Kanye’s passion sometimes gets the best of him, like during his display at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards.
At the beginning of 2006, all eyes were indeed on Kanye. His second album, Late Registration, sold twice as many records in its first week as College Dropout. Guest stars this time around again included Jay-Z and Jamie Foxx, along with newcomers Brandy, Lupe Fiasco, and Adam Levine of Maroon 5, the band that a year earlier had beaten out Kanye for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Singles from the album included “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” and “Gold Digger.” “Diamonds” won the Grammy for Best Rap Song, “Gold Digger” won Record of the Year, and Late Registration won Best Rap Album.
Kanye’s continued success helped feed both his bank account and his ego. On several occasions, that ego got him into trouble. In 2005, for example, Kanye appeared live on television during a fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which killed roughly two thousand people and stranded tens of thousands more when it hit the southeastern United States that August. At the end of his segment, Kanye implied that the president of the United States was racist. “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” he said. He later apologized to the president.
The following year, Kanye stormed the stage at the MTV Europe Music Awards after his video for “Touch the Sky” did not win Best Video. The winners of the award went to Justice vs. Simian for their video to the song, “We Are Your Friends.” He took the microphone away from the directors of the video who won and explained how he thought the award show lost all credibility because his video did not win. He pulled a similar fit backstage during the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards show in New York after he was nominated for five awards but did not win any.
A similar situation took place two years later during the same awards show at the same venue. This time, country singer Taylor Swift was onstage, accepting the award for Best Female Video for “You Belong With Me.” Swift barely had a chance to say thank you before Kanye took to the stage and grabbed the microphone. “Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I’m gonna let you finish,” he said, “but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” Kanye was referring to Beyoncé’s video for the pop-dance track “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” Later in the show, Beyoncé won Video of the Year and called Swift onstage to finish her acceptance speech. West was criticized for doing what he did. Even President Barack Obama spoke out against Kanye’s actions. “The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person, she’s getting her award and what’s he doing up there?” the president asked. “He’s a jackass.” Opinion polls showed a majority of Americans agreed with the president.
Kanye’s passion sometimes gets the best of him, like during his display at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards.
Kanye had four albums under his belt by the time the Swift incident took place. In 2007, he had released Graduation—which sold just short of one million records during the first week it was available. In 2008, his more-experimental record 808s & Heartbreak was released. It also sold well. That sustained success had made Kanye one of the most popular performers in America. But the Swift incident knocked him down several notches. Kanye left the country for a while after he interrupted her, to avoid the harassment he was receiving from the public and from the media.
The Taylor Swift incident was one of the lowest points of Kanye’s career, and even he realized he was wrong afterwards.
Kanye apologized to Swift immediately following the incident and continued to apologize when the media asked if he was sorry. He admitted to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres that he had been drinking alcohol and was under a lot of stress at the time. Much of that stress had to do with the death of his mother, whom he frequently said was his best friend. Donda West died in late 2007 from complications from a surgery. She was fifty-eight years old. He wore his emotions for his mother—who had become his manager—on his sleeve. A few days after she died, Kanye broke down in the middle of his show in Paris. When the music for “Hey Mama,” a song he wrote about his mom, started playing, Kanye began to cry.
By 2010, the public—or at least his hardcore fans—appeared to have either forgiven or forgotten. That November, Kanye released his fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. He had recorded the album in Hawaii, one of the places he had gone following the Taylor Swift incident. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sold a half-million copies the first week it was on the market. It also debuted as the top album in the United States. It sold well in several other countries, too. The recording featured the singles “Power,” “Runaway,” “Monster,” and “All of the Lights.” Critics loved the album, as they had most of Kanye’s work. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album but was not nominated for Album of the Year. Kanye did not act out in public over the snub, as he had in the past. Instead, he blamed himself for the lack of a nomination. He said his next release came out too soon after My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kanye believed the hype of his new release had stolen the momentum from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
The loss of his mother affected Kanye in so many ways. His mother was not just his mother, but also a great friend and supporter.
That next release was called Watch the Throne. The record was a collaboration between Kanye and his mentor, Jay-Z. It was the first time the two superstars had worked on an entire album together. As with everything the two men touched individually, their collaboration sold well and debuted at number one in the country. Almost every one of the twelve songs was a hit, and seven of them were released as singles. The most successful singles were “Otis,” and “Niggas in Paris,” a song about Jay-Z and Kanye living the celebrity life in France’s capital city. Both “Otis” and “Niggas in Paris” won Grammy Awards.
Kanye’s life outside music was nearly as exciting as was his musical life. He continued his involvement in the clothing industry and shoemaker Nike even named a shoe after him. It was called the Air Yeezy. “Yeezy” was one of Kanye’s many nicknames. “The Louis Vuitton Don” and “Ye” were two others. Kanye also had a high-profile endorsement deal with Pepsi and several other companies. He even tried his hand at acting.
When Watch the Throne was released, it instantly became one of the biggest and hottest albums in the world. The tour for the album spanned fifty-seven shows.
Even before Kanye and Kim Kardashian became an official couple in 2012, they had been close friends.
Because he was so famous, every move in Kanye’s love life was well documented. For years, he dated designer Alexis Phifer. The two were engaged for nearly two years in the mid-2000s but eventually broke it off. He also has been romantically linked to actress Brooke Crittendon, and models Selita Ebanks and Amber Rose. In early 2012, Kanye began dating socialite and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.