One of the world's best-selling music artists, with over 160 million records sold, West has won 22 Grammy Awards and 75 nominations, the joint tenth-most of all time, and the joint-most Grammy awards of any rapper along with Jay-Z. West's discography also includes the two full-length collaborative albums Watch the Throne (2011) with Jay-Z and Kids See Ghosts (2018) with Kid Cudi. He released its sequel Donda 2 (2022) a few months later, exclusively through a tie-in audio speaker service.

After multiple delays, his highly anticipated tenth album Donda (2021) was released to continued commercial success, but to mixed critical reception. West further diversified his musical styles on The Life of Pablo (2016) and Ye (2018) and explored Christian and gospel music on Jesus Is King (2019). Drawing inspiration from maximalism and minimalism respectively, his fifth and sixth albums My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) and Yeezus (2013) also received critical and commercial success. West explored diverse musical elements like orchestras, synthesizers, and autotune on the albums Late Registration (2005), Graduation (2007), and 808s & Heartbreak (2008).

He founded the record label GOOD Music later that year.

Intent on pursuing a solo career as a rapper, he released his debut studio album, The College Dropout (2004), to critical and commercial success. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists and producers and as one of the greatest musicians of his generation.īorn in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West initially gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the early 2000s, producing singles for several artists and developing the 'chipmunk soul' sampling style. Ye ( / j eɪ/ yay born Kanye Omari West / ˈ k ɑː n j eɪ/ KAHN-yay born June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.

Kanye west dark fantasy snl