Kanye West
Artist ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap
Few artists have had as deep an impact on pop culture as Kanye West. Raised in Chicago by his mother, an English professor, West initially studied to be a painter while making beats on the side—a multidisciplinary drive that came to mark his career. After contributing production to a series of increasingly high-profile projects (including work with Foxy Brown and the Mase-fronted Harlem World), West broke through in 2001 with his work on JAY-Z’s The Blueprint, producing and cowriting some of the album’s biggest songs (“Izzo [H.O.V.A.],” “Takeover”). His chopped-and-pitched, sample-heavy “chipmunk soul” sound would define rap for years after.
He launched his MC career with 2004’s The College Dropout and hasn’t looked back, releasing a string of groundbreaking—and often self-contradicting—albums, each of them a pacesetter for the culture around it. From the baroque grandeur of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to the punk fragments of Yeezus, from the social commentary of The College Dropout to the confessional summits of 808s & Heartbreak, West has always been expanding his scope and sound—and shifting everyone else’s playing field in the process. Much of that comes from his gift for listening, for orchestrating: Over the course of his career, he has absorbed sounds and styles from the underground—whether Chicago drill, UK bass music, gospel, or Bon Iver’s postmodern folk—and reimagined them, changing the course of the mainstream along the way.
Affiliate Token:
Affiliate Campaign Name:
(Optional)
Optional to segment marketing (email, social, etc). Cannot be used to track individual clicks or contain any personal identifiable information. Can contain up to 40 characters. Avoid using ?, /, or & within this field.
Optional to segment marketing (email, social, etc). Cannot be used to track individual clicks or contain any personal identifiable information. Can contain up to 40 characters. Avoid using ?, /, or & within this field.
ITSCG Token:
ITSCG parameter is a group-level token for the Apple Services Performance Partners Program. This value can never be changed and must always remain the same in your affiliate links.
ITSCG parameter is a group-level token for the Apple Services Performance Partners Program. This value can never be changed and must always remain the same in your affiliate links.
ITSCT Token:
The ITSCT parameter is a partner-level token for the Apple Services Performance Partners Program. This value is static and should not be changed unless you are a partner who has been provided your own distinct token. If so, you may override the default ITSCT value with your own assigned value.
The ITSCT parameter is a partner-level token for the Apple Services Performance Partners Program. This value is static and should not be changed unless you are a partner who has been provided your own distinct token. If so, you may override the default ITSCT value with your own assigned value.