Netflix documentary and new album
Kanye West: A global star in midlife crisis
Kanye West and his ex-girlfriend Julia Fox at Paris Fashion Week in January 2022
© Bertrand-Hillion Marie-Paola / ABACA / Picture Alliance
Two authors, one thought: why do you have so much love for an artist like Kanye West who will do anything to make you hate him? His new Netflix series “Jeen-Yuhs” and his new album “Donda 2” are once again putting his fans to the test.
Lunch break. Two colleagues walk down a gray office corridor towards the cafeteria. Just talked about your quarter life crisis, it’s now all about Kanye West. “Every time I lose sight of my laptop for two minutes, it’s suddenly there. Kanye has been my screen saver since I was 14. I have no idea why.” Nodding in understanding, the other replies: “I had my first major relationship argument about whether you should still listen to Kanye”. The big question: why do you still hear and love this rapper in 2022?
“Jeen-Yuhs”: Kanye West Biography on Netflix
During the first minutes of the new Kanye West documentary series “Jeen-Yuhs”, this question comes to mind more and more. In fast sequences, the low points of a biography move across the screen, which many fans of the musician like to ignore. There you see a man who falls asleep at the wheel of his car and almost dies in an accident. A rapper who storms onto the stage during the MTV Awards ceremony, grabs the mic from award winner Taylor Swift and yells out loud, “Congratulations, but the best music video of the year was Beyoncé’s”. And you see a musician supporting a president his fans hate, only to announce his own doomed presidential bid.
Then the time jump: The series travels back to the 1990s. Cinematographer Clarence Simmons Jr. began filming the life of young and highly gifted producer Kanye Omari West on a whim. He couldn’t have known at the time that he was capturing the life of what is probably the most well-known musician of the 21st century.
Kanye (today just “Ye”) worked as a producer for Jay-Z and ran desperately from music label to music label, playing his first unreleased tracks to the bosses on CD players and hoping for a record deal. Even then, Kanye West’s unbreakable self-image was evident in the form of removable braces. Kanye always carries them with him and, to the amazement of other rappers, leaves them lying around openly in the studio when he plays his first successful single “Jesus Walks” to gangster rapper “Scarface”. In addition to advertising for orthodontic treatment, Jeen-Yuhs gives its viewers an insight into intimate scenes of a young artist who promises his mother his success in a small Chicago kitchen.
That success came. Kanye’s first three sample-beat-heavy albums, the so-called College Trilogy (“College Dropout”, “Late Registration” and “Graduation”) let the rapper rise like a rocket. The boy from Chicago suddenly found himself on an equal footing with top musicians like Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Eminem. After the death of his mother Donda West, “808 & Heartbreak” followed, an album without rap verses but full of theatrical, heartbreaking ballads. Whether it’s his subsequent orchestral magnum opus “My Dark Twisted Fantasy” or the experimental masterpiece “Yeezus” – Kanye West has consistently outdone himself. But his earlier formula for success, constantly reinventing himself, seems to be his undoing today.
Midlife Crisis Spotlight
In 2022, little is left of the man who once shaped an entire generation with his music and fashion. It seems the 44-year-old musician is caught up in a midlife crisis that has been going on for years. His wife and children have left him, he no longer prays at his strictly religious services, and his last albums were more fragments or unfinished projects than musical zeitgeist.
To top it all off, Ye has been living without a permanent address since last year. “Houses,” he said in a recent interview, “are like prisons.” That’s why the most influential pop star of the 21st century has been haunting the world in his private jet for months. Hidden under a black mask, he watches basketball games, attends fashion shows and strolls through Berlin’s museums with Bild reporters.
Kanye West leaves the Ritz hotel in Paris in January 2022
© ABACA / Picture Alliance
That’s not all, West not only shows up in many different places around the world, but also meets you several times a day on Instagram. There the rapper posts confused messages, screenshots and chat histories. Sometimes it’s about his music, other times it’s about the editing of his new Netflix series. More often than not, however, he’s engaged in a one-sided public war of roses with ex-wife Kim Kardashian. The posts usually disappear after a few hours. Nobody has understood that for a long time.
“Donda 2”: Hope dies last
A new album is due out this week. At least musically, “Donda 2” could appease many of its fans. After all, Ye delivered one of his most exciting projects in years with the first part last summer. Despite a handful of postponements and a promo phase that was far too long, the music scene was full of praise. In addition to classic hip-hop tracks such as “Pure Souls” with Roddy Ricch or “Heaven and Hell”, the soulful ballads with Don Toliver and The Weeknd were particularly popular. The alternative-rock mix “Jail” (a controversy in itself) was joined by melodic parts (“Believe What I Say”) reminiscent of 2000’s Kanye.
The only question is whether you really get to hear “Donda 2”. Last week, the rapper announced on Instagram that he no longer wants to support Spotify and Apple Music. Kanye complained that the streaming services exploited artists. His album will instead be released on a $200 stem player. It is questionable how many of his fans will actually take this step.
Nobody likes him, everyone knows him
While old companions and competitors like 50 Cent, Eminem and Jay-Z enjoy their evening of retirement away from the spotlight, Kanye West wrestles with himself in front of the world. When asked what connects him to his old mentor Jay-Z, Kanye answered once: “We both fought and were successful with it. With the difference that with Jay-Z you only ever saw the success and with me the fight”. In 2022, this statement seems more appropriate than ever. Wherever the name Kanye West is mentioned, you almost only hear criticism. The authors of this text also do this constantly. And yet they put a note in their calendar on February 22nd, 2022, reminding them of the release of Ye’s new album. She hasn’t heard from Jay-Z, Eminem and 50-Cent for years. Kanye’s midlife crisis sounds more exciting.
