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Men of the Year: Graduate

By Chris Heath

Photography by Nathaniel Goldberg

6 MOMENTS WITH KANYE WEST

Talking into a camera as he left the Wendy Williams radio show this September, fired up by a little champagne and the success of his new album, Kanye West offered an update on how 2007 was going for him. "I'm the number one artist in the world right now," he declared, pushing his face toward the lens. "I want you to document this right here, what I'm saying right now. I am the number one human being in music. That means any person that's living or breathing is number two. Because I'm number one now.… You are in the presence of the champion. Bow in the presence of greatness.…"

On a more sober and reflective afternoon a few days later, sitting in his sparse, modernist New York apartment, West sees little reason to soften or withdraw this claim. That's the thing about being drunk, he says. You say what you really believe to be true. "People got to look at the concerts, look at the sales, look at the impact, look at the songs, look at the connection with pop culture," he continues. "I mean…it's obvious. It's almost I don't even need to state it. It's so true it's obvious . It's not even arguable."

It is partly West's readiness to proclaim what he sees as such obviousnesses that, in a world where such thoughts are generally expected to be disguised behind the politeness or hypocrisy of insincere humility, has contributed to his reputation for arrogance. He knows this: "This stuff I am saying is so politically incorrect—it is so not what an artist should say and so not humble and stuff like that, but the only problem with all that it's so not is: it's so true." To him, this passionate plain-speaking is not arrogance, and the accusation is one that clearly frustrates him—he points out how overcareful he is, in the flesh, to treat people considerately, because he's so worried that they'll think he's like people say he is. Likewise, he's emphatic that this competitiveness with his peers comes from a position of respect, hypercompetitive as he may be: "All I did was talk about how I looked up to Justin or to Beyoncé, looking at what they did. But I'm looking at everything everybody does. I'm looking at everything T.I. does, I'm looking at everything Lil Wayne does, I'm looking at everything Jeezy does, I'm looking at everything Jay-Z does, I'm looking at everything the Killers do, I'm looking at everything Red Hot Chili Peppers does, I'm looking at everything U2 does, I'm looking at everything Rolling Stones does, I'm looking at stuff that Justice does, I'm looking at stuff the Arctic Monkeys do, I'm looking at stuff that TV On The Radio does, I'm looking at Dr. Dre, I'm looking at Timbaland, I'm looking at the Pussycat Dolls. So I'm looking at all these different things, and my goal is to take out everybody. My goal is to completely dominate."

_Read the full article in the December 2007 issue of _GQ.

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Kanye West’s ‘Graduation’: 10 Things You Didn’t Know

By Al Shipley

When Kanye West released Graduation on September 11, 2007, it was the candy-colored, beatwise album that, famously, beat 50 Cent for a battle over release date bragging rights. But, 10 years later, we can see how it also pointed the way towards the AutoTuned vocals, EDM and arena rock influences that would help define the next decade in rap. This focused collection of 13 songs touched on his complex relationships with fame, his father, his hometown of Chicago and his “big brother” Jay-Z; and leaped into the world of experimental art via the Takashi Murikami album cover.

To celebrate the album’s 10th anniversary, here are some things you may not know about Graduation.

Kanye released an early version of “Homecoming” nearly five years earlier Kanye West created a voluminous catalog of demo and mixtape tracks in the early days of his transition from buzzing producer to superstar rapper, and lines from those songs were often revised and reused throughout his first three albums. The most prominent instance is “Homecoming,” which takes its verses from “Home,” a College Dropout outtake that appeared on his 2002 mixtape Get Well Soon… .The original beat and John Legend hook are replaced with a completely new track and chorus featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin. But West’s lyrics, a Chicago-centric riff on Common’s “I Used To Love H.E.R.,” are more or less unchanged.

50 Cent had sold nearly twice as many albums as Kanye West before losing their famous sales showdown When Graduation and 50 Cent’s Curtis were scheduled for the same release date on September 11, 2007, the media whipped up a sales war. The two frenemies appeared together on the cover of Rolling Stone and at the VMAs, and it seemed like a perfect battle for the soul of mainstream hip-hop – tough New York gangsterism vs. emotional suburban confessionals. While Kanye West’s decisive triumph over 50 seems inevitable in retrospect, it’s easy to forget how much of an underdog he was at the time. The College Dropout and Late Registration sold a combined 7 million copies in the U.S., but 50 Cent’s own first two albums, Get Rich or Die Trying and The Massacre , sold nearly 14 million, almost exactly twice as much. West had the last laugh: Graduation sold nearly a million copies in one week, and rap became the playground of emotional heroes like Kid Cudi, Lupe Fiasco, Drake and J. Cole.

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T-Pain isn’t the only R&B star on “Good Life” Though T-Pain is Kanye West’s co-star on the hit “Good Life” and Michael Jackson appears via sample, two other singers make brief appearances. Toward the end of the second verse, as T-Pain answers each West couplet with “Welcome to the good life,” Ne-Yo and John Legend take over the last couple refrains. It was one of West’s first instances of using major stars in almost inaudible cameos, a practice that reached its apex with the choir of A-listers that appeared on 2010’s “All of the Lights.”

Timbaland joined sessions at the 11th hour to put oomph in the drums Although Jon Brion and other producers contributed to Kanye West’s first two albums, Graduation was a significant step towards the production supergroups that West would often assemble to collaborate on beats on his later albums. The Daft Punk-sampling single “Stronger” was West’s first co-production with Houston hip-hop veteran Mike Dean, but even after the track was released and became a hit, West was unsatisfied with the track’s kick drum. After hearing “Stronger” alongside Timbaland’s hit “The Way I Are,” West brought Timbaland to the studio for the final album sessions days before Graduation was finalized. When it all was said and done, West mixed “Stronger” a total of 75 times.

“Everything I Am” wasn’t the only beat Common passed on Common’s second album for West’s G.O.O.D. Music, Finding Forever , was released just a few weeks before Graduation , so it’s not surprising that there was significant overlap in the sessions for the two albums, both of which featured Dwele and DJ Premier. Kanye famously touts “Everything I Am” as a rescued Finding Forever outtake in the song’s chorus: “Common passed on this beat, I made it to a jam”. However it wasn’t the only one. The track that follows it, “The Glory,” was also offered to Common before West wound up using the track.

“I Wonder” was inspired by U2’s “City of Blinding Lights” Kanye West joined U2’s Vertigo Tour for several dates in 2005 and 2006, and watching the band open shows with 2005 single “City of Blinding Lights” made him envious of how the Irish quartet’s big melodic sound filled stadiums. So the slower, more melodic cadence and building anthemic energy of “I Wonder” and other songs on Graduation was in part West’s attempt at making rap music that worked the same way in live venues.

Kanye West: A Genius in Praise of Himself

West met “Flashing Lights” vocalist Connie Mitchell’s band in an Australian diner One of the most distinctive sounds on Graduation is the voice of Connie Mitchell, who utters the title of “Flashing Lights,” sings on “Champion” and appears as a loop on “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.” Those moments were all the result of a chance meeting in a diner in Sydney, Australia. West was in town for the Australian leg of his tour with U2, and struck up a conversation with two members of the group Sneaky Sound System, who recommended West invite their singer to the studio.

West sent a handwritten letter to Steely Dan to clear the “Champion” sample Steely Dan never really knew what to make of hip-hop and tended to play hardball when rappers ask to sample the band’s impeccably produced jazz-rock grooves. Most famously, Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz had to give the band sole writing credit and a six-figure advance to use the sample on their 1998 hit “Déjà Vu (Uptown Baby).” Kanye West didn’t have to fork over all his publishing to use 1976’s “Kid Charlemagne” on “Champion,” but he did make a personal appeal to get their approval. “We said ‘no’ at first,” Donald Fagen told Complex in 2012. “And then he wrote us a hand-written letter that was kind of touching, about how the song was about his father.”

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Kanye West had a Spinal Tap moment on the tour in support of Graduation A few months after the release of Graduation , Kanye West embarked on the Glow in the Dark Tour, which kicked off his run of tours marked by increasingly ambitious and creative stage design. But the massively successful tour was not without incident, with West infamously taking the stage eight hours behind schedule at Bonnaroo. In Sacramento, West slipped up and referred to the city he was in as “Seattle,” where he’d played two nights earlier, every touring musician’s nightmare as immortalized in Spinal Tap’s famous “Hello, Cleveland” scene.

While recordin g Graduation , Kanye West made a Comedy Central pilot During sessions for Graduation in L.A. at the Record Plant, Kanye West and longtime collaborator Rhymefest started joking around in the studio and spitballing an idea for a grown-up puppet show in the vein of Crank Yankers . Soon, the two Chicago rappers were linking up with Jimmy Kimmel to shoot the Alligator Boots pilot for Comedy Central and meeting with comedy writers during the recording of “Flashing Lights.” The show was never picked up, and within a year West had moved on to another TV pet project, another unaired comedy pilot for HBO.  One thing that did come out of the Alligator Boots: West insisted on casting Kim Kardashian (then known solely for a sex tape) in a sketch. The future spouses met for the first time on the project.

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It's Kanye's world

W hen I first set eyes on Kanye West I don't recognise him. Waiting in the grandiose foyer of the Grand Hyatt in Tokyo (younger sibling of the Park Hyatt, the setting for Sofia Coppola's film Lost in Translation), I'm suddenly confronted by a trio dressed in a riot of fluorescent pastel hoodies and box-fresh sneakers. Slowly, I realise the figure in the middle, hidden behind cherry red Louis Vuitton shades, is the self-styled 'Louis Vuitton don' superstar rapper himself. His partners in fashion crimes are tour manager Don C and stylist Ibn (pronounced Iben), who will seemingly never leave Kanye's side over the six months that - on and off - I spend with them.

As we leave to travel to tonight's gig in Yokohama, Japan's second largest city, 20 miles to the south, Don C says to me, 'Yo, you can ride with us.' I end up near the back of the people carrier with Kanye as we nudge through Tokyo's traffic on a muggy spring afternoon. 'So what are y'all listening to in England?' he asks. I mention a few names including Dizzee Rascal and Arcade Fire. 'Man, I don't really get the Arcade Fire thing.' He shakes his head, a little puzzled. 'I been listening to it on my iPod, trying to understand why people get off on it, but I just don't get it.'

Kanye reaches into his Louis Vuitton backpack and pulls out a CD-R of his embryonic new album and passes it forward. He may not be the bestselling hip hop artist in the world - although on this short tour of Japan, he's recognised by fans everywhere - but he is the most critically feted. Graduation will complete the trilogy started in 2004 with The College Dropout and followed in 2005 by Late Registration. Given the multi-platinum success of those records and hits like 'Gold Digger', the pressure to deliver a masterpiece that will reach an even broader range of fans and win further plaudits is properly on already.

The vehicle's audio system is a ridiculously complex affair controlled by a digital screen with which the driver doesn't seem too au fait. There's a little bilingual banter before someone suggests the red light may mean it is recording, and the atmosphere sours a little. 'Yo, does that thing have a hard drive?' says Don C in a manner that leaves little lost in translation. 'Don't be recording this, don't press record!'

'Yo, you better be ready to press eject!' pipes up Kanye.

The CD finally starts playing, and a new song called 'Good Morning', with ethereal gospel backing vocals, emerges from the speakers - but the sound is dreadfully tinny. 'What's up with the bass?' complains Kanye, as someone tries to adjust the levels. Outside, the traffic slows again and an irate Kanye gestures at the taxi behind carrying the record company PR and OMM's photographer: 'I bet that cab has a better system, man.' I presume he's joking, but as we turn onto the slip road to the Bay Area Freeway, he leans forward and shouts, 'Yo, stop the truck!'

Seconds later, I find myself on the side of the freeway with Kanye as the traffic whistles by. 'Damn! Welcome to my life, man,' he exhales as he jumps in the passenger seat besides a startled taxi driver and starts fiddling with the CD player.

When he finally gets it working, Kanye whacks the volume up full so the speakers are almost popping. Impressively, the silver-haired taxi driver, at least 65 and immaculately presented in full suit and white gloves, doesn't flinch once. The next track is called 'Stronger' and starts with an instantly recognisable Daft Punk sample, the vocodered 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' from their 2001 album Discovery. 'You know that sample, right?' shouts Kanye over the music. He starts to bounce back and forth so violently his seat begins to rock, before he turns the volume down slightly to explain that he hasn't recorded all the vocals yet. 'I just finished this verse on the plane over yesterday,' he says, before pushing it back up and turning round to rap, full throttle, into my face:

'Let's get lost tonight/

You can be my black Kate Moss tonight/

Play secretary on the boss tonight/

And y'all don't give a fuck what they all say, right?'

It's difficult to know where to look. Unless you're the taxi driver, whose eyes stay fixed straight ahead. Even through the distorted speakers, the track does sounds pretty incredible.

'Damn, they don't make 'em like this any more,' Kanye continues rapping in my face: ' ...bow in the presence of greatness.'

Almost everyone I spoke to before meeting West mentioned his arrogance, although he would have you believe it's more self-belief. An only child ('Kanye' is an Ethiopian name which means 'the only one'), whose parents split before he was a year old and who divorced when he was four, Kanye was mainly raised by his doting mother, Donda. They are still extremely close; he wrote a song for her on his last album, 'Hey Mama', which, sweetly, she now has as the ringtone on her cellphone. When Kanye was still a young child, they moved from Atlanta, Georgia, to Chicago, where she became the chair of the English department at Chicago State University before latterly taking over as his manager. She has just published her own book, Raising Kanye: Life Lessons From the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar, in which she writes at length about how she nurtured his confidence (see below).

Maybe it's the result of no one else having heard tracks from the new record, but when we meet in Japan Kanye's self-belief doesn't seem quite so solid. After playing me 'Stronger' he says of the line 'I need you right now': 'If you heard that in a club you might be looking at a girl thinking "I need you right now" but it's also a message from me to my fans that I'm coming back after a time away and I need you right now, to help me come back.'

The soundcheck in Yokohama involves DJ A-Trak - aka Alain Macklovitch, the youngest ever winner of the DMC World DJ Championship - spinning the CD-R of the new tracks while Kanye stands by the decks, rapping over the top. There's 'Homecoming', a collaboration with Chris Martin, based around a piano motif on which the Coldplay frontman sings, 'Do you think about me now and then?/ 'Cause I'm coming home again'; a track called 'The Good Life' that samples Michael Jackson's 'P.Y.T.'; and a moodier number about messing with 'drunk and hot girls', which, I find out later, is called 'Drunk & Hot Girls'.

We retreat to Kanye's dressing room and Ibn cuts his hair. 'I want lightning bolts going in different directions,' explains Kanye, demonstrating with his fingers splayed across his skull. As Ibn gets to work with his clippers, Kanye and A-Trak discuss Graduation with surprising frankness. 'All I'm saying,' A-Trak shrugs at one point, 'is where's your 'Diamonds'?'

I suspect the DJ is one of an extremely select few allowed any criticism of Kanye. The star listens patiently before putting forward his own views. Then he catches a glimpse of his head in the mirror. 'I said lightning!' he exclaims. 'You put points on the end of 'em - it looks like I got arrows all over my head!' Kanye West made his name producing beats for other rappers, kicking off with 'This Can't Be Life' for Jay-Z's The Dynasty album in 2000. But although his signature sound, involving speeded-up soul samples, was widely acclaimed, his 'Preppy' look and middle-class background meant he struggled to be taken seriously as a rapper in his own right; several record companies turned him down before he landed a deal with Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella label.

A near fatal car accident in 2003 inspired his debut single 'Through the Wire', which he recorded with his mouth wired partly shut following the crash. Since then, unusually for a contemporary rap star, he has spoken out against homophobia in hip hop and tackled politics in his lyrics. His persona is far more complex than most of his peers, but not without its contradictions. When he signed his deal with Roc-A-Fella he went straight to every US rappers' favourite jeweller, New York's Jacob the Jeweller, and spent $25,000 on a necklace - then highlighted the plight of West African children mining precious stones on 'Diamonds from Sierra Leone'.

He works at a furious pace, intent on embracing fields outside of music. He oversees the design of all his artwork and videos, is in the process of launching his own clothing line Pastelle, and has even started work on his own TV show with Seinfeld writer Larry Charles. 'We're editing the pilot right now,' he confirms, though he doesn't want to reveal much more.

There's little chat on the way back to Tokyo, as everyone is jetlagged and falls asleep. The next morning we meet in the foyer again. West is off to see acclaimed contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, the 'Warhol of Japan', who is directing the artwork for the whole Graduation project, from album cover to animation and T-shirts. Murakami's offices are a short drive away in Roppongi Hills, but when we arrive Kanye suddenly decides his entourage is too large, and we're asked to wait in the people carrier for a while. Which we do. For five hours. Eventually, word is sent down that I can join him upstairs, where he is working - through an interpreter - on T-shirt designs with one of Murakami's team.

In Raising Kanye, Donda recalls buying her three-year-old son a box of Crayolas, and how, even though his talent stood out even then, he would always put his own stamp on things. 'He rarely made things the right colour. He would make the banana purple and the orange blue.' Little seems to have changed. Kanye gets increasingly frustrated when the pastel camouflage design doesn't match his vision. 'No, no!' he complains to the interpreter, almost stamping his foot in frustration. 'Tell him no orange in it!'

'I definitely have OCD [Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder],' he nods, when I bring up his tendency to obsess over details later. 'I have to be creative at all times and I have to learn. I don't know any other way. I'm a designer and rap is just one of my designs.'

Do you find if difficult to switch off, to have a life outside your work?

'My life is work. My career is a labour of love. It's not like I wanted to leave Murakami's studio ... I wanted to stay as long as possible.'

Since the release of Late Registration, he has found himself in the public eye on two particularly memorable occasions. Three days after the album's release, on 2 September 2005, he appeared on live TV for a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina. After going off-message and complaining 'I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food,"' while his co-host Mike Myers looked on like a rabbit in the headlights, he concluded, simply, 'George Bush doesn't care about black people.'

Less edifyingly, at the MTV European Music Awards last November, Kanye stormed the stage when the Justice v Simian's 'We Are Your Friends' beat his own 'Touch The Sky' to the best video award, grabbing a mic and declaring: 'Fuck this! My thing cost a million dollars man ... I had Pam Anderson, I was jumping across canyons and shit. If I don't win, the award show loses ... credibility.'

We discuss both events in Japan en route that second day to Springroove, an indoor festival that Kanye is headlining. The bill also includes Lauryn Hill, Lupe Fiasco, Ziggy Marley and Lady Sovereign, as well as Japanese artists such as the Teriyaki Boyz.

'I'm an artist that people love to hate,' he shrugs. 'Even if they love me sometimes they just like to talk shit about me, because there are very few artists who stand up for what they believe in.'

Even five months on he is, however, aware he overstepped the mark at the MTV awards and that many people were sick of his shameless ranting, although he would like to make it clear he had been told beforehand he would win the award and felt stitched up by the organisers. 'It's important to express my opinions,' he explains, 'but I need to learn that sometimes it's not the right time to express yourself.'

The venue that night is a soulless enormadome, but Kanye still manages to get the crowd whipped up getting by far the greatest response of the evening. After the gig we travel to the super-fashionable and futuristic Shibuya area to shoot West against a backdrop of neon lights. It's gone 1am, but the streets still throng with fabulously dressed Shibuya boys and girls. Many recognise Kanye, but most keep their distance. He has decided to keep his white headphones on for the shoot, which I presume he's just wearing for a prop, until he wanders over to me in-between shots. 'Man, I still don't get this Arcade Fire thing.'

The morning after we arrive, Kanye joins his mum for a book-signing for Raising Kanye at the Madison Square branch of Borders. The signing is not nearly as busy as I expect it to be, but there's still a queue of fans, most bearing gifts, from bouquets of flowers for Donda from female fans ('You must be so proud') to odder presents like a terrible oil painting of her son. Several hopeful rappers try to pass on demos to Kanye.

'Yo, can you tell people not to try and pass him stuff?' Don C asks a security guard.

'He's here for his mom, to support his mom,' stresses Ibn.

'People don't care about that,' says a nearby fan. 'People will try and give people demos at a funeral. It's a tough business, you gotta do what you gotta do.'

After the signing, we shoot across midtown to the studio of the creative team busy with the graphics for the video to 'Stronger'. Directed by Hype Williams, it is an epic affair, three months in the making, featuring a genuine Japanese motorcycle gang. A dozen designers are working on effects like the red trail left by a motorcycle brake light, and the words, 'Harder, better, faster, stronger'. Kanye pads around, scrutinising the screens. 'This is interesting, right?' he asks me, rhetorically. 'Not many rappers do this shit.' The two of us watch a scene where the half-naked Kanye is engulfed by an animated machine, Akira-style. What exactly is the machine doing to you, I ask. 'I dunno,' Kanye shrugs, 'just ...'

'Making you harder, better, faster and stronger?' I venture.

'Yeah,' he grins.

That evening he has to film a couple of final close-up shots for the video at a convention centre near Chelsea pier. We arrive at dusk just as he and Ibn arrive with three full suitcases - one full of sneakers, the others full of jeans, T-shirts, hoodies and jackets. The two of them pick out a couple of outfits and then Ibn takes a photo of Kanye to show him what he looks like. During a break in filming, Kanye wanders over and perches himself next to me, munching on a grilled chicken sandwich. He talks about the reaction to 'Can't Tell Me Nothing', which is being used as a lead single in the States. It's proved more popular 'in the hood' than any previous Kanye track. It's clear that if there was a slight crack in confidence when we met in Japan, it's gone now. 'People say to me, "What do you mean, coming back with a song like that?"' he chuckles. 'I said: "That's exactly what I mean: you can't tell me ... NUTHIN!"' He almost growls the last word.

The following night it's the birthday party. The venue, naturally, is the Louis Vuitton store on East 57 Street. The whole block is gridlocked with ostentatious vehicles including a host of blacked-out SUVs, a cream coloured Rolls Royce, mayonnaise-coloured Benz and a bright red Lamborghini. Inside, it is packed - just moving up the cantilevered staircase one floor can take 20 minutes. Bartenders pour liberally from bottles of Hennessy and champagne. It's a heavy-duty guest list, with most of Kanye's peers and New York's music royalty in attendance, including Jay-Z, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, P Diddy, Fall Out Boy, Ashlee Simpson, Common, Swiss Beatz, Jermaine Dupri and Russell Simmons.

Kanye is dressed in a dinner jacket and bow tie, with jeans and sneakers. He seems penned in and every time he moves, the crowd moves with him, so I'm surprised when he makes his way over and greets me with a hug. 'Great party, huh?' he asks.

John Legend and the Clipse both perform short sets before Kanye takes to the small stage and thanks everyone for coming, before speeding through a couple of numbers himself with Pharrell Williams, Fabolous and Lupe Fiasco. The venue is so packed only a few at the front can see, but I do glimpse doting Donda dancing at the side of the stage.

Three weeks later, Kanye makes a flying visit to the UK to perform at the Concert For Diana and the Manchester International Festival. Straight off a plane from Paris, he heads to another Raising Kanye signing at Waterstone's, Piccadilly. The surrounding streets are still closed after the failed car bombing on Haymarket the previous morning. 'I don't think they were trying to bomb me,' says Kanye when I ask him later if he's concerned. 'When it's your time to go, it's your time to go. If something is going to happen to me, I'd rather it happened while I'm performing, or giving back to the fans, while I'm doing what I love.'

The following day is the Concert For Diana at Wembley Stadium. It seems slightly odd that Kanye West is on the bill - not only is he easily the edgiest artist, there's also the matter of his own near-fatal car crash - but he isn't surprised himself (although he later tells me he was asked to remove a couple of chase scenes from the videos screened alongside his performance). He takes the stage in the late afternoon, and while everyone else has sung two or three of their best-known tracks, he storms through a montage of 'Gold Digger', 'Touch the Sky', 'Stronger', 'Diamonds' and 'Jesus Walks', comprehensively stealing the show. During 'Touch the Sky', he sprints from one side of the Wembley stage to the other while rapping breathlessly and the TV cameras show audience members mouth agape. The comparison couldn't be greater with P Diddy, who follows Kanye with a drawn out p.diculous performance of 'Missing You' which he dedicates to Diana who was 'so beautiful, so graceful, so compassionate, so Royal ...'

It's also the first time the UK gets to see Kanye's latest fashion statement - his shutter shades. Even the Princes are moved to comment when Kanye meets them after the show. 'One of them said: "I thought those glasses were bling" and the other one said: 'It's Kanye West, they'd have to be bling,"' he chuckles later. 'I didn't have the heart to tell them that I'm the anti-bling.'

Even though a version of 'Stronger' has already gone to radio, he's spent the last couple of days tweaking it further. He's now worked on the track with eight different engineers around the world, and recorded over 50 versions. After his outburst at the MTV Awards Kanye went back and discovered Justice's music and ironically, the influence and connections of Justice and their forebears Daft Punk now help Graduation feel right on the zeitgeist. 'I think God had me not win that award for a reason,' Kanye agrees, 'He was like, "Hey, let me introduce me to your new friends."' A friend of Justice, the designer So Me, who was on the podium with them that night, has just directed the video to West's next single 'The Good Life'.

Would he agree Graduation introduces a harder edge to Kanye West? 'Well, I think it's a bigger sound,' he clarifies. '"Stronger" is more of a stadium thing, a throw-your- hands-up-in-the-sky vibe. It still has heavy melody, but we played with the drums a lot. We spent weeks on the drums on "I Wonder" [the album's opener]. "Stronger" doesn't even have a real snare, it's like a digital open hi-hat. Just to play with those things in the rap world is really interesting.'

The release of Graduation has been put back a week, which means it will now come out on the same day as the new album from 50 Cent, the biggest-selling rapper of the millennium. Kanye assures me he isn't bothered by the clash. 'It's better, isn't it? It makes it more of an event.'

Even if it means you don't go to number one?

'It's more important for me to be involved in an event than to say I had a number one album. If I come out on a week no one else is out and go to number one people will be like, "Whatever ...", but if I come out the same week as 50 and go to number two people will be like [excited], "How close are the numbers? I need a recall!"'

While his label boss Jay-Z's rhetoric has always revolved around him being a hustler, who now simply hustles in the rap game, Kanye prefers to constantly refer to himself as a designer, who happens to design raps. When Graduation is finally finished, Kanye has plenty of other designs to work on. He's working with Madonna's choreographer on plans for a spectacular tour, which should reach the UK in the new year. His clothing line should launch soon, not to mention the TV show.

One of the biggest revelations for me over the past few months is that if you learn to either accept or disregard his arrogance or ego, and have the energy to try and keep up with his relentless drive, Kanye himself is very engaging company. 'The biggest misconception is people think I wouldn't be cool to hang around. I think I'm a cool guy to hang around, but then maybe that's just me being arrogant again,' he chuckles, 'I'm not saying it's a misconception that I'm cocky. I am cocky. But as you've seen most of the time we're laughing and joking and shit.'

He talks again of how the visuals, and in particular Japanese graphics and design, have had a heavy influence on this album, and how the imagery and music feed off each other. Which takes me back to a late-night conversation we had in Japan.

'I have neon lights in the studio now,' he had said. 'People always used to say I didn't know how to set a mood in the studio because even though I made soul music at that time - I mean, my music is still soul, but, you know, quote unquote soul - I never lit candles and shit. But now I have my neon lights ... when they said I never knew how to set a mood before, I never really had a mood before that fitted with me.'

Before now?

'Before now. But now I got the neon lights and I'm like, OK, I like this mood right here. It's like when I was a little kid, I was hip hop before I knew what hip-hop was, they couldn't find a label for me, the way I dressed, because in Chicago, no one dressed the way I dressed ... but now I know what it is.

Now I know my mood is neon.'

He paused and considered this.

'I AM neon.'

You are neon?

'I. Do. Glow. In. The. Dark.'

And that's what you want the music to do?

· The single 'Stronger' is released August 13, and Graduation is released on 10 September, both on Mercury

How the West was raised

'When Kanye was six, my sister and brother-in-law took him to a lake. There were ducks there just quacking away. Kanye took exception to the way the ducks were quacking. "That's not the way they're supposed to sound," he said, and started quacking the way he thought it should be. Now those were real ducks quacking and he felt like they were doing it wrong. In his mind it should have sounded a different way. He was adamant that the ducks were quacking wrong. Kanye had a distinct perspective. He always had his own spin on things. I never criticized him for it. I figured I would just nuture the creativity ...

'When he was 12 or 13 I caught him primping in the mirror one day. He turned and said, "Mom, look at me! I could be a teenage sex symbol!" He was serious. It used to tickle me, him looking at himself in the mirror. And Kanye did become that sex symbol. You have to be able to see yourself; you have to be able to see it when no-one else can see it. You have to visualize where you want it to be and claim it. Kanye claimed it a long time ago. Those countless hours in his room, the years of preparation, prepared him for when his vision finally came to fruition.'

· Extracted from 'Raising Kanye - Life Lessons From The Mother of A Hip-Hop Superstar' by Donda West (Simon&Schuster)

• The Observer

Most viewed

2007 MTV Video Music Awards

Britney's comeback wasn't pretty, and that just kicked things off. Music critic Josh Tyrangiel sat through every excruciating moment and grades all the performing acts

Kanye West arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Palms Hotel and Casino on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007, in Las Vegas

For some reason, MTV split its signature show into one-off performances on a theater stage and full concert performances in packed, sweaty suites high above in the Palms hotel. Naturally, the suite performances — Foo Fighters with Cee-lo and Serj Tankian, Justin Timberlake with Timbaland and Fifty Cent, Kanye West with Common, Fall Out Boy with Gym Class Heroes — looked great, but they were only televised as extended cutaways before the cameras jerked back to the theaters for the presentation of another meaningless award. West at least was allowed to do a full song, and while his performance wasn't particularly memorable (although it'll be hard to forget how much he looks like Fab 5 Freddy in white shades and a tuxedo) at least the people partying around him seemed to have a genuinely good time.

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The Evolution of Kanye West’s Tours

By Jessy Edwards

Looking back to Kanye West’s very first nationwide tour, it’s incredible to see how much has changed.

It was 2004, and back then a good hip-hop show meant seeing your favorite artist perform their set without any major sound difficulties. The big-budget spectacles West pioneered existed only in dreams. In the years that followed, his live performance evolved from performing in front of a backdrop of Chicago’s skyline to ascending a literal mountain constructed on stage.

Over five headline tours and multiple spot performances, Kanye has transformed the expectations for a hip-hop. After the Yeezus tour of 2013, the New York Post raved that the show was more than just a concert, saying, “It’s an extravaganza of music and theater… an unmissable spectacle.”

Kanye has developed the live performance to be immersive and experiential, pairing with fashion designers, artists, and engineers to create shows that redefine the concert experience—even architecture magazines have marveled at Kanye’s work.

So as Ye prepares for the Saint Pablo Tour —his first in three years—we look back at the tours that came before: the looks, the designers, the opening acts, the artistry, and the drama.

Related: Kanye West By The Numbers

The College Dropout Tour

Length: March 16—May 5, 2004 Set designer: Unknown Supporting acts: Dilated Peoples, John Legend, GLC

Baggy jeans, striped polos and a college vibe were the defining elements of Kanye West’s very first headline tour, in 2004.

Well before West was sending his own models down the runway of New York Fashion week, he and his crew were rocking matching Ralph Lauren polos emblazoned with the mascot of his debut album and tour—the College Dropout bear.

The tour spanned 34 dates, from March to May that year, and a 26-year-old West leaned in to the collegiate theme. Not only did it kick off at Virginia Tech, it hit a number of college towns across the states—from Pace University in New York to George Washington University in DC, ending with three shows at House of Blues in West’s hometown, Chicago.

The tour started just months after the official release of West’s first album, which shot to #2 and sold almost 500,000 copies in its first week, and was opened by Dilated Peoples, featured John Legend and GLC, and had A-Trak as tour DJ.

A-Trak’s video from the tour describes the vibe: “There were lots of chicken wings, lots of shoes and lots of laughter,” he says. The footage, from more than a decade ago, shows how excited the artists were to fly on a G4 private jet to some of the locations.

Onstage, Kanye paced in front of seven slim LED-screens, and some footage has the Chicago cityscape as his background. While the tour is lo-fi compared to his modern-day setups, the venues were packed with people, and when West asked his crowd to “scream so loud when the music come on you can’t even hear it,” they did just that.

English musician Tom Wiseman, from hip hop group Community League , says one of his “greatest show experiences” came from seeing the tour stop in the U.K.

“When The College Dropout tour came to town for one night only back in 2004, it was a magical affair that went down as one of the best in the year that was soundtracked by the irrepressible Mr. West,” he recalls. “When Kanye launched into ‘Slow Jamz’ only to have the entire crowd sing the words back to him—his mic held loosely at his side, the expression of wonder on his face, it was priceless.”

The Touch The Sky Tour

Screenshot via YouTube

Length: October 12—December 11, 2005 Set designer: Esmeralda Devlin Opening acts: Fantasia and Keyshia Cole

Ye’s second tour started off with a few hiccups . He was making changes right down to the last minute.

As the story goes, West scrapped the Touch the Sky Tour’s entire lighting plan just two weeks before the opening show in Miami. According to Mark Beaumont’s book Kanye West: God and Monster , the tour was completely redone by new tour designer Es Devlin just a fortnight before opening night, and soon after Kanye was heard yelling “I’m not excited about going on tour! All y’all have is moving lights!” to his former designer.

And then, just days before Ye was meant to start touring, opening act Common announced he couldn’t make it—he’d just landed an acting role. This left West with Fantasia and Keyshia Cole for his opening acts.

In the end, the stage show was accompanied by a glamorous six-piece string section and featured live video of the show projected behind the stage. West kneeled by a hospital bed to sing “Roses”—about his grandmother’s illness—and later collapsed in front of a screen scrolling negative reviews behind him. The star changed four times and wore designer blazers, pants, and dark designer sunglasses.

Chicago fan and music writer Tre G describes the show he saw at the Breslin Center in Michigan as the “greatest thing [he] had ever seen at the time.” Not only was it the first concert he had ever attended, Tre still remembers being blown away by the lighting and visuals. “You could tell Kanye was all about production, even in his early years,” he says. “I remember vividly one part of the show, Kanye displayed on the screen what critics and magazines were saying about him at the time.”

And the performance itself didn’t disappoint.

“I went HAM when he performed ‘Get ‘Em High.’ It’s still one my favorites,” he says.

Despite calling him an “only average rapper,” a Rolling Stone reviewer admitted that, unlike many other hip-hop hits, some of West’s songs were better live. Mark Beaumont described the Touch the Sky tour as Kanye “stepping out onto the tour big leagues.” He played the Thompson-Bowling Arena in Knoxville, the Mizzou Arena in Columbia, and two nights at the theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Speaking to an MTV reporter on opening night about his earlier setbacks , West was typically brash.

“F— that!” West said backstage shortly before showtime. “We not gonna wait for 10 shows from now, we gonna touch the sky tonight.”

And so it was.

The Glow in the Dark Tour

Length: April 16, 2008—December 7, 2008 Set designer: Esmeralda Devlin Opening acts: N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna

Kanye’s first world tour also included his first truly extraordinary stage.

The Glow In The Dark Tour crammed in more than 50 arena and festival shows in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. before heading to Mexico and then across the Pacific, via South America, to the Far East and Europe.

The concept pitted Kanye as a the pilot of a spaceship hitting a meteor storm, landing on a desolate planet of dry ice, and trying to find his way home through tracks from The College Dropout , Late Registration , Graduation , 808s and Heartbreak .

With design again done by Es Devlin, in collaboration with Martin Phillips and John McGuire, the stage was transformed into a barren series of landscapes—one resembling a giant moon—and fantastical glow-in-the-dark features: a giant, glowing-eyed monster and a robot moved within the haze, women shimmered in gold paint for the track “Gold Digger,” and stunning multi-colored light sequences lit up the often smoke-filled stage.

Ye himself wore sci-fi themed threads, glow-in-the-dark accessories, his signature stunna shades, and gloves.

The performance was a visual feast, “an attempt to push hip-hop into the arena rock league,” Mark Beaumont argued in his book Kanye West: God and Monster . It was even immortalized in the book of photography Glow in the Dark by Nabil Elderkin.

But again, the show was not without its hiccups. In Sacramento, Ye accidentally called the city Seattle, before quickly apologizing. At Bonnaroo, fans chanted “Kanye sucks” after a change in scheduling had West come on stage at 4:25 A.M. —almost two hours after he was meant to start.

Plus, Ye self-funded the tour after the original sponsor, Best Buy, pulled out, according to sources . But his hard work paid off, and the tour ended up a success, grossing $300 million.

The Fame Kills Tour

Length: N/A Set designer: N/A Opening acts: N/A

In 2009, Lady Gaga and Kanye West announced their joint Fame Kills tour, which was due to kick off in Phoenix in November and keep the stars touring through to the new year.

The tour sounded like it was all set, with Gaga going on air to describe the creative process for the tour: how she and Kanye had designed a stage that would traverse the entire arena.

She explained that Kanye would represent “the fame,” and she would represent “home and humble beginnings,” and the two artists would be aiming to reach each other from either ends of the stage.

In early October, however, the show was cancelled , with little reason given. Some speculated that it was related to negative publicity surrounding West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s VMA acceptance speech that month, and it would two more years before Kanye announced another tour.

The Watch the Throne Tour

Image via Wikipedia

Length: October 29, 2011—June 22, 2012 Set designers: Esmeralda Devlin, Kanye West, DONDA, Bruce Rodgers, Nick Whitehouse, John McGuire, Geodezik Opening acts: None

“Attenborough BBC wildlife content and lasers” was the brief given to stage designer Es Devlin by Kanye for his tour with Jay Z in 2011.

The result: the incredible Watch the Throne tour featured the two performers perched on massive video cubes showing sharks, Rottweilers, crows, and tigers in a sea of darkness punctuated only by cellphone lights and piercing lasers.

As the pair played “Otis,” a giant American flag lit up the backdrop.

Devlin used hundreds of laser beams to create a myriad of different frames to this alternate world of geometric shapes, cascading light, wild animals, and its stars: Kanye West and Jay Z. The two lived up to the hype, and then some. Their habit of playing the smash hit “N****s in Paris” eight, nine, 10, or 12 times in a row quickly become the stuff of legend.

Partnering with Givenchy, for the most part, Yeezy dressed in slick black: t-shirts, leather pants and a big gold chain.

The tour grossed $47 million in 2012, in addition to the $48 million it earned in 2011, Bloomberg reported , and in the summer of 2012, Kanye West launched his own design company , DONDA, focused on “content, product, and experience.”

The Yeezus Tour

Length: October 19, 2013—December 23, 2013 Set designer: DONDA and Esmeralda Devlin Opening acts: Kendrick Lamar, A Tribe Called Quest, Travi$ Scott, and Pusha T

Kanye’s last tour was his most ambitious and daring yet.

Featuring a man-made mountain, diamond encrusted masks, and a catwalk, it was this tour that had the New York Post reviewer praising “an extravaganza of music and theater that gives the world windows into [West’s] erratic persona.”

This visual feast was created through collaboration between set designer Es Devlin, West’s design company DONDA, fashion house Maison Margiela, artist Vanessa Beecroft, and more. This was the tour burned into memory through those full-face masks. This was the tour where Ye staged the reincarnation of Jesus and delivered sermons on the state of the world.

Super-fan Matt Nein, 20, saw the show three times as it toured the States: once in Philly, once at Penn State, and once in Atlantic City, calling it “the pinnacle of rap shows.”

“Kanye and his crew did things that pushed the envelope artistically and haven’t been done before,” he explains, pointing out that as a rap fan, many shows he’s seen have turned on an artist rapping over their own voice, with a posse standing behind them onstage.

“Whether it was using an Xbox to track Kanye’s movements during ‘Black Skinhead’ or making it snow in the arena during ‘Coldest Winter,’ Kanye made sure to do things that people wouldn’t expect.”

The Yeezus stage set and concept—featuring a giant mountain that occasionally turned into a volcano—was described by reviewers as “half biblical allegory and half motivational seminar”.

It kicked off on Oct. 19 in Seattle, and Kanye opened with “On Sight” in a custom-made Margiela mask that obscured his whole face. West worked closely with Maison Margiela to curate the show, and his wardrobe for the Tour was composed of 10 couture pieces, 20 ready-to-wear pieces, and an exclusive pair of sneakers, as well as the famous masks.

Onstage, Devlin had constructed a mountain, which was sometimes wreathed in flames, sometimes covered with women in long white dresses. At times it would split in two halves, or become a volcano. There was an iceberg, 12 nude-nylon clad dancers, and a catwalk, alluding back to the fashion show created with Margiela.

The speeches also became a key part of the Yeezus show. “Through the Yeezus tour the sermons came thick, fast, and very very long,” Mark Beaumont writes .

But the show wasn’t bulletproof. The tour was postponed for 18 days when one of the trucks holding part of the 60-foot LED screen was in a car crash, and the equipment damaged beyond repair. Several shows were postponed or cancelled while the gear was rebuilt.

But as always, the show went on, with Rolling Stone calling it “truly electrifying.”

The Saint Pablo Tour

Image via Tidal

Length: August 25—November 1 Set designer: DONDA SURROUND Opening acts: TBD

Last month, West announced The Saint Pablo Tour , his first North American tour in three years.

While very few clues to what fans can expect have been announced yet, more collaboration with visual artists, à la West’s “Famous” video, could be forthcoming.

The tour will visit nearly 40 cities across the U.S. and Canada—mainly playing arenas—including dates in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, Montreal, Detroit, Washington DC, Miami, and more.

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⟵ 2006 • 2007 • 2008 ⟶

In 2007 , Kanye West released his critically-acclaimed third studio album, Graduation . [1] In November, his mother, Donda , passed away due to complications from cosmetic surgery involving abdominoplasty and breast reduction. [2] [3]

• 1.2 Mixtape
• 1.3 Singles
• 1.4 Guest appearances
• 1.5 Production credits
• 7 September
• 10 References

Releases [ ]

• Graduation (September 11) [1]

Mixtape [ ]

• Can't Tell Me Nothing (May 27) [4]

Singles [ ]

• Can't Tell Me Nothing (May 15) [1]
• Stronger (July 31) [1]
• Good Life (ft. T-Pain ) (October 2) [1]
• Flashing Lights (ft. Dwele ) (November 12) [1]

Guest appearances [ ]

• The Game — Wouldn't Get Far (January 23) [5]
• Rakim , Kanye West , Nas & KRS-One — Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been) (February 20) [6]

Production credits [ ]

• The People (May 22) (single) [8]
• Drivin' Me Wild (August 31) (single) [9]

January [ ]

• 23: " Wouldn't Get Far " by The Game is released as its album's third single, after the album's release in November 2006. [5]

February [ ]

• 20: The joint single " Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been) " with Rakim , Nas , and KRS-One is released. [6]
• 15: " Can't Tell Me Nothing " is released as the lead single for Graduation . [1]
• 22: Common releases " The People " as the second single for his upcoming project Finding Forever . As with much of that album, this song is produced by Kanye. [8]
• 27: The Can't Tell Me Nothing mixtape is released. [4]
• 31: " Stronger " is released as the second single for Graduation . [1]
• 31: Common 's seventh studio album Finding Forever is released. A lot of the album's tracks are produced by Kanye. [7]
• 31: Common releases " Drivin' Me Wild " as the third single for his Finding Forever album, which was released exactly one month prior. This song is produced by Kanye, as is a lot of the aforementioned album. [9]

September [ ]

• 11: Graduation is released. [1]

October [ ]

• 2: " Good Life " is released as Graduation 's first post-release single, third overall. [1]

November [ ]

• 10: Kanye's mother, Donda West , passes away due to complications from a cosmetic surgery procedure. [2]

References [ ]

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Graduation (album) on Wikipedia.
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 Donda West on Wikipedia.
• ↑ Kanye West on Wikipedia.
• ↑ 4.0 4.1 Can't Tell Me Nothing (mixtape) on Wikipedia.
• ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Wouldn't Get Far on Wikipedia.
• ↑ 6.0 6.1 Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been) on Wikipedia.
• ↑ 7.0 7.1 Finding Forever on Wikipedia.
• ↑ 8.0 8.1 The People (Common song) on Wikipedia.
• ↑ 9.0 9.1 Drivin' Me Wild on Wikipedia.
• 1 List of unreleased albums
• 3 Like That (Remix)

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Kanye West: ‘People say there are a lot of parallels between Princess Diana and I’

By Johnny Davis

It's June and Kanye West is in London to perform at the Concert For Diana.

Later this week he will give Princes William and Harry a signed copy of Raising Kanye , written by his mum, Donda West, and subtitled Life Lessons From The Mother Of A Hip-Hop Superstar .

Before that there is work to do. In a little over three months, Graduation , his third album of hyper-catchy songs, will be released. Though West is an incorrigible tinkerer, revising up to deadline (or, in the case of his Shirley Bassey-sampling hit "Diamonds From Sierra Leone", past it, so there are two versions), and the album is incomplete, the time's come to unveil it to his record company.

Employees arrange themselves on sofas in a Chiswick recording studio. It's a well-known drill; an after-hours kickback for staff to familiarise themselves with a record they will spend 12 months selling. Yet, as soon as West arrives wearing a rainbow-coloured polo shirt, outsized Air Jordans and a showy Jesus pendant, two things become apparent. The first is that participation is required. "Can everybody tell me where they're from?" he instructs, indicating when the next person should speak by pointing a chicken drumstick at them. "Beth, sales." "Luke, new media."

And so on. Then he connects his MacBook to the studio desk and the second thing makes itself known. This will be less a playback, more a performance. As the music booms out, he jumps up and down, playing air keyboards, drums and something that might be a harp, and acting out the lyrics. During "Goodbye" he drops the volume and performs the mid-section rap to the room. After "Can't Tell Me Nothing" he explains: "Those notes cut me right there. I listen to Coldplay, Keane and the Killers. Those are notes Keane would fuck with." Mid-"Good Morning" he says: "I must point out one line:

'I'm like the fly Malcolm X/By any jeans possible.' It's one of my favourite lines."

Afterwards, he gauges reactions. "It's incredible," someone offers. "It's euphoric... This one is going to lift people. I think you wrote a self-help book." "Thank you," West says. "It's, like, what if your drawbacks ended up being your superpower? I've always had an issue with masculinity. I'm like, 'I hope this person isn't looking at me like I'm a fag.' 'Cos I have some feminine ways. Maybe I'm not the guy who kicks off [a fight] in a club. Now I'm a 30-year-old, I've accepted that. Because of that I ended up having the No.1 album.

Because" - and here he slaps the back of his hand for emphasis - "people are tired of that." "I've realised," he concludes, "everything I'm not made me everything I am."

It is 48 hours later and Kanye West has been busy. In Paris he watched Louis Vuitton's spring/summer '08 menswear show. In London's Mayfair he attended a party hosted by Dita Von Teese. And at Wembley he rehearsed for the Concert For Diana. He has also been on the receiving end of some sparkling British wit. "I was in a club taking a piss and this guy was making comments like, 'Mr East!' just drunk and acting stupid, and he slaps me on the back to get my attention," he says. "And I told him: 'Look, I don't feel comfortable holding my dick with another man's hand on me. Unless you want me to turn around in the middle of this...'" No matter: West figures the incident will prove inspiring material for his new TV series, a comedy starring himself, directed by Curb Your Enthusiasm producer Larry Charles. The internet suggests it is an approximation of West's day-to-day life, with exaggerated funny bits. "Well, my life does have funny bits," he says. "I run in to so many characters."

We are in West's London hotel room. Powering though his breakfast (an All-Bran/Corn Flakes mix, two Diet Cokes, plus egg whites and turkey), he studies the plans for the house he's having built in LA, a mile from Madonna's place. After the last one was completed he decided he didn't like the renovations, and started again. This one, the work of Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein-endorsed architect Claudio Silvestrin, has a 105ft wardrobe. West likes clothes. Foremost in his mind is what to wear at the concert. He's been looking for a red linen suit. But he's drawn a blank. It's not as if Hedi Slimane has been much help. "I tried calling him so many times," he sighs. "I don't know what he's doing." How does he think his style will hold up against the rest of GQ 's Men Of The Year? "There are people who dress better than me," he says, "just not many celebrities. Is Jude Law in there? I think I have leeway because I'm a rapper and I'm black. I think fashion people expect less of black people."

Talk turns to the concert. "We've only got seven minutes. But it's an incredible seven minutes," he says. "I sound the way I did when I first had sex. The Princes requested "Diamonds...". So we're ending with that."

According to West, he has more in common with Princess Diana that might be apparent. "People say there's a lot of parallels with us. Like her sticking to what she believed in."

A car accident also looms in West's biography - he recorded his first single, "Through The Wire", laid up with his jaw wired shut - although, that was because he fell asleep at the wheel. "Being willing to die for what you believe in is the mark of a true artist," he continues. "It's like that movie The Prestige where he's willing to kill himself to deliver that form of entertainment. I kill myself every night to pull this shit off."

By Adam Cheung

By Eileen Cartter

He polishes off his breakfast and heads to Bond Street to look for his red suit. He doesn't find it. Instead he wears Dior trousers, a Lanvin jacket and white sunglasses with horizontal bars in the place of lenses that feature in Graduation 's art direction. "Settled for a red tie," he says, flapping a skinny Fred Perry number. The sunglasses, frankly, look rather impractical."They do kind of make me dizzy."

Along with his manager and PR, West travels to Wembley with his fiancée Alexis, his stylist Ibyn, the current Miss Swansea (who Ibyn has befriended), his bodyguard Barry, his mum Donda and his uncle Anthony (who sings backing vocals). Donda clutches a plastic pint of lager. She wonders about the line-up: "I don't know why they put Puffy [ P Diddy] afterwards."

At the stadium, David Beckham wrestles with his kids. A pregnant Lauren Laverne is sat in a plastic chair. Patsy Kensit whizzes past on a golf buggy. Ten minutes before their slot, Team West troop up to the stage. Take That's dancers limber up. Rod Stewart, live to 500 million people, is doing "Sailing". Then West decides instead of finishing with "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" he'd like to add "Jesus Walks".

A-Track, the man responsible for the backing music, looks green.

But West's seven minutes are terrific. Afterwards, West reviews himself on the camera. "We killed it," he says.

Everyone stays to watch Diddy. While West crammed five songs into his allotted time, it soon transpires he plans to stretch one - "I'll Be Missing You" - to fill his. The instrumental intro drags on. There are some ad-libs - "So compassionate, so royal, an incredible mother - make some noise for Princess Diana, y'all"; "Prince William, Prince Harry, we love you, we respect you" - then it finishes. "He's really doing one song?" says West. "Oh."

In hospitality Dennis Hopper sits in front of us, his hand on his wife's knee.

Boris Becker introduces himself - "A big fan" - though it's not clear West knows who he is. Perhaps he's thinking of the Princes.

Soon, he'll be ushered into a room where they'll express their thanks and, in return, he will give them their books. "Some days are better than others," he beams. "This is a good day."

Originally published in the October 2007 issue of British GQ.

By Finlay Renwick

By Jack King

By Miles Ellingham

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A Timeline of Drake & Ye’s Relationship: From Friends to Feuds

The two rap titans started as friends before the relationship soured.

By Michael Saponara

Michael Saponara

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Drake and Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — have just about seen it all throughout their decorated careers. The pair of rap titans have been friends, collaborators, mentors, enemies and more over the course of the last 15 years.

The 6 God once hailed Ye as the “most influential” person on his sound, and he’s gone on to live out his “Thank Me Now” lyrics of seeing his idols become rivals, as Drizzy and West are currently entrenched in a feud with no sign of reconciliation on the horizon.

Drake Vs. Everybody: Here Are All of The Stars Involved in the Rap Civil War

After meeting in Hawaii, West took Drake under his wing and directed the music video to his So Far Gone breakout hit “Best I Ever Had” in 2009.

By the mid-2010s, they were working on a collab project that could’ve shifted the paradigm in hip-hop, but the rappers went their separate ways and have been sending shots in an on-and-off-again feud since.

It was thought that their beef was finally squashed for good in December 2021 when J. Prince helped broker a truce for Drake and Ye to reunite on stage at the Free Larry Hoover Benefit concert in Los Angeles.

However, their relationship eventually went awry again. In April 2024, West threw his hat into the ring to enter the rap civil war, going against Drake when hopping on a remix to Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar’s Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Like That.”

Check out Billboard ‘s timeline about how Ye and Drake got to this point in their love-hate relationship over the years.

September 2007: Drake Freestyles Over "Barry Bonds"

Drake showed respect to Ye from the early days of the latter’s career while freestyling over the thumping “Barry Bonds” beat on Drizzy’s 2007 Comeback Season mixtape. “Barry Bonds” was on Ye’s Graduation album as a Lil Wayne collaboration, which arrived shortly after Drake’s mixtape; it’s unclear how Drizzy got the beat ahead of time.

September 2008: Drake Freestyles Over"Swagga Like Us"

Rap’s ultimate posse cut arrived in ’08 with T.I., Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Ye joining forces for “Swagga Like Us.” The braggadocios track peaked at no. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 . Drake wanted in on the hip-hop titans teaming up, and freestyled over West’s production to showcase he can go toe-to-toe with the best the genre has to offer.

February 2009: Drake Makes Ye's '808s & Heartbreak' Opener His Canvas

Drake’s breakout mixtape So Far Gone included another hat tip to West by making the desolate electro-pop 808s & Heartbreak opener “Say You Will” his own canvas, which he repackaged as “Say What’s Real.”

May 2009: Drake Calls Ye the 'Most Influential Person' on His Sound

Drake showered Ye with praise in a 2009 interview with MTV. Drizzy had met the “Good Life” rapper months prior in Hawaii while West was working on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy .

“Before I ever got the chance to meet him, Kanye West shaped a lot of what I do, as far as music goes,” Drake said at the time. “We always, always, always took the time to listen to Kanye’s music and appreciate it beyond. We searched the samples and we find out where his inspiration came from, because he has one of the best ears in music, period. He knows how to recognize great music that’s not his. He knows how to utilize great sounds and great music. So before I met him, I had the utmost respect for Kanye West. I’d even go as far as to say he’s the most influential person as far as a musician that I’d ever had in my life.”

May 2009: Ye Says Drake Had the Best Bar of '09

Ye returned the favor when crowning Drake with the best line of 2009 on Young Money’s “Every Girl.”

West wrote on his Kanye Universecity blog: “Drake said, ‘Do you like girls like I do?? Les-bi-honest!!!!!’ Best line of the year so far!”

Drake later told MTV in response to the props: “I feel like it’s funny, because that’s something he might have said. [But] it’s an honor that he’s even looking at me as somewhat of an equal, somewhat of a peer. I think he’s one of the greatest to ever do it.”

July 2009: West Directs Drake's "Best I Ever Had" Video

Ye put his creative vision to work when hopping behind the lens to direct the visual for Drake’s “Best I Ever Had” anthem. West had Drake play the coach of a women’s basketball team that certainly wasn’t lacking in the breast department.

August 2009: Drake & Kanye West Team Up With Eminem & Lil Wayne for "Forever"

Drake may have missed out on “Swagga Like Us,” but he made sure to find his way on the next hip-hop posse cut. “Forever” served as a knighting of sorts with Eminem, Ye and Lil Wayne welcoming Drizzy into rap’s pantheon.

April 2010: Kanye West Produces on Drake's Debut Album 'Thank Me Later'

West wasn’t featured as a vocal guest on Drake’s Thank Me Later , but produced the island-tinged “Find Your Love” and is credited as a co-writer on the 2010 debut album track. Ye also produced a song titled “You Know You Know,” which didn’t make the final album’s cut and ended up leaking months later.

November 2010: Drake Credited on Ye's "All of the Lights" & His Verse Leaks

Drake is credited with providing additional vocals on the luscious “All of the Lights,” in which Kanye spared no expense and brought in myriad talented collaborators to contribute to the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy standout.

While he’s barely on the original album version, an unofficial “All of the Lights” remix arrived following the track’s release, and finds Drake alongside Lil Wayne and Big Sean.

January 2011: Drake Swipes at Jay-Z & Ye While Teasing Lil Wayne Joint Album

Drake appears to take a jab at Ye and Jay-Z as they prepared to deliver Watch the Throne during his 2011 Tim Westwood interview.

“I heard some other guys are coming out with an album too,” Drake said while teasing that he and Wayne were teaming up for a joint project. “There’s two other rappers that are coming out with an album together. I don’t know where they got that idea.”

October 2011: Drake Says It's His Goal to 'Surpass' West

Drake shows love to Ye and says it’s an “honor” to be even compared to him, but makes it known it’s a competition out there, and his plans were to one day “surpass” West’s accomplishments in hip-hop.

“It’s an honor. When I was a kid trying to figure out what I liked, it was Ye who I related to the most. He was an artist, in every sense, from his cover art to his music. Now, I would say, he is [a] really great competitor and friend,” he told The Source . “My goal is to surpass everything he’s accomplished. I don’t want to be as good as Kanye — I want to be better.”

August 2013: Ye Appears at Drake's OVO Fest

Ye made an appearance at Drake’s OVO Fest in 2013. “Me and Hov would’ve never made  Watch the Throne  if [Drake] wasn’t putting pressure on us like that, so I just want to pay my respects,” West said on stage. Drake called Ye’s support at his festival the “most important moment in my career to date.”

February 2014: Drake Snipes at 'Yeezus,' West Responds

Drake jabbed at some of Ye’s bars on Yeezus . “There were some real questionable bars on there,” he told Rolling Stone . “Like that ‘Swaghili’ line? Come on, man. Even Fabolous wouldn’t say some s–t like that.” However, he saluted West as the “reason” he’s here.

Ye responded on the Yeezus Tour, not leaning into the feud and claiming it was all “love” between both parties. “They always be trying to pit n—as against each other and it ain’t going down no more. So, tonight it ain’t none of that. We love Drake,” West told the New Jersey crowd.

March 2015: Ye Says Drake Inspired Him to Hit the Studio

A decade into his career, Ye needed a push creatively, and Drake’s run of hits helped provide that inspiration to hit the studio and take things to another level in the mid-2010s.

“Someone who’s like, ‘Come on, man, get back up!’ I was sitting there getting fat. Sitting back, just knocked everybody out. And then this guy hits the gym, he’s just running around like, ‘Pow, 14 hits’ I’m like, ‘Whoa. Let me go to the studio, then. Let’s see what’s happening. Let me get these lyrics up,'” Ye told Clique . “So, that’s where we at right now, that’s where you getting these records from.”

January 2016: Drake Boasts His Pool Is Bigger Than Ye's

Drake kicked off 2016 with “Summer Sixteen,” in which he flexed about allegedly having a bigger pool in his backyard than his Calabasas neighbors Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. “Now I got a house in L.A., now I got a bigger pool than Ye/ And look man, Ye’s pool is nice, mine’s just bigger’s what I’m saying/ I’m that n—a’s what I’m saying,” he raps.

February 2016: Drake Earns Writing Credit on 'The Life of Pablo'

Drake is credited as a co-writer on The Life of Pablo sleeper “30 Hours” featuring André 3000. Drizzy allegedly recorded an early demo , and the reference track leaked on social media following TLOP ‘s arrival.

August 2016: Ye Pulls Up to OVO Fest & Teases Drake Joint Album

Ye made another OVO Fest appearance in Toronto, where he ran through a mini-set and teased that a collab album with Drake was on the horizon. “This man is the reason I’m on this stage. My biggest inspiration,” Drizzy said to the audience about Ye.

Later that month, billboards hinting at the joint project began popping up, reading “Calabasas is the new Abu Dhabi” with the logos of OVO and Ye’s G.O.O.D. Music.

pic.twitter.com/vWIdPmvQ7G — G.O.O.D. MUSIC (@GOODMUSIC) August 28, 2016

November 2016: Ye Rants About Drake & DJ Khaled's "For Free" Dominating Radio

West took the stage in Sacramento on Nov. 19, 2016, in what would end up being the final date of the Saint Pablo Tour, as he was hospitalized days later and canceled the rest of the trek due to extreme exhaustion and stress. In his final minutes on stage, the rapper went on a stream of consciousness in which he in part ranted about the success of DJ Khaled and Drake’s multi-platinum “For Free” dominating radio airwaves.

“We can love each other, but the rules gotta be fair,” he said. “Khaled, and Drake, and radio, and Doc, and 92.3 and everybody — is it just me or did you hear that song so many times? You say you wanna play it ‘For Free’? Ayy, ayy, you know what it is, though.”

February 2017: Drake Responds to Ye's Radio Rant

Drake responded to Ye’s radio rant targeting his and DJ Khaled’s “For Free” in an interview with DJ Semtex. The OVO boss also alluded to how he and Yeezy were working toward a joint album, so dissing him didn’t make sense.

“Because in the same breath, I went from, like, working on a project with him, to him sorta publicly s—ting on me and DJ Khaled for being on the radio too much,” he said. “I’m not sure why we’re the target of your choice that you made that night. And yeah, I accept what you’re going through, and I just go and continue working on my own thing.”

March 2017: Drake & Ye Toast to 'More Life'

Drake recruited West to appear on his More Life playlist, and the duo teamed up for the underwhelming “Glow.” At this point, the OVO honcho and Yeezy’s relationship was starting to fracture, and the rap titans haven’t collaborated on a track in the years since.

May 2018: West Produced Pusha T's "Infrared" Taking Shots at Drake

Pusha T sniped at Drake on Daytona’s closing track “Infrared,” which is produced by West (he helmed the entire project). King Push taps Drizzy with ghostwriting allegations by bringing up Quentin Miller, who was credited on several tracks of Drake’s 2015 mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late . “It was written like Nas, but it came from Quentin,” Pusha raps.

May 2018: Drake Responds With Shots at Ye on "Duppy Freestyle"

Drake quickly responded to Pusha T with “Duppy Freestyle,” but it wasn’t only King Push in his crosshairs, as there was plenty of smoke for Ye too. Drizzy puts West on blast because Drake allegedly helped Ye complete a handful of recent records.

“I’ve done things for him I thought that he never would need/ Father had to stretch his hands out and get it from me/ I pop style for 30 hours then let him repeat,” Drake raps.

June 2018: Drake Releases 'Scorpion' Album, Joe Budden Believes It's Filled With Shots at Ye

Drake released his Scorpion album in June 2018 while Ye was rolling out his string of G.O.O.D. Music projects. Fans and industry critics alike speculated Drizzy was jabbing at West throughout the album. Joe Budden theorized on his eponymous podcast that verses on “Emotionless” and “8 Out of 10” were connected and taking aim at Ye.

“He bodies this flip of the word ‘good’ throughout this whole song. So much so, if you’re not really paying attention you think he’s just using the word good — he ain’t. Owls are a sign of good luck, correct? What I think he’s saying is they’re switching camps,” Budden suggested.

August 2018: Ye Denies Feeding Pusha T Information About Drake's Son

Pusha T alleged that Drake was hiding a son in diss track “The Story of Adidon.” Fans speculated that Ye was the one to feed Push the information about little Adonis — whose existence was previously not public knowledge — since Drake reportedly headed to work with Kanye in Wyoming months earlier, but West denied sharing the news.

“I’m Ye. I got major things to do other than be telling him some information about Drake,” Ye said to WGCI . “I honestly don’t care that much, in all honesty. When we talk about the Drake thing, it hits me in a really sensitive place because you hang around people and they come to your house and be around your family and this and that.

“And then they get mad about a beat and send you purple demon emojis. We understand that he got upset about [‘The Story of Adidon’]. I feel that it was insensitive for him to, in any way, stress me out in any way after TMZ, while I’m in Wyoming healing, pulling all the pieces together, working on my music.”

September 2018: West Apologizes to Drake for Role in Pusha T Feud

Yeezy attempted to broker a peace treaty between OVO and G.O.O.D. Music with Drake and Pusha T’s feud simmering. West sent his well wishes and tried to clear the static .

“Sending good energy and love to Drake and family and crew,” West tweeted at the time. “I haven’t seen the show in person but the images look incredible online. I understand where the confusion started.”

Ye also went on to publicly deny giving Pusha the information about Adonis for “Story of Adidon.” He apologized for stepping on Scorpion ‘s release date with his string of G.O.O.D. Music releases in June 2018, in addition to how he released “Lift Yourself” himself as a troll after promising Drake he could hop on it.

“There should have been no songs with my involvement that had any negative energy towards you,” Ye added.

September 2018: Kim Kardashian Denies Drake Rumors

West’s wife at the time, Kim Kardashian, shut down rumors that she had been romantically involved with Drake in the past. The Shade Room posted an Everyday Struggle clip of Nick Cannon and DJ Akademiks speculating whether the reality star and Drake had ever hooked up, and she hopped into the Instagram comments section to deny the rumors. “Never happened,” she wrote. “End of story.”

September 2018: Ye Demands Drake Deny Kim K. Romance Rumors

Ye went on another Twitter rant calling for Drake to put an end to the speculation tying “Kiki” — whom Drizzy references on “In My Feelings” — to Kim Kardashian.

“The fact that people are making rumors and thinking that you f–ked my wife and you’re not saying anything and you’re carrying it well like that,” Ye said at the time. “Don’t sit well with my spirit. You know, if I had a girlfriend from Chicago and her name was Ranita and you were married to Rihanna, I wouldn’t make no song called RiRi. So when you’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t know where it comes from.’ You’re too smart for that, bro. You know where it came from.”

October 2018: Drake Feels Ye Manipulated Him With Wyoming Invite

Months after the dust settled following the Drake and Pusha T drama, fans were still searching for answers. The 6 God pulled up to The Shop , where he opened up about his trip to Ye’s writing camp in Wyoming earlier in 2018.

Drake revealed he allegedly played Weest unreleased music, including “March 14,” which includes references to his son and baby mama that the public didn’t know about yet.

“He sold me on this whole speech of like, ‘I’m in a great place, I’m making money, and I’m a father, and I wanna be Quincy Jones and help you,'” Drake said. “‘But in order to do that, you’ve gotta be transparent with me, you gotta play me your music and you gotta tell me when you’re dropping. And I know you don’t like to do things like that.’ I guess we all kind of felt a genuine vibe from it, so I played him my music and I told him when I was dropping.”

He continued to say he felt manipulated and betrayed by Ye for confiding in him about certain things regarding his growing family. Drizzy reportedly even showed him a photo of his son, and claimed that Ye lied about working on an album slated for the summer ( ye dropped in June).

“I tell him I’m having trouble with my son’s mother. We had a conversation,” Drake added. “Oh, this guy’s trolling me. This was like a manipulative, like, ‘I wanna break you’ thing. I said, ‘Alright, I’m gonna go back to distancing myself again. I know what this is.'”

December 2018: Ye Demands an Apology & Meetup With Drake

Another day, another Ye rant in 2018. West used an alleged text seeking clearance for Drake’s “Say What’s Real” to go to streaming (The So Far Gone track sampled Ye’s “Say You Will”) to go after the 6 God once again.

“This proves s–t faker than wrestling for mentioning the 350s and trying to take food out your idols kids mouths,” he tweeted, seeking an apology for Drizzy’s “No Stylist” jab. “Been trying to meet with you for six months bro. You sneak dissing on Travis [Scott] records and texting Kris Jenner talking bout how’s the family. Sending purple emojis when I’m dealing with mental s–t I need my apologies now. Not through Scooter [Braun] either. Not through Travis.”

December 2018: Y Claims Drake Is Threatening Him

Ye exploded in a lengthy tweet rant that went on for more than 125 messages, reigniting his feud with Drake. It was seemingly sparked by a phone conversation between the two during which Ye claimed Drizzy threatened him. “So Drake if anything happens to me or anyone from my family you are the first suspect — so cut the tough talk,” he wrote at the time.

“There would never be a Drake without a Kanye West so never open your mouth with a threat,” Ye continued.

West didn’t stop there: He referred to Drake as a “bully” and demanded Drizzy “leave … [his] family alone.” The epic rant also spawned the famous “He running around like he Pac” tweet.

December 2019: Drake Addresses the Feud on 'Rap Radar'

Drake sat down for a two-hour interview with Rap Radar, discussing a multitude of topics, including his issues with Yeezy, which he said he had no interest in patching up.

“That’s where all of this stems from,” he said of West and his war with Pusha. “It’s all rooted in that situation, yes. I think that [Ye] definitely recruited a guy with a similar dislike for me no matter what he says in interviews. I know that there’s something there that bothers him deeply and yeah, I can’t fix it for him. It just is what it is.”

However, he’s wasn’t going to walk back the past praise he’d showered on Ye. “He’s still my — obviously with the exception of Lil Wayne and if I look at Hov — as the guy who truly shaped the majority of my thinking, skillset, all those things, Kanye West would be my favorite artist all around,” Drake declared. “And that’s just facts. I have no problem saying that. Things have changed. I’m not just some kid that’s a fan anymore. Now we have personal situations, and like I said, a lot of his issues with me, I can’t fix them for him.”

August 2021: Ye Seemingly Doxxes Drake Following Trippie Redd Collab Diss

Drake reignited his beef with Ye ahead of their album showdown with his guest verse on Trippie Redd’s “Betrayal.” The OVO mogul wasn’t considering any kind of armistice. “All these fools I’m beefin’ that I barely know/ 45, 45 (Burned out), let it go/ Ye ain’t changin’ s–t for me, it’s set in stone,” he raps.

Ye got wind of the jabs and appeared to dox Drake by revealing what may have been Drizzy’s Toronto address before later deleting the tweet. He entered his “Joker” era with more threats at the 6 God. “I live for this. I’ve been fucked with by nerd a– jock n—as like you my whole life. You will never recover. I promise you,” he declared.

Drake didn’t take anything too seriously, as he shared an Instagram Story laughing off West’s latest antics.

August-September 2021: Ye & Drake Go "Back to Back" With Album Showdown

The feud reached a head with Ye stepping on another Drake release date by cutting him in line with Donda arriving four days before Certified Lover Boy . Both albums debuted atop the Billboard 200. Donda moved 309,000 album-equivalent units in less than a full sales week before being replaced at the summit by Drake as CLB sold 613,000 album units .

December 2021: Kanye West & Drake Reunite for Free Larry Hoover Benefit Concert

Drake and Ye agreed to put their differences aside for the greater good in a prison reform fundraiser spreading awareness surrounding the incarcerated Gangster Disciples leader Larry Hoover. Rap-A-Lot Records co-founder J. Prince helped broker a meeting to arrange the unlikely peace treaty as Ye and Drizzy agreed to hit the stage for the Free Larry Hoover Benefit concert.

The pair of rap titans put on a united front while running through plenty of hits from their decorated discographies at the Coliseum show in Los Angeles.

“I appreciate Kanye for having me up here tonight,” Drake said on stage of the surreal scene that didn’t seem possible a couple of months earlier. “It’s important that we make this happen. When we were walking through the arches right there it felt like a dream. It felt surreal. It was something I always wanted to do being on stage with my idol as he’s running through one of the best catalogs in music, period.”

Forever 🕊🦉 pic.twitter.com/FXlf02TNqH — Donda’s Place (@dondas___place) December 10, 2021

Ye x Drake walk out #FreeLarryHoover pic.twitter.com/wH0UGfcUXr — Donda’s Place (@dondas___place) December 10, 2021

April 2023: Drake Samples Kim Kardashian for "Search and Rescue"

Drake stirred the pot with Ye once more with his “Search and Rescue” single. Drake elected to use himself and a mystery woman in motorcycle helmets as the cover art, which some speculated to be Kim Kardashian. However, it was quickly debunked and uncovered that the woman in the artwork is artist and model Lilah Pi.

Although Kardashian’s voice is sampled on “Search and Rescue,” it was a quote from the reality star talking to her mother on Keeping Up With the Kardashians about her divorce from Kanye that ended up making the cut. “I didn’t come this far, just to come this far and not be happy,” she cryptically said on the series finale.

November 2023: Drake Blasts Yeezy's Truce on "Red Button"

2023 couldn’t expire without Drake getting another dig in at Ye. The 6 God returned in November 2023 to deliver his For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition . Drake blasts West on “Red Button” for using their truce as a setup to go behind his back, and he’s not falling for any of his olive branches anymore.

“Every time you need me for a boost, I never hesitated/ Every time that Yeezy called a truce, he had my head inflated/ Thinkin’ we gon’ finally peace it up and get to levitatin’/ Realize that everything premeditated,” Drake raps.

April 2024: Ye Releases "Like That" Remix

West was only going to stay quiet so long as a rap war waged, especially with a plethora of rappers ganging up on Drake. Yeezy delivered a remix to Future and Metro Boomin’s Kendrick Lamar-assisted Drake diss track “Like That” on April 20.

The remix isn’t on streaming services, but is available on West’s website. Ye took aim at Drake and brought up the 6 God’s reported massive licensing deal with Lucian Grainge’s Universal Music Group.

“Where’s Lucian? Serve your master, n—a/ You caught a little bag for your masters, didn’t ya/ Lifetime deal, I feel bad for n—as/ Y’all so outta sight, outta mind/ I can’t even think of a Drake line,” he raps.

Days later, on April 22, Ye hopped on Justin LaBoy’s The Message podcast, where he credited the “elimination of Drake” as his inspiration for dropping the remix.

“[Future] called me and I went to the studio and laid that. We went through the creative process of adding the chords and called the Hooligans out in London to get on the joint,” Ye explained. “Everybody was very, very energized about the elimination of Drake.”

He continued: “You say rich baby daddy it’s like Drake has a rich baby daddy named Lucian and Universal. It’s like, ‘My daddy got it. My daddy control the spins. My daddy got the DSPs.’ Drake has a rich baby daddy named Lucian.”

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’28 Years Later’ Adds Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes

By Katcy Stephan

Katcy Stephan

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Danny Boyle’s “ 28 Years Later ” has added Jodie Comer , Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes to its cast.

The continuation of the “28 Days Later” franchise will be released in theaters globally by Sony Pictures. “28 Days Later” was released in 2002 and starred Cillian Murphy, then largely unknown. Boyle directed the feature, while Alex Garland wrote. A sequel, “28 Weeks Later,” was released in 2007.

Plot details are still being kept under wraps for the new screenplay, written by Garland. It will be part of an upcoming trilogy, for which Nia DaCosta is in talks to direct the second film .

Popular on Variety

Comer earned an Emmy for her work as Villanelle on “Killing Eve.” She will next be seen on the big screen in “The Bikeriders,” opposite Austin Butler and Tom Hardy.

“Bullet Train” and “Nocturnal Animals” star Taylor-Johnson has a trio of hyped-up movies premiering this year: “The Fall Guy,” “Kraven the Hunter” and “Nosferatu.” Meanwhile Fiennes was most recently seen in Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More” and is next set to star in “The Return” and “Conclave.”

Comer is repped by Independent Talent Group, WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Fiennes is repped by 42 and CAA. Taylor Johnson is repped by WME, Brillstein and David Weber.

Deadline was first to report the news.

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