It is undeniable that professionally, Kanye West is one of a kind – a musical virtuoso, if you will.
In the Netflix series Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, a charming West displays an unfaltering sense of determination and self-belief at a
time when the industry didn’t take him seriously as an artist.
As a talented and accomplished producer who had already worked with some of music’s biggest names (including Jay-Z and Talib
Kweli), West had been pigeonholed.
He wanted to be an artist, but people saw him as a producer.
But not only did West refuse to stay in his lane, he went on to prove himself capable of creating new ones.
He’s an artist now. He still produces music, but he’s also a fashion designer and an entrepreneur with his own sneaker brand, Yeezy.
And his innovation has even resulted in the creation of an audio remix device and music-streaming platform, Stem Player, which has
been arguably successful and arguably unsuccessful.
He’s even built his own brand of worship, Sunday Service.
But West has been heavily criticised for the music video for Eazy, a song in which he collaborates with rapper The Game.
In the video, West is depicted kidnapping and burying alive a claymation version of his former wife’s new partner.
And when West was temporarily suspended from Instagram for violating the platform’s harassment policy, it left some of his 15.8
million Instagram followers in a conundrum.
Tre Johnson is one of those Instagram followers. He describes West as a complicated genius.
“He’s like a lot of people,” Mr Johnson said.
“He’s super flawed.
“He is incredibly talented.
“And he’s also saddled with some mental health issues.
“So yeah, that makes him very complicated.”Mr Johnson is a race and culture writer who has penned articles for Rolling Stone and
Atlanta Black Star and is currently working on a love letter to West, which will be published in the Washington Post.
Kanye West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, has been in the headlines lately for all the wrong reasons.()