In Atlanta, Georgia, on June 8, 1977, Kanye Omari West was born. When West was three years old, his parents divorced, and he relocated to Chicago, Illinois, with his mother. There, he met DJ/producer No I.D., who served as his mentor and started experimenting with music. In 1997, he was awarded a scholarship at the American Academy of Art, but he decided to transfer to Chicago State University to study English. At age 20, he eventually quit school to focus on his music career.
After quitting college, West started producing beats for nearby musicians while honing his own sound. His first recorded work as a producer was for Chicago rapper Grave’s 1996 self-titled debut album. During this time, he also provided music for Foxy Brown, Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie, and Harlem World.
Kanye West Net Worth
American producer, rapper, fashion designer, and businessman Kanye West. Kanye West has a net worth of $2 billion as of this writing. He is one of the top three self-made black millionaires in American history. After his 2004 album, The College Dropout was released, Kanye became extremely well-known. With 21 Grammy wins from 69 nominations, he is currently among the most popular and honoured performers around the globe. He has shifted his focus in recent years from music to business. West has amassed a large fortune thanks to his Yeezy/Adidas collaboration.
Kanye has recently made at least $100 million annually from his numerous projects. His royalties and other profits from his Yeezy brand and Adidas collaboration account for the great bulk of his earnings. Yeezy gets a royalty on the more than $1.5 billion in annual sales of his own Yeezy clothing line, which he controls in its whole. Several private banks believe that the value of the Yeezy brand is between $4 and $5 billion. According to a March 2021 UBS estimation, Yeezy increases Kanye’s net worth by $3–4 billion. According to the same study, Kanye West’s contract with The Gap increased his net worth by an additional $1 billion.
Gaining Notoriety and a Music Career
When he started working as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in 2000, working with musicians like Ludacris, Alicia Keys, and Janet Jackson, West had his big break. Jay-2001 Z’s album The Blueprint, which West produced, attracted a lot of attention for his production skills. He produced music for Jay-Z, Beyoncé, John Legend, Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, and a long list of other artists throughout this time. West’s first ambition was to become a rapper, despite his fame as a producer. After being turned down for a deal with Capitol Records in 2001, he was able to persuade the head of Capitol Records to sign him to Roc-A-Fella Records.
West was moved and recorded the song Through the Wire when his mouth was still wired shut following a terrible vehicle accident in October 2002 in which he fractured his jaw. His debut album, The College Dropout, which was leaked months before its intended August 2003 release date, was built on the foundation of this song. West put off the album’s release three times so he could remix, remaster, and edit it. He received 10 Grammy Award nominations for The College Dropout, which was eventually released in February 2004 to praise and was ultimately certified triple platinum in the US.
West put two million dollars into the making of his second album as he started working on it, including employing a real string orchestra. By the end of the year, the August 2005 edition of Late Registration had sold more than 2.3 million units in the US. Graduation (2007), 808s & Heartbreak (2008), My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), Watch the Throne (2011), Yeezus (2013), The Life of Pablo (2016), Ye (2018), and Jesus is King are some of his following albums (2019). 2013 saw the release of West’s album Yeezus. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 list, as well as in four additional nations and on the US R&B and US Rap charts.
The Life of Pablo, his 2016 album, peaked at #2 on the US Rap and US R&B charts and at #1 on the Billboard 200 list. “FourFiveSeconds,” a song by Kanye West featuring Rihanna and Paul McCartney, peaked at number one on the US R&B chart. He received six Grammy nominations for the year 2017. Ye, his subsequent album, debuted in June 2018. Sadly, Ye was Kanye’s first studio album to not achieve platinum status.
West has continued to work as a producer and featured performer for other musicians, including 6ix9ine, XXXTentacion, Lil Pump, Chance the Rapper, Kid Cudi, and Teyana Taylor, in addition to his own albums and projects.
His monthly “Sunday Service” orchestration with the Sunday Service Choir, which they have performed every Sunday since January 2019, is one of his other musical endeavours. He also worked on the opera Nebuchadnezzar and Mary with the modern artist Vanessa Beecroft.
Yeezy
With his 2009 Air Yeezys sneaker, West became the first non-athlete to sign a shoe deal with Nike. West has always exhibited an interest in fashion. Along with Louis Vuitton, Bape, and Giuseppe Zanotti, he has also created footwear. In 2011 and 2012, he also debuted two apparel collections during Paris Fashion Week. Adidas formally unveiled its new sneaker partnership with West in December 2013. The “Light Brown” version of the Yeezy Boost 750 shoe was originally made available on February 14, 2015, only in New York City via the Adidas mobile app, and it sold out in only ten minutes. The Adidas and Yeezy shoe partnership featured a total of 19 colours and 6 styles as of December 2017. 2015 saw the launch of Season 1 of Kanye West’s Yeezy apparel brand with Adidas. Season 2 came out later that year, and Season 3 premiered in February 2016.
Adidas stated in June 2016 that West has signed a long-term partnership with them after the success of his early launches. Kanye typically receives a 10% royalty on Adidas’ net sales. In contrast to Adidas.com, he receives a large royalty for goods sold through his own website, YeezySupply.com. Around 10% is his combined average royalty rate. It should be emphasized that, as of this writing, Kanye controls the whole stock of the Yeezy clothing brand.
