30 Facts About Kanye West

• Kanye West has been active in the music world since 1996 and has became one of the most influential & impactful hip-hop singers ever. Here’s a list of the top 30 facts about the musical genius, Kanye West!

1. His full name is Kanye Omari West.
2. He was born in Atlanta on 8^th June 1977 to Ray and Donda West.
3. In Swahili, the name Kanye is translated to mean ‘the only one’.
4. His mother was an English professor, and her profession took Kanye all the way to China where she taught for a little over a year.
5. While driving home in 2002, he was involved in a bad car accident. He almost died, sustaining very bad injuries.
6. During his recovery in hospital, he continued to produce music using an electronic drum kit and other equipment.
7. The holiday season doesn’t seem to stop Kanye West from working either, and on New Year’s Eve 2015, he released a single called ‘Facts’.
8. Before he recorded his own songs, he produced music for other stars, including Jay-Z. More than half of the tracks on Jay-Z’s ‘The Blueprint’ album were produced by Kanye West.
9. Kanye’s album ‘The College Drop-out’ was aptly named after he dropped out of Chicago State University.
10. Billboard ranked him 3^rd on the list of producers from the decade in 2010.
11. He stated that Fiona Apple was one of his favourite artists, and he wanted to become the ‘rap version’ of her.
12. Some of his nicknames included The Louis Vuitton Don and Yeezy.
13. More than 50% of his tracks have been the result of a collaboration with other artists.
14. He was engaged to Alexis Phifer, a fashion designer, from 2006 until their relationship ended in 2008.
15. GQ awarded Kanye West the title of ‘International Man of the Year’ in 2007.
16. His song ‘Hey Mama’ was dedicated to his mother, who died in 2007 after complications with plastic surgery.
17. Kanye West married model and actress Kim Kardashian on 24^th May 2014. They have two children together – North and Saint.
18. In 2008, Kanye opened two burger restaurants. This new business venture, Fatburger, came to a sudden end when West suffered financial problems in 2011.
19. He met his stylist at Barney’s while out shopping. Yale student Cassius Clay impressed Kanye with his dress sense, and was asked to work for him.
20. If you search Google for ‘gay fish’, Kanye West’s knowledge graph appears on the right, this is due to an episode of South Park  called ‘Fishsticks’ where Kanye West is the only person in the country who fails to get a joke, and can’t admit that he doesn’t understand because he believes himself to be a genius.
21. He sampled Chaka Khan’s vocals on his track ‘Through the Wire’, but she wasn’t prepared to let Kanye release the single until her son talked her into it a couple of weeks later.
22. It is estimated that Kanye West is worth around $120 million!
23. After Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift‘s acceptance speech at the VMAs in 2009, he left the country and visited Japan and Rome.
24. Hip-hop producer No I.D. was Kanye’s mentor in the early days and taught him how to create beats and make music.
25. Kanye West has said that he thought out becoming a porn star once or twice as a way of making money before his music career took off.
26. He has won a total of 21 Grammys and 112 music awards in general. ‘The College Drop-out’ and ‘Late Registration’ were the albums which won him the most awards.
27. His fashion sense has gained much attention around the world, and Michael Jackson phoned him once to ask about a jacket he had worn while filming the music video for ‘Stronger’.
28. Kanye is the sixth most popular digital artist, with a grand total of 30 million downloads within America as of January 2016.
29. Perhaps surprisingly, Kanye’s favourite band is a group of indie artists from Glasgow, better known as Franz Ferdinand.
30. Kanye West is one of the most followed celebrities on Twitter, his profile is @kanyewest.