.

Kanye West visits President Trump in the Oval Office on October 11, 2018

On October 11, 2018, West visited President Trump in the Oval Office of the White House wearing his red MAGA cap , which he says he feels like a superhero with. Before a joint lunch, West largely addressed in long monologues in front of the assembled press, among other things, his controversial support for Trump, gun violence among African Americans, his concerns about a discriminatory police method and the conflict with North Korea and recommended the president a futuristic hydrogen aircraft as Air Force One . He also stated that, contrary to earlier statements, he did not suffer from bipolar disorder , but only from sleep deprivation. In the press, the meeting and especially West's behavior was rated as "bizarre" or even "catastrophic".

West contradicted statements by Candace Owens in late October 2018 that he had designed merchandise for her Blexit campaign aimed at getting African Americans to quit the Democratic Party . West also announced that his eyes were now “wide open”, that he had been “used” to spread messages that he did not share (“ My eyes are now wide open and now realize I've been used to spread messages I don't believe in ”), which is why he wants to distance himself from politics.

On January 1, 2019, however, West again expressed his support for Trump on Twitter and announced that he would wear the red MAGA cap for future appearances .

Presidential candidacy

On July 4, 2020, West announced his candidacy for President of the United States of America .

Conduct at award ceremonies

West's behavior was negative at several music awards . He left the 2004 American Music Awards early after Gretchen Wilson beat him in the Favorite Breakthrough Artist category . At the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, West interrupted the band Justice's acceptance speech for Best Video , which was withheld from Touch the Sky . He loudly claimed the event would lose credibility with this decision. The incident was picked up on many news broadcasts the next day and sometimes heavily criticized. West later apologized and even satirized the appearance on the Saturday Night Live show . The following year he was to open the MTV Video Music Awards 2007 with the play Stronger , but was eventually transferred to a side stage in favor of Britney Spears . West rated this as racism: “ Maybe my skin's not right ” (German: “Maybe my skin [-color] is not the right one.”) . Since he had not received an award in five nominations, he boycotted all MTV awards ceremonies until the following VMAs.

At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West broke off another acceptance speech. While singer Taylor Swift was being recognized for Best Female Video , West took the stage, took the microphone from Swift and loudly proclaimed that the also nominated Beyoncé had "delivered one of the best videos of all time." Swift then left the stage crying . She was later brought back by Knowles to give her interrupted acceptance speech. The rapper was then booed and in the following days by musicians present as well as high-ranking personalities such as Jimmy Carter , Donald Trump and Barack Obama - from the latter with the words: " He is a jackass " (German: "He is an idiot") - clear criticized. West apologized publicly several times after the performance, including on the Jay Leno Show , and temporarily withdrew from the public eye. In 2016, West commented on his relationship with Taylor Swift on Famous : “I feel like Taylor and I could have sex. Why? I made the bitch famous. ”(“ I feel like me and Taylor might have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous ”). Taylor Swift responded to the song by making an acceptance speech at the following Grammy Awards, addressing "all [the] young women out there," warning that "there will be people on [their] paths who will try." would undermine [their] success or claim [their] achievement and fame ”. She would never have agreed to West calling her a "slut" and warning him not to release such a misogynistic song. West's wife Kim Kardashian then published the secretly recorded recording of a telephone conversation between West and Swift, in which the latter encouraged him to the line in which the lyrical ego expresses sex fantasies with Swift. Swift described the release of the recording as character assassination, she never agreed to the line of the song in which West dubbed her a "slut".

Another incident occurred at the 2015 Grammy Awards when West suggested he would storm the stage after musician Beck received the album of the year award. Away from the stage, West then claimed the award again for the also nominated Beyoncé and criticized the Grammy Awards for lacking respect for art and inspiration. West had previously boycotted the event for six years.

Discography

→ Main article : Kanye West / discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2004	The College Dropout	DE77 (5 weeks) DE	-	CH96 (1 week) CH	UK12 × 2 Double platinum (54 weeks)UK	US2 × 3 Triple platinum (79 weeks)US	First published: February 10, 2004 Sales WW: + 8,000,000; US: + 3,358,000
2005	Late registration	DE14 (8 weeks) DE	AT53 (3 weeks) AT	CH9 (7 weeks) CH	UK2 × 2 Double platinum (49 weeks)UK	US1 × 3 Triple platinum (40 weeks)US	First published: August 30, 2005 Sales WW: + 8,000,000; US: + 3,300,000
2007	Graduation	DE10 (5 weeks) DE	AT26 (4 weeks) AT	CH3 gold (9 weeks)CH	UK1 platinum (40 weeks)UK	US1 × 2 Double platinum (151 weeks)US	First published: September 11, 2007 Sales WW: + 6,500,000; US: + 2,700,000
2008	808s & Heartbreak	DE30 (14 weeks) DE	AT50 (2 weeks) AT	CH13 (14 weeks) CH	UK11 platinum (29 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (39 weeks)US	First published: November 24, 2008 Sales WW: + 4,150,000; US: +1,700,000
2010	My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy	DE19 (8 weeks) DE	-	CH10 (11 weeks) CH	UK16 gold (13 weeks)UK	US1 × 2 Double platinum (119 weeks)US	First published: November 22, 2010 Sales WW: + 2,900,000; US: + 1,400,000
2013	Yeezus	DE15 (5 weeks) DE	AT22 (3 weeks) AT	CH6 (5 weeks) CH	UK1 gold (17 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (36 weeks)US	First published: June 17, 2013 Sales WW: + 1,350,000; US: + 1,000,000
2016	The Life of Pablo	-	-	-	UK30th gold (27 weeks)UK	US1 × 2 Double platinum (155 weeks)US	Initial release: February 14, 2016 only for streaming released
2018	Ye	DE25 (3 weeks) DE	AT12 (3 weeks) AT	CH7 (3 weeks) CH	UK2 silver (11 weeks)UK	US1 gold (23 weeks)US	First published: June 1, 2018 Sales: + 570,000
2019	Jesus is King	DE19 (3 weeks) DE	AT9 (3 weeks) AT	CH8 (4 weeks) CH	UK2 (5 weeks) UK	US1 gold (16 weeks)US	First published: October 25, 2019 Sales: + 500,000
2020	Donda: With Child	-	-	-	-	-	First published: July 24, 2020

Tours

• Touch The Sky Tour (2005)
• Glow in the Dark Tour (2008)
• Watch the Throne Tour - (with Jay-Z ) (2011-2012)
• The Yeezus Tour (2013-2014)
• Saint Pablo Tour (2016)

Filmography (selection)

Movies

• 2004: Fade to Black
• 2005: Block Party
• 2005: State Property 2
• 2008: The Love Guru (The Love Guru)
• 2009: We Were Once a Fairytale
• 2010: Runaway
• 2012: Cruel Summer
• 2013: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

watch TV

• 2007: Entourage
• 2010–2012: The Cleveland Show
• since 2012: Keeping Up with the Kardashians
• 2015: I Am Cait

bibliography

• Kanye West, J. Sakiya Sandifer: Thank You and You're Welcome . Super Good LLC, 2008, ISBN 978-0-9789679-1-8 (English, deals with West's philosophy of life).
• Kanye West, Nabil Elderkin (photographs): Glow in the Dark . Rizzoli, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8478-3240-8 (English, deals with West's tour of the same name, contains a CD with instrumentals from the tour and an interview with Spike Jonze).
• Kanye West, Bill Plympton (Illustrations): Through the Wire . Atria, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4165-3775-5 (English, deals with West's rap lyrics).
• Kanye West, Jackie Nickerson (Photographs): YEEZY Season 3-4 Zine . Steidl Verlag , 2017, ISBN 978-3-95829-330-4 (English).
• Kanye West, Jackie Nickerson (Photographs): YEEZY Season 6 Zine . Steidl Verlag , 2018, ISBN 978-3-95829-406-6 (English).

Awards (selection)

See also : Kanye West / Music Sales Awards

Kanye West on the Watch the Throne Tour (2012).

American Music Awards

• 2008: Favorite Rap / Hip-Hop Male Artist
• 2008: Best Hip-Hop Album for Graduation

BET Awards

• 2005: Best New Artist
• 2005: Best Male Hip-Hop Artist
• 2005: Video of the Year for Jesus Walks
• 2006: Best Collaboration for Gold Digger
• 2006: Video of the Year for Gold Digger
• 2008: Best Male Hip-Hop Artist
• 2008: Best Collaboration for Good Life
• 2011: Best Male Hip-Hop Artist

BRIT Awards

• 2006: International Male Solo Artist
• 2008: International Male Solo Artist
• 2009: International Male Solo Artist

Grammy Awards

• 2005 : Best Rap Album for The College Dropout
• 2005: Best Rap Song for Jesus Walks
• 2005: Best R&B song for You Don't Know My Name by Alicia Keys
• 2006 : Best Rap Solo Performance for Gold Digger
• 2006: Best Rap Song for Diamonds from Sierra Leone
• 2006: Best Rap Solo Performance for Stronger
• 2008 : Best Rap Solo Performance for Stronger
• 2008: Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group for Southside by Common
• 2008: Best Rap Song for Good Life
• 2008: Best Rap Album for Graduation
• 2009 : Best Rap / Sung Collaboration for American Boy by Estelle
• 2009: Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group for Swagga Like Us by TI
• 2010 : Best Rap / Sung Collaboration for Run This Town by Jay-Z
• 2010: Best Rap Song for Run This Town by Jay-Z
• 2012 : Best Album for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
• 2012: Best Rap / Sung Collaboration for All of the Lights
• 2012: Best Rap Song for All of the Lights
• 2012: Best Rap Performance for Otis with Jay-Z
• 2013 : Best Rap Performance for Niggas in Paris with Jay-Z
• 2013: Best Rap / Sung Collaboration for No Church in the Wild with Jay-Z
• 2013: Best Rap Song for Niggas in Paris with Jay-Z

MTV Europe Music Awards

• 2006 : Best Hip-Hop Act
• 2008 : Ultimate Urban

MTV Video Music Awards

• 2005 : Best Male Video for Jesus Walks
• 2008 : Best Special Effects in a Video for Good Life
• 2011 : Best Collaboration for ET by Katy Perry
• 2011: Best Special Effects in a Video for ET by Katy Perry
• 2015 : Video Vanguard Award

Soul Train Music Awards

• 2006: Best R & B / Soul or Rap Music Video for Gold Digger

World Music Awards

• 2004: World's Best New Male Artist
• 2006: World's Best Selling Hip-Hop / Rap Artist

On May 11, 2015, West was awarded an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for his contributions to music, fashion, and pop culture.

literature

• Julis Bailey: The Cultural Impact of Kanye West. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2014, ISBN 978-1-137-39582-5 (English).
• Mark Beaumont: Kanye West: God & Monster. Omnibus Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-78305-371-1 (English).
• Alicia Z. Klepeis: Kanye West: Music Industry Influencer. ABDO, 2018, ISBN 978-1-5321-1330-7 (English).

Web links

Commons : Kanye West  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website (English)
• Kanye West at the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Kanye West at Discogs (English)
• Kanye West at laut.de
• Kanye West at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Kanye West: Fascinating avant-garde of hip hop. In: Rolling Stone . Edition January 2010, p. 57.
2. ↑ The 100 Best Albums of 2010-2014 . Pitchfork Media . Retrieved February 15, 2015.
3. ^ RIAA: Searchable Database . Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved February 15, 2015.
4. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Kanye West on his fortune: "Forbes" says "rich", he says "richer" - DER SPIEGEL - Panorama. Retrieved April 25, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Jason Birchmeier: Kanye West Biography at Allmusic (English). Retrieved May 2, 2010. (English)
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Stephan Szillus, Denyo : Denyo meets ... Kanye West. In: Juice , September 2005 edition, pp. 46–50 (interview).
7. ↑ Shaheem Reid: Kanye, Run-DMC, Outkast, Justin Sound Off On Our Top 10 Hip-Hop Groups. In: Internet presence of MTV . March 6, 2007, accessed May 8, 2010 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Davide Bortott: Kanye West: Bigger than Beats. In: Juice. August 2007 edition, pp. 50–55 (interview).
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Shaheem Reid, Sway Calloway: Kanye West: Kanplicated. In: Internet presence of MTV. Retrieved April 19, 2010 (English). 
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Josh Tyrangiel: Why You Can't Ignore Kanye. In: Internet presence of Time . August 21, 2005, accessed April 28, 2010 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Alexander Engelen: "I rap about God and sex". In: laut.de . Retrieved April 28, 2010 (interview). 
12. ↑ GRAVITY (da music). In: MySpace . Retrieved April 19, 2010 (English). 
13. ↑ ^{a b c} Ian Burrell: Kanye West: King of rap. In: The Independent's website . September 22, 2007, accessed May 3, 2010 . 
14. ↑ The 50 most important albums. In: Sounds , issue 1/2008, p. 102.
15. ↑ Kanye West Bares All At Album Listening. In: Rap-Up.com. Retrieved May 29, 2010 . 
16. ↑ ^{a b} Jonathan Fischer: Duel of the rap stars: Mannsbilder reloaded. In: Spiegel Online . September 7, 2007, accessed May 16, 2010 . 
17. ↑ Jayson Rodriguez, Tim Kash: 50 Cent Explains Last Week's Blowup, 'Says I Will Be # 1 On September 11'. In: Internet presence of MTV. August 14, 2007, accessed May 17, 2010 . 
18. ↑ Kanye Crushes 50 Cent In Huge Album Sales Week. In: Internet presence of Billboard Magazine . Retrieved May 3, 2010 . 
19. ↑ Kanye West: Mother dies after cosmetic surgery. In: laut.de. November 13, 2007, accessed April 28, 2010 . 
20. ↑ Ulrike von Bülow: Rap mother died after cosmetic surgery. In: Internet presence of the star . November 13, 2007, accessed April 28, 2010 . 
21. ↑ Kanye West: Relationship between Kanye West and model Amber Rose officially. (No longer available online.) In: motor.de. February 20, 2009, archived from the original on June 26, 2010 ; Retrieved April 28, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
22. ↑ Kanye West Reveals What Amber Rose Taught Him, Searches for Mrs. Right. In: Rap-Up.com. August 12, 2010, accessed November 20, 2010 . 
23. ↑ Lady Gaga: “Fame kills” the tour with Kanye West. In: laut.de. October 2, 2009, accessed April 30, 2010 . 
24. ↑ ^{a b} Kanye West and Jay-Z break iTunes record. In: stern.de. August 16, 2011, accessed August 31, 2011 . 
25. ↑ Kanye West shows collection in Paris. In: Madonna24.at. September 19, 2011, accessed October 2, 2011 . 
26. ↑ Andrew Romano: Rick Rubin on Crashing Kanye's Album in 15 Days. (No longer available online.) In: The Daily Beast . June 26, 2013, archived from the original on August 22, 2013 ; accessed on August 25, 2013 . 
27. ↑ On The Charts: Kanye's Worst Opening Sales Week Still Leads 'Yeezus' To No. 1. (No longer available online.) June 26, 2013, archived from the original on July 2, 2013 ; accessed on August 25, 2013 . 
28. ↑ Kanye West just made a smeared tracklist the most important promotional tool. In: Noisey . January 27, 2016, accessed February 11, 2017 . 
29. ^ ^{A b} Sascha Ehlert: Album presentation by Kanye West: Chaos as art. In: Der Spiegel . February 12, 2016, accessed February 11, 2017 . 
30. ↑ Joe Coscarelli: 400 Million Streams Later, Kanye West's 'Pablo' Gets a Wider Release. In: The New York Times website . March 31, 2016, accessed February 11, 2017 . 
31. ↑ Ernesto Van der Sar: Kanye West's The Life of Pablo Sparks Piracy Craze. In: TorrentFreak . February 16, 2016, accessed February 11, 2017 . 
32. ↑ Alex Heath: Kanye decided to only release his album on Tidal - now it's being pirated like crazy. In: Business Insider . February 16, 2016, accessed February 11, 2017 . 
33. ↑ Jayson Greene: Kanye West Is Still Changing The Life of Pablo. Does it matter? In: Pitchfork . March 16, 2016, accessed February 11, 2017 . 
34. ^ ^{A b} Julian Dörr: Kanye West, the USS Enterprise of Pop. In: Internet presence of the Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 15, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2017 . 
35. ↑ All The Changes To Kanye's 'The Life Of Pablo'. In: Genius.com on YouTube . May 24, 2016, accessed February 11, 2017 . 
36. ↑ Emmanuel CM: Every Change Kanye West Made to 'The Life of Pablo' After Its Release. In: Internet presence of the XXL magazine . June 16, 2016, accessed February 11, 2017 . 
37. ↑ Julian Dörr: Kanye West naked in bed with Taylor Swift and Donald Trump. In: Internet presence of the Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 26, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2017 . 
38. ↑ Kanye West goes on a “Saint Pablo” tour without a stage. August 26, 2016, accessed on March 3, 2019 (German). 
39. ↑ After tirades: Kanye West cancels the rest of the tour . In: Spiegel Online . November 21, 2016 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
40. ↑ 21 concerts canceled: Rapper Kanye West after the tour was canceled in the hospital . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 3, 2019]).
41. ↑ WORLD: Tour canceled: Kanye West reaches a new low . November 22, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
42. ↑ Christiane Heil, Los Angeles: In handcuffs in the clinic: How is Kanye West? ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 3, 2019]).
43. ↑ DerWesten- derwesten.de: In handcuffs in the psychiatry: Why is Kanye so bad? November 23, 2016, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
44. ↑ Lack of sleep and dehydration: Kanye West doctor called for help with psychosis . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 3, 2019]).
45. ^ 'Exhausted' Kanye spent Thanksgiving in the hospital. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
46. ↑ Jake Nevins: Kanye West returns to Twitter, writing a philosophy book 'in real time' . In: The Guardian . April 18, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed March 3, 2019]).
47. ^ Carlos Greer: Kanye hiding out in Wyoming to find 'creative groove'. In: Page Six. May 20, 2017, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
48. ↑ Kanye West Is Busy Creating His Next Album ... on a Mountain. May 9, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2019 (American English). 
49. ↑ Kim Kardashian's body becomes a perfume bottle. Retrieved April 25, 2018 . 
50. ↑ Kanye West Is Producing a New Nas Album, Due in June. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
51. ↑ Kanye West Announces Album Release Dates for Pusha T & Teyana Taylor. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
52. ↑ oliversum77: Kanye West releases new song "Lift yourself". In: rap.de. April 28, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 (German). 
53. ↑ Kanye West's new song "Lift Yourself" is mostly about Kot | MTV Germany. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
54. ↑ US rapper Kanye West celebrates Donald Trump with a new song - derStandard.de. Retrieved March 3, 2019 (Austrian German). 
55. ↑ Eric Sundermann, Noisey Staff: Kanye West drops politically charged song "Ye vs. the People ". In: Noisey. April 30, 2018, Retrieved March 3, 2019 (American English). 
56. ↑ Ben Beaumont-Thomas: Pusha T: Daytona review - Kanye ably props up rap's best drug storyteller . In: The Guardian . May 25, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed March 3, 2019]).
57. ↑ Braudie Blais-Billie: Listen to Kanye West's New Album ye . In: Pitchfork . June 1, 2018. Accessed June 6, 2018.
58. ↑ Felix Zwinzscher: "Kids See Ghosts" with Kid Cudi: Kanye West creates the over-album . June 12, 2018 ( welt.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
59. ^ Luke Morgan Britton: Kanye and company's 'Wyoming albums' - the ultimate, brutally edited, best-of playlist. June 29, 2018, Retrieved March 3, 2019 (American English). 
60. ↑ Successful comeback: This is what Nas' new album NASIR sounds like. Retrieved March 3, 2019 (German). 
61. ^ Dan Jackson: The Best Songs From All the Albums Kanye West Produced This Summer. June 29, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
62. ↑ Brian "Z" Zisook: Pusha T Explains Why All Five Kanye West-Produced Album Are Only Seven tracks. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
63. ↑ Kanye West Reveals Holographic 'YANDHI' Cover Art. September 22, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 (American English). 
64. ↑ Kanye West puts out new song "XTCY". August 13, 2018, accessed on March 3, 2019 (German). 
65. ↑ Kanye West presents new track "I Love It" during the Pornhub award show. September 8, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
66. ↑ Kanye West: Song release at Pornhub Party - laut.de - News. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
67. ↑ New album "YANDHI": Kanye West postpones publication again. November 13, 2018, accessed on March 3, 2019 (German). 
68. ↑ DASDING ([e-mail]), DASDING ([e-mail]): Kanye is postponing the “Yandhi” release again. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
69. ↑ Peter A. Berry: Kanye West's 'Yandhi' Album to Feature XXXTentacion & 6ix9ine - XXL. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
70. ↑ Kanye West Will Address Slut Shaming On 'Yandhi' With Nicki Minaj. In: UPROXX. October 24, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
71. ↑ Kanye West: LP “Yandhi” should contain collaborations with Lil Wayne, Migos and Timbaland. January 8, 2019, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
72. ↑ Kanye Announces Release Date for 'Yeezus' Follow-Up 'Yandhi' (UPDATE). Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
73. ↑ Emmanuel Maduakolam: Kanye West songs Possibly From 'YANDHI' Have Leaked. In: Hypebeast. July 18, 2018, accessed October 3, 2019 . 
74. ↑ Paul Thompson: Yandhi and the legacy of Kanye West leaks. In: fader. August 23, 2019, accessed October 3, 2019 . 
75. ↑ Kanye West's new album 'YANDHI' has reportedly been leaked. In: Musikexpress. July 19, 2019, accessed on October 3, 2019 (German). 
76. ↑ Kanye West announces “Watch the Throne 2” album. September 10, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
77. ^ Charles Holmes, Charles Holmes: 'Watch The Throne 2' is on the Way, According to One Half of the Throne. In: Rolling Stone. September 10, 2018, Retrieved March 3, 2019 (American English). 
78. ↑ Rhian Daly: 'Watch The Throne 2' could be off as Beyoncé and Jay-Z reportedly sever ties with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. October 10, 2018; Retrieved March 3, 2019 (American English). 
79. ↑ No, Jay-Z has not confirmed to develop “Watch the Throne 2”. September 13, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
80. ↑ Timo Feldhaus: Sunday Service: Greater than yourself. In: ZEIT Online. May 19, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019 . 
81. ^ Sheldon Pearce: Kanye's Sunday Service Coachella Performance Was a Sacrilegious Mess. In: Pitchfork. April 22, 2019, accessed September 20, 2019 . 
82. ^ Maria Hunstig: Kanye West at the Coachella Festival: style criticism. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin. April 25, 2019, accessed September 20, 2019 . 
83. ↑ Ann-Kathrin Riedl: Why Kanye Wests' Church Service was the musical and fashionable highlight of the Coachella Festival. In: Vogue. April 23, 2019, accessed on September 20, 2019 (German). 
84. ↑ Kim Kardashian West: Have faith ... In: Twitter. September 27, 2019, accessed October 3, 2019 . 
85. ^ Charles Holmes: Kim Kardashian Teases Track List for New Kanye West Album 'Jesus Is King'. In: Rolling Stone. August 29, 2019. Retrieved October 3, 2019 (American English). 
86. ^ Gary Graff, Kanye West Plays 'Jesus Is King' Album for Eager Detroit Crowd Ahead of Release: Inside the Event. In: Billboard. September 27, 2019, Retrieved October 3, 2019 (American English). 
87. ↑ Kanye West: My Album's Not Quite Right Yet ... Delays Release Again. In: TMZ. September 30, 2019, Retrieved October 3, 2019 (American English). 
88. ↑ Joe Price: Kanye West's 'Jesus Is King' Has Reportedly Been Delayed Again. In: Complex. September 30, 2019, accessed October 3, 2019 . 
89. ↑ Joe Coscarelli: Kanye West Teases 'Jesus Is King,' a New Album With No Cursing. In: The New York Times. September 30, 2019, Retrieved October 3, 2019 (American English). 
90. ↑ Lisa Respers France: Kanye West finally drops his 'Jesus Is King' album. In: CNN. October 25, 2019, Retrieved October 25, 2019 (American English). 
91. ↑ Roisin O'Connor, Clémence Michallon: Read a track-by-track review of Jesus is King plus the latest fan reactions. In: The Independent. October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2019 (UK English). 
92. ↑ Dominik Sliskovic: Kanye West: Jesus Is King. In: Musikexpress. October 25, 2019, accessed on October 25, 2019 (German). 
93. ↑ Craig Jenkins: Why Can't This Kanye West Show Up More Often? In: Vulture. November 8, 2019; Retrieved December 7, 2019 (American English). 
94. ↑ Kanye West receives support from the Kardashian West Klan in new "Closed On Sunday" video. In: Musikexpress. November 29, 2019, accessed on December 7, 2019 (German). 
95. ↑ Lisa Respers France: Kanye West's 'Closed on Sunday' music video a family affair. In: CNN. November 29, 2019; Retrieved December 7, 2019 (American English). 
96. ↑ Kanye West: I write this to you my brothers while breastfeeding 53 million dollars debt in personal ... Please pray we overcome ... This is my true heart ... . In: Twitter . February 13, 2016. Archived from the original on February 16, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
97. ↑ Kim Kardashian and Kanye West: Wedding Alarm in Hollywood? In: Internet presence of Pro7. August 30, 2012. Retrieved September 11, 2012 . 
98. ↑ Münchner Merkur: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are engaged , accessed October 25, 2013
99. ↑ WORLD: Italy: Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are married . May 24, 2014 ( welt.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
100. ↑ The son of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West is here. Morgenpost.de, December 5, 2015, accessed on December 5, 2015 . 
101. ↑ Born by surrogate mother: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have third child . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 3, 2019]).
102. ↑ Lisa Ryan: Aw, Look at Kim and Kanye's Youngest Baby. In: The Cut. June 10, 2019, Retrieved September 20, 2019 (American English). 
103. ^ Psalm West's Birth Certificate Reveals All the Details. In: TMZ. May 23, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019 (American English). 
104. ↑ Fourth child on the way thanks to a surrogate mother - and she already knows the gender. January 2, 2019, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
105. ↑ ^{a b c d} Stephan Szillus, Ndilyo Nimindé (interview): Kanye West: Between genius and megalomania. In: Juice. January / February 2009 edition, pp. 50–53.
106. ↑ Kanye West: "I'm done with hip hop". In: viviano.de. December 3, 2008, accessed April 28, 2010 . 
107. ↑ West's glow-in-the-dark tour was published in Juice , January / February 2009 issue, p. 51, as a “crude mixture of psychedelic rock opera à la The Who , weird hip-hop musical and lots of bombastic Broadway -Pathos “ .
108. ↑ The Artwork of Graduation as well as the singles Can not Tell Me Nothing , Stronger and Flashing Lights was the Japanese Superflat Artists Takashi Murakami designed during the American painter George Condo for the design of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Power and Runaway was responsible.
109. ^ Kanye West - ASR 10 & MPC 2000XL - The Making of Through The Wire. (No longer available online.) June 10, 2007, archived from the original on March 25, 2010 ; accessed on April 28, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
110. ↑ explore music… rap at Allmusic (English). Retrieved May 6, 2010. (English)
111. ^ ^{A b} Spencer Kornhaber: The Shocking Poignance of Kanye West's Yeezus. In: The Atlantic . June 18, 2013, accessed August 25, 2013 . 
112. ↑ Kanye West, Hungry. In: okayplayer.com. April 4, 2003, accessed May 22, 2010 (English, interview). 
113. ↑ Rodrigo Perez: Kanye's Co-Pilot, Jon Brion, Talks About The Making Of Late Registration. In: Internet presence of MTV. August 13, 2005, accessed May 27, 2010 . 
114. ^ ^{A b} Robert Christgau: Growing by Degrees. In: The Village Voice's website . August 30, 2005, accessed May 29, 2010 . 
115. ^ Dan Cairns: Kanye West: 808s & Heartbreak - the Sunday Times review. In: joint Internet presence of The Times and The Sunday Times . November 23, 2008, accessed June 9, 2010 . 
116. ↑ Nick Levine: Kanye West: '808s & Heartbreak'. In: Digital Spy. November 24, 2008, accessed June 9, 2010 . 
117. ↑ My beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West at Allmusic (English). Retrieved November 23, 2010. (English)
118. ↑ Tom Breihan: Jay-Z / Kanye West - Watch the Throne. In: Pitchfork. August 11, 2011, accessed September 9, 2011 . 
119. ^ Neil McCormick: Jay-Z and Kanye West: Watch the Throne, CD review. In: joint Internet presence of The Daily Telegraph . August 12, 2011, accessed September 2, 2011 . 
120. ^ John Jurgensen: The Inside Story of Kanye West's 'Yeezus'. In: The Wall Street Journal blog . June 14, 2013, accessed August 25, 2013 . 
121. ↑ Jim Farber: Kanye West's 'Yeezus' is as much industrial rock as rap: music review. In: Daily News . June 14, 2013, accessed August 25, 2013 . 
122. ^ ^{A b c} Jon Caramanica: Behind Kanye's Mask. In: The New York Times . June 11, 2013, accessed August 25, 2013 . 
123. ↑ ^{a b c} Top 11 Hip-Hop Producers of All-Time. (No longer available online.) In: UGO.com. October 23, 2008, archived from the original on November 16, 2011 ; accessed on September 9, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
124. ↑ Jayson Greene: kiD CuDi: Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. In: Pitchfork Media . November 18, 2010, accessed November 23, 2010 . 
125. ^ Stronger Revisited. In: vimeo . 2007, accessed September 9, 2011 . 
126. ↑ ^{a b} The 5 Elements of Kanye's Lyricism [# 1 Producer Turned MC]. (No longer available online.) In: Internet presence of XXL Magazine . October 15, 2010, archived from the original on October 20, 2010 ; accessed on October 30, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
127. ↑ Alan Lawrence Sitomer: Yo, Hip-Hop's Got Roots. 2008, accessed June 7, 2010 . 
128. ^ Yasemin Genc: The Morphology of African American English in African American Rap Lyrics . GRIN Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-640-46614-4 , p. 11 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
129. ↑ Kelefa Sanneh: Kanye West's Argument With Himself. In: The New York Times website . August 21, 2005, accessed May 27, 2010 . 
130. ↑ ". How could somethin so 'wrong make me feel so right" (German: "How can I feel just as good through something wrong?") - Kanye West - Diamond from Sierra Leone (Remix) Lyrics. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 11, 2007 ; Retrieved May 28, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
131. ^ ^{A b} Özlem Evans: The Misconception of Kanye West. In: Bounce , September / October 2005 issue, pp. 44–49 (interview).
132. ↑ Booklet from The College Dropout
133. ^ ^{A b} Jan-Christoph Deissner: Fat tones - 50 Cent and Kanye West argue. In: Internet presence of Die Welt . September 17, 2007, accessed May 28, 2010 . 
134. ↑ ^{a b} Jocelyn Vena, Sway Calloway: U2 Take Cues From Kanye West, Jay-Z. In: Internet presence of MTV. March 10, 2009, accessed May 1, 2010 . 
135. ↑ Jonathan Fischer: Kanye West: Graduation : More Than Violent Pimps. In: Internet presence of the Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 20, 2007, accessed May 7, 2010 . 
136. ↑ Ndilyo Nimindé: Kanye West & Jay-Z Review # 10. In: Juice's website. August 18, 2011, accessed September 2, 2011 . 
137. ↑ Kanye Says 'South Park' Put Him In Check. In: Internet presence of Billboard Magazine. April 10, 2009, accessed April 17, 2010 . 
138. ↑ James Montgomery: Kanye West Says 'South Park' Didn't Cause His 'Ego Epiphany'. In: Internet presence of MTV. April 13, 2009, accessed March 31, 2012 . 
139. ↑ ^{a b} Andi Schoon: They make pop sparkle. In: Internet presence of Die Zeit . December 28, 2005, accessed May 26, 2010 . 
140. ↑ Henry Adaso: Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers. In: About.com. Retrieved April 15, 2010 . 
141. ↑ Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums, Songs Of The '00s. December 10, 2009, accessed September 2, 2010 . 
142. ↑ 10 Best Albums of the Decade. In: Entertainment Weekly's website . December 17, 2009, accessed April 11, 2010 . 
143. ↑ Kanye West. In: Metacritic. Retrieved November 23, 2010 (English, collected reviews of Kanye West's works). 
144. ↑ 808s & Heartbreak Review at Allmusic (English). Retrieved June 29, 2010. (English)
145. ↑ Matthew Gasteier: [[33 ⅓ ]]: Illmatic . Continuum, New York, London 2009, ISBN 0-8264-2907-6 , pp. 81 (English).
146. ↑ James Montgomery: Kanye West's Dark Twisted Fantasy: Everything You Need To Know. In: Internet presence of MTV. November 22, 2010, accessed November 23, 2010 . 
147. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Abgehört: The most important CDs of the week. In: Spiegel Online . November 23, 2010, accessed December 4, 2010 . 
148. ^ Highest and Lowest Scoring Music and Albums at Metacritic. In: Metacritic. Retrieved September 2, 2011 . 
149. ↑ Daniel Haas: Hip-hop star Kanye West: With a backpack and Rolls-Royce. In: Spiegel Online. June 2, 2004, accessed May 2, 2010 . 
150. ^ Barbara Kiviat: 10 Questions for Kanye West. In: Internet presence of Time. December 17, 2004, accessed April 30, 2010 (English, interview). 
151. ↑ Frank Weiffen: Kanye West: The rapping educated citizens. In: Internet presence of the Westdeutsche Zeitung . September 6, 2007, accessed May 27, 2010 . 
152. ↑ The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 . 
153. ↑ Gold & Platinum. In: Internet presence of the RIAA . Retrieved May 29, 2010 (English, searchable database). 
154. ^ Paul Grein: Chart Watch Extra: The Top 20 New Acts Of The 2000s. In: Yahoo website. July 22, 2009, accessed April 23, 2010 . 
155. ^ Mr Confidence puts it all on the line. In: The Sydney Morning Herald website . August 1, 2005, accessed May 23, 2010 . 
156. ↑ Lea Goldman, Jake Paine: Hip-Hop Cash Kings. In: Forbes Magazine website. August 16, 2007, accessed May 25, 2010 . 
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163. ↑ Hip-Hop Cash Kings 2014. In: Internet presence of Forbes Magazine. Retrieved September 23, 2014 . 
164. ↑ Cash Kings 2015: The World's Highest Paid Hip-Hop Acts. In: Forbes Magazine website. Retrieved April 7, 2017 . 
165. ^ Hip-Hop Cash Kings 2016. In: Forbes Magazine's website. Retrieved April 7, 2017 . 
166. ↑ Hip-Hop Cash Kings 2017: Full List. In: Forbes Magazine website. Accessed July 22, 2019 . 
167. ↑ Hip-Hop Cash Kings 2018. In: Internet presence of Forbes Magazine. Accessed July 22, 2019 . 
168. ^ The music industry's 100 most influential people. In: The Independent's website. June 29, 2004, accessed April 30, 2010 . 
169. ^ The 2005 TIME 100: Artists and Entertainers. In: Internet presence of Time. Retrieved April 30, 2010 (English). 
170. ↑ Kanye West - Top 49 Men. In: AskMen.com. Retrieved November 20, 2010 . 
171. ↑ Men And Women Of The Year 2010. In: MTV website. December 17, 2010, accessed September 9, 2011 . 
172. ↑ Henry Adaso: Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers. In: About.com. Retrieved September 9, 2011 . 
173. ↑ The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer Of All Time. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 25, 2011 ; accessed on September 9, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
174. ^ Nigel D .: Men And Women Of The Year 2010. (No longer available online.) December 18, 2009, archived from the original on October 4, 2011 ; accessed on September 9, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
175. ↑ MTV News: Hottest MCs In The Game. In: Internet presence of MTV. Retrieved April 13, 2010 (English). 
176. ↑ ^{a b} Shaheem Reid: 'Hottest MCs In The Game': At Last, We Agree With Kanye West - He Is # 1. In: Internet presence of MTV. May 16, 2008, accessed April 13, 2010 . 
177. ↑ ^{a b} Shaheem Reid, Jayson Rodriguez: Kanye West Is The # 4 Hottest MC In The Game! In: Internet presence of MTV. October 4, 2009, accessed April 13, 2010 . 
178. ↑ ^{a b} Paul Cantor: Kanye West Is Back As # 3 Hottest MC In The Game! In: Internet presence of MTV. October 24, 2010, accessed October 29, 2010 . 
179. ↑ Uh-Young Kim: Hipster Rap: Bubbly instead of shooting. In: Spiegel Online. October 9, 2008, accessed May 6, 2010 . 
180. ↑ Hipster Boogie. (No longer available online.) In: Internet presence of XXL Magazine. August 14, 2008, archived from the original on March 20, 2009 ; accessed on May 8, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
181. ↑ Buy adidas Yeezy - the Kanye West investment for your feet. In: Grailify Sneaker Magazine. Retrieved May 20, 2019 . 
182. ^ The 10 Most Stylish Men in America. In: GQ's website . February 17, 2007, accessed May 8, 2010 . 
183. ↑ Caution! Classic! In: Juice. Edition September 2007, pp. 90/92.
184. ↑ Jayson Rodriguez: Drake's 'Find Your Love,' Produced By Kanye West, Premieres Online. In: Internet presence of MTV. April 29, 2010, accessed May 1, 2010 . 
185. ↑ Brian Boyd, Judith Kessler (translation): Obama and McCain reveal their favorite songs. (No longer available online.) In: Internet presence of the Musikexpress . August 18, 2008, archived from the original on December 2, 2008 ; Retrieved November 20, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
186. ^ Steve Helling, Kanye West's Bad Behavior: A Short History. In: People's website . September 14, 2009, accessed May 7, 2010 . 
187. ↑ ^{a b c d} Shaheem Reid: 'Can He Do It Again?' - Kanye West Says New LP Backs Up His Bragging. In: Internet presence of MTV. August 5, 2005, accessed June 1, 2010 . 
188. ↑ Brian Boyd, Judith Kessler (translation): "If you don't like Britney, you have no idea". In: Internet presence of the Frankfurter Rundschau . December 9, 2008, accessed May 25, 2010 (interview). 
189. ^ ^{A b} Bill Lamb: Kanye West Biography. In: About.com. Retrieved May 7, 2010 . 
190. ↑ Lisa de Moraes: Kanye West's Torrent of Criticism, Live on NBC. In: Washington Post website . September 3, 2005, accessed April 29, 2010 . 
191. ↑ Ken Tucker: George Bush really does not 'appreciate' Kanye West's Katrina criticism: 'The worst moment of my presidency'. In: Internet presence of Entertainment Weekly. November 2, 2010, accessed November 5, 2010 . 
192. ↑ Broadcast on ARTE, among others on 22./29. April 2010.
193. ↑ Jan Küveler: Kanye or Habermas? In: Welt Online. August 15, 2011, accessed September 1, 2011 . 
194. ↑ ^{a b} Euan McKirdy and M. Daniel Allman CNN: Kanye West: I didn't vote but if I did, 'I would have voted for Trump'. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
195. ↑ Kanye West breaks off the concert: "I have the visions, bro" . In: Spiegel Online . November 21, 2016 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
196. ↑ ^{a b} Alex Robert Ross: Kanye West settles accounts with Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Hillary Clinton at the concert and then leaves the stage. In: Noisey. November 21, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2019 (American English). 
197. ↑ Crazy rant instead of a concert: Kanye West slanders Hillary Clinton and Beyonce. November 21, 2016, accessed on March 3, 2019 (German). 
198. ^ ^{A b c} WORLD: New York: Kanye West visits Donald Trump in his tower . December 13, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
199. ↑ ^{a b} Kanye West, Donald Trump and Life . In: sueddeutsche.de . 2016, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed on March 3, 2019]).
200. ↑ Deena Zaru Valley and Kopan CNN: Kanye West meets with Donald Trump at Trump Tower. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
201. ↑ Guardian music: Kanye West deletes pro-Trump tweets following travel ban . In: The Guardian . February 7, 2017, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed March 3, 2019]).
202. ↑ Kanye West to Hot 97's Morning Host Ebro Darden: 'I Love Donald Trump'. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
203. ↑ John Haltiwanger, Business Insider: Kanye West tweets a photo of himself wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat as Trump calls his praise 'very cool!' Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
204. ↑ Kanye West Calls Trump 'My Brother' in Series of Tweets. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
205. ↑ Kanye West tweets that he likes the way far-right personality Candace Owens “thinks”. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
206. ^ A Quick History of Candace Owens' Questionable Views. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
207. ↑ Kanye West - the personified megalomania. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
208. ↑ Kanye West apologizes for utter slavery. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
209. ↑ Kanye West on Slavery: Historically Questionable . In: Spiegel Online . May 2, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
210. ↑ Avery Anapol: Kanye says he 'loves' Hillary Clinton, but MAGA has made him 'feel like Superman'. October 11, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
211. ↑ ^{a b} Visit to Trump: The Quirky Show of Kanye West in the Oval Office. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
212. ↑ Kanye West makes a bizarre appearance in the Oval Office . In: sueddeutsche.de . 2018, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed on March 3, 2019]).
213. ↑ Janique Weder: When Kanye West gave his bizarre speech in the White House, even Donald Trump was speechless NZZ . October 12, 2018, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed March 3, 2019]).
214. ↑ So Kanye West abolishes himself in the White House. October 12, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
215. ^ Trump Praises, Hugs Kanye West During the Bizarre Oval Office Meeting. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
216. ^ Nikki Schwab, Bob Fredericks: Trump, Kanye West hug during bizarre Oval Office meeting. In: New York Post. October 11, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
217. ^ Brendan Klinkenberg, Brendan Klinkenberg: Kanye West Distances Himself From Alt-Right Provocateur Candace Owens. In: Rolling Stone. October 30, 2018, Retrieved March 4, 2019 (American English). 
218. ^ The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com : Kanye West breaks with Candace Owens, 'Blexit'. Retrieved March 4, 2019 (American English). 
219. ↑ Chris Willman, Chris Willman: Kanye West Says He's Distancing Himself From Politics: 'My Eyes Are Now Open'. In: Variety. October 30, 2018, accessed March 4, 2019 . 
220. ↑ 'My Eyes Are Now Wide Open': Kanye West Says He Was 'Used' and Vows He's Done With Politics. Retrieved March 4, 2019 . 
221. ↑ David Smith: Kanye West says he's distancing himself from politics: 'My eyes are wide open' . In: The Guardian . October 31, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed March 4, 2019]).
222. ↑ Bob Fredericks: Kanye West wants everyone to know he's still team Trump. In: Page Six. January 1, 2019, accessed March 4, 2019 . 
223. ↑ https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article211025715/US-Rapper-Kanye-West-kuendigt-Praesidentschaftskandidatur-an.html
224. ↑ Lisa Respers France: Anger over West's disruption at MTV awards. In: CNN website . September 14, 2009, accessed April 29, 2010 . 
225. ↑ Kanye West Unleashes Tirade After Losing at MTV Europe Music Awards. (No longer available online.) In: Internet site of the Fox News Channel . November 3, 2006, archived from the original on December 29, 2012 ; accessed on April 29, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
226. ^ Kanye lashes out at Britney's return to VMA. In: Internet presence of MSNBC . September 9, 2007, accessed May 2, 2010 . 
227. ↑ Gina Serpe: Kanye ends MTV boycott with appearance at the VMAs. In: Internet presence of E! Entertainment television . September 6, 2008, accessed May 2, 2010 . 
228. ↑ ^{a b} MTV scandal: Barack Obama calls Kanye West an idiot. In: Spiegel Online. September 16, 2009, accessed November 18, 2010 . 
229. ^ ^{A b c d e} Julia Maria Grass: "Character assassination": Taylor Swift attacks Kanye West after the Snapchat scandal . July 18, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed March 4, 2019]).
230. ↑ Kanye West and Taylor Swift - The Story of Their Enmity. June 28, 2016, accessed March 4, 2019 . 
231. ↑ "Beck should hand over the prize to Beyoncé": Kanye West disturbs Beck's Grammy-winning speech. In: Internet presence of Rolling Stone. February 9, 2015, accessed April 11, 2015 . 
232. ^ Kanye threatens another Grammy boycott over unfair voting practices. February 12, 2015, accessed April 11, 2015 . 
233. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Worldwide and US album sales On statisticbrain.com, February 15, 2016, English. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
234. ↑ ^{a b c} Brad Wete: Kanye West: How the Rapper Grew From 'Dropout' to 'Yeezus'. In: Billboard . June 14, 2013, accessed November 28, 2014 . 
235. ↑ http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&artist=yeezus
236. ↑ Eric Torres: Kanye West Receives Honorary Doctorate on SAIC: Lists. In: Pitchfork. May 11, 2015, accessed May 12, 2015 . 
237. ↑ Acknowledgment of dropouts: Honorary Doctor Kanye West. In: spiegel.de. May 12, 2015, accessed May 12, 2015 . 

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on July 9, 2010 in this version .