On April 24th, Forbes Magazine announced that rapper/super-producer Kanye West is now a billionaire. Kanye is arguably the biggest artist to ever come out of Chicago. He started off as a producer with larger than life dreams, managed to work his way up from the bottom and put Chicago on the map for a lot of things.
In the earlier years of his career, Kanye West was a producer for Jay-Z and some other artists. He worked with Jay-Z on “Never Change,” “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love),” “Takeover,” and several other hit records before branching out into a solo career of his own. This led to him eventually being signed to Roc-A-Fella and becoming one of the biggest musical artists we have ever seen.
As controversial as Kanye West may be, you can’t deny his talent and influence. Since the beginning of his musical career, he pushed the limits and status quo of the worlds of Hip/Hop and R&B with his cross-genre sampling and overall artistic vision. He set trends in the style of the music being made and clothing being worn at the time. This led to him branching out into the fashion world with his longtime friends Don C and Virgil Abloh, who is currently artistic director of Louis Vuitton for Men.
Today, Kanye West is a juggernaut. He has his own record label GOOD Music, which is very successful due to its roster of artists including Pusha T, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, Teyana Taylor, Valee, and Q-Tip to name a few. He practically runs this label with Pusha T while managing to still release his own music.
On top of all that, Kanye is also working with Adidas as a creative director and designer. His brand Yeezy is largely responsible for Adidas’ recent success. Kanye’s constant innovation and barrier-breaking is providing inspiration for the younger generations.
It is really something watching Kanye grow over the years. It was not an easy road. It is inspiring to anyone grinding and in the process of materializing their vision. This was definitely motivational. Great article Eric!