Kanye has always considered his mother one of his best friends.
Unlike many hip-hop artists, his childhood was not spent hustling inner-city streets. Kanye Omari West was born June 8, 1977, in the Atlanta, Georgia, suburb of Douglasville, to successful parents. His mom, Donda West, was well on her way to earning her doctorate and becoming a university professor. His father, Ray West, worked as a photojournalist and had won many awards for his efforts. The new parents selected the name Kanye [pronounced Con-yay] from a book of African names because they wanted him to represent his culture. It was an Ethiopian name that meant “the only one.” His mom said she chose it because she knew he would be her only child.
Baby Kanye lived with his parents in Atlanta, but shortly after he was born, his parents separated. When Kanye was three years old, they officially divorced. Kanye and his mother then left Atlanta for Chicago, Illinois. Donda West found a good job there teaching at Chicago State University. Both parents were active in the civil rights movement, a period of activism where African Americans fought to end racism and bring about equality in the United States and other countries. Ray West was even a member of the Black Panther Party, a sometimes-militant group fighting for equality for all minorities. Donda West raised Kanye by herself during the school year, and he went to stay with his father in Atlanta during spring and summer breaks.
Kanye has always considered his mother one of his best friends.
Kanye was raised in Chicago’s middle-class South Shore suburb and attended an arts-focused elementary school called John H. Vanderpoel Elementary School. He was considered an intelligent student who occasionally got involved in minor mischief. One day, his mom wrote in her 2007 book Raising Kanye, he got into trouble for bringing an adult magazine to school and showing it to the other students. Kanye’s mom was embarrassed. “I wanted to crawl through any hole in the floor,” she wrote. “…[His teacher] told me that when she asked him where he’d gotten the magazine, he said, ‘From my mother’s closet.’” Kanye’s mother took her son into the car, yelled at him, “…and smacked him across the face.” Acting in such a way was out of character for Kanye’s mother, who told Rolling Stone magazine in 2004 that she “…always worshipped the ground he walked on. People could say I spoiled Kanye. I don’t think so. He was very much indulged.”
Young Kanye took art lessons and wanted to be a fashion designer when he grew up. By third grade, he had begun rapping lyrics to others’ songs. He and his mother traveled a lot. On the way home from one trip to Michigan, five-year-old Kanye wrote a poem in the back seat. “The one line that sticks with me is ‘the trees are melting black,’” his mom told The Chicago Tribune in 2004. “It was late fall, and the trees had no leaves. He saw how those limbs were etched against the sky, and he described them the way a poet would.”
When Kanye was ten years old, his mom was given the opportunity to teach English in China for a year. Kanye went with her. He quickly learned to speak Chinese, and even started a little business for himself where he would charge other kids to watch him break-dance. Kanye was teased by his peers when he returned to the United States. His classmates called him “China Boy.” Later, when he was in high school, Kanye also was teased—this time for having big teeth and braces.
By the time Kanye began middle school, his love of music was well known. He entered—and won—all of his school’s talent shows. “I would help the others because I just knew I was going to win anyway,” he told the Daily Telegraph in 2004. “The teachers used to say, ‘This ain’t meant to be the Kanye West show.’”
During that time, Kanye wrote a rap called “Green Eggs and Ham.” His mother took him to a music studio and paid the owner twenty-five dollars to let Kanye record his song. The studio was far from glamorous. It was in someone’s basement and the microphone “… was hanging from the ceiling by a wire hanger,” Kanye’s mom told RedEye in 2004. “But he was so excited, I couldn’t say no.”
Donda also could not say no to her son’s request to buy his first keyboard. When he was fourteen, Kanye used his saved allowance to pay five-hundred dollars for the instrument. From that point on, his mom told RedEye, she always knew where to find Kanye. “I never had to worry about ‘Where’s Kanye?’ because he was sitting right there in front of that keyboard.” Kanye made and recorded beats with his keyboard. Building on the entrepreneurial spirit he had first shown during his year in China, he began selling those beats to classmates. With the money he made, he bought more musical equipment. Soon, his bedroom looked like a miniature studio. His mom wrote in Raising Kanye, “Kanye spent hours mixing, rapping, and writing. It was nonstop.… If anyone, including my dad, wanted to spend time with Kanye, they’d have to go to his room and get in a few words while Kanye made music.”
Spending so much time with his music meant something had to give. For Kanye, it was his grades. He went from being an above-average student to one who occasionally would receive Ds and Fs. However, Kanye still excelled in subjects he liked. Art was one of those subjects. Kanye won a college scholarship to the American Academy of Art in Chicago. The scholarship paid for him to attend the school for one semester. He went there for that half-year, then transferred to Chicago State University. Chicago State was a more affordable option because his mom worked there. Her employment got Kanye a discount on tuition. But in the end that discount was not enough to keep Kanye in school. He decided he did not need an education to do what he really wanted to do in life. He knew he wanted to make a career in the music industry. So Kanye dropped out of college to pursue his dream.
While rocking a pair of his “stunna shades” Kanye no longer runs his childhood business of dancing for money, but he does show off his moves during his concerts.