Kanye West

Ye, born Kanye Omari West on June 8, 1977, became the first rapper to top the US Billboard Hot 100 across three decades, with number-one singles including “Slow Jamz,” “Gold Digger,” “Stronger,” “E.T.” as a featured artist, and “Carnival.” A rapper, songwriter, and record producer, he was born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago. After leaving college to pursue music, he built an early reputation as a producer for Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records, using a “chipmunk soul” approach that sped up and reworked soul samples.

West signed to Roc-A-Fella as a recording artist and released his debut album, The College Dropout, in 2004. The album received acclaim, and its follow-up, Late Registration (2005), became the first of his eleven US Billboard 200 number-one albums. His work has moved through rap, soul-derived production, pop, electronic music, gospel, and more abrasive experimental forms. Graduation (2007), 808s & Heartbreak (2008), My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), and Yeezus (2013) are among the albums Rolling Stone included in its “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list. The magazine also named him among its “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.”

His career has included major commercial success alongside his production work for other artists. Ye has sold 160 million records and received 24 Grammy Awards, placing him among the ceremony’s most awarded artists. Time named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2005 and 2015. His records and public shifts in style have been credited with opening space in hip-hop for rappers outside gangsta rap conventions.

Outside music, Ye has worked in clothing and footwear with Nike, Louis Vuitton, Gap, and Adidas, leading the Yeezy collaboration with Adidas. His public life has drawn sustained media scrutiny, including his conduct at award shows and on social media, as well as comments about the music and fashion industries, US politics, race, and slavery. He was married to Kim Kardashian from 2014 to 2022, and they have four children. In 2020, he ran an unsuccessful independent campaign for US president.

From 2022 to 2025, Ye drew widespread condemnation and lost sponsors and partnerships after expressing antisemitic views and support for Nazism, praising Adolf Hitler, using swastika imagery, and denying the Holocaust. He legally changed his name from Kanye Omari West to Ye in 2021.