Kanye West

Who Is Kanye West?

As Kanye West would doubtless tell you himself, he is a 21st-century phenomenon — a producer turned rap superstar who has reinvented hip hop several times over in the course of a stellar career; but whose creative genius is sometimes eclipsed by his talent for putting his entire foot in his own mouth. He has made headlines for his bizarre tweets and his grand pronouncements, his award-show stage invasions, his outré fashion sense and his flashbulb-popping marriage to Kim Kardashian. But when West channels his hubristic impulses into his music, the results have rarely been less than thrilling: hence eight solo albums debuting at No. 1 and 21 Grammy awards — no rapper has won more; two inclusions in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people list; and plaudits from Lou Reed, Prince, Elon Musk — and, most frequently of all, from West himself. “I am a god,” he rapped in 2013, following up with a line that perhaps only he could deliver with a straight face: “Hurry up with my damn croissants.”