A new three-part docuseries on Netflix charts the rapper’s spectacular—and often painful—ascent.

Years ago, the filmmaker Coodie Simmons abandoned his dream of becoming a standup comedian to follow around

a young rapper named Kanye West. The two met in 1998, when Simmons was the on-air correspondent for “Channel

Zero,” a public-access show that he had co-created to document Chicago’s hip-hop scene. Simmons became West’s

videographer soon afterward, and has since spent much of his life watching—and, in some ways, creating—Kanye

West. His years of accumulated footage are the basis for “Jeen-yuhs,” a three-part docuseries on Netflix, which

charts the rapper’s spectacular (and often painful) ascent. Simmons is both a narrator and a participant in the story,

implicated not only by his camerawork but by the fact that he was one of the earliest believers in West’s wild

ambitions. In this way, the series is also a document of an unusual on-and-off friendship, told across more than two

decades.

The documentary’s first two and a half hours follow West not as a star but as a striver trying to persuade everyone

else to see him as one. (Through a quality you could call hubris or intuition, West invited Simmons to start recording

behind-the-scenes footage for a documentary long before he released his first album.) The first and second episodes,

subtitled “Vision” and “Purpose,” chronicle his journey from production phenom, in 1998, to Grammy Award-

winning rapper, in 2005. Simmons convincingly shows the precarity of West’s early career, and the blind self-esteem

that carried him through. The first episode shows the rapper arriving uninvited to the offices of Roc-A-Fella Records,

hoping to be heard by anyone. (At this point, he was an unsigned producer for the label, and wasn’t taken seriously

as a rap prospect.) He shuffles from room to room, turning off whatever music is playing and replacing it with his

demo; he awkwardly raps lyrics from what would eventually become his single “All Falls Down.” West doesn’t get the

response he’s looking for, but that doesn’t stop him from pulling a similar stunt in the hotel room of Dame Dash, the

label’s president, only to receive the same treatment.

The real subject of “Jeen-yuhs” is the rare, nearly monomaniacal focus that West has become notorious for.

He pursues opportunity and validation at nearly every turn, constantly straining to parlay his freestyles into

something bigger. We often see him sitting studiously before a beat machine or a soundboard, working as other

people stir in the background. Even the setbacks are incorporated into the grander scheme. In 2002, West was in an

accident that shattered his jaw. The injury, which threatened to end his rap career, became fuel for a song called

“Through the Wire.” He gets Simmons to film one of his dentist appointments—that way, he can use the footage for

the music video.

One of the most affecting developments in the series is West’s journey to “Def Poetry Jam,” which he auditions for in

an act of defiance against his indifferent record label. In his audition tape, recorded by Simmons, West raps drafts of

early songs directly into the camera, his flow ragged but spirited. He becomes more composed in the weeks before

the show, performing a verse in progress that the rapper Mos Def co-signs. When West finally hits the stage,

presenting “Self Conscious,” an a-cappella rendition of lyrics from “All Falls Down,” he seems like a star in the

making for the first time.

As “The College Dropout,” West’s début album, comes together, the energy gradually starts to change, and we see

more people’s opinions of the rapper begin to sync up with his view of himself. Simmons asks celebrities what they

think of West, eagerly collecting testimonies of other converts. In one endearing moment, the Houston legend

Scarface acknowledges West’s talent as a rapper and then chastises him for removing his mouth guard, which West

had set gently on the console before them to perform his verse. The litany of triumphs culminates in Dame Dash

finally committing to West’s début. (The exec was convinced after seeing the initial screening of the “Through the

Wire” video, with the footage from the dentist’s office.)