The media’s favorite celebrity to report on, Kanye, is never short of newsworthy. Whether he’s running for president, fighting a divorce, putting out new music, or starting beef with another A-lister, the unhinged creative is always polarizing and well-worth discussing. Gorl has nothing on Ye.
However, to be honest, Ye’s recent actions have been worrying, to say the least. Interestingly, right as Ye is drastically losing favor with the public (even more than usual), a documentary detailing his rise to fame has been released on Netflix.
The documentary, titled ‘jeen-yuhs’ (clever), is in three parts, filmed by Kanye’s close friend, nicknamed Coodie. The first part dropped a week ago, and it was a rare glimpse into Kanye West before he was Kanye West. Here are some major takeaways from jeen-yuhs so far.
Kanye’s mother Donda is extremely important to Kanye
Seeing Ye’s late mother on screen was very touching, especially with her obviously strong connection and understanding of her son. They rap together, celebrate, drink, and talk deeply. There’s one nugget of information she parts to Ye that is surprisingly insightful, almost as if she knew Ye’s ego would eventually overpower him. “The giant looks in the mirror and sees nothing”, she says to her son.
Kanye was initially not taken seriously as an artist.
The documentary really starts to kick off with Ye in New York, working on his album in a home studio. After winning a Grammy for his production chops on kingpin Jay-Z’s The Blueprint, Ye moved from Chicago to New York, with the goal of signing a record deal as an artist, not a producer. However, it’s not as easy as you’d think for the superstar.
He meets with execs from Roc-a-Fella and other major labels, playing All Falls Down, rapping the now-classic live. He looks desperate, hungry, determined, and the song is fantastic, yet the execs look amused. They don’t take him seriously, which is unbelievable in the context of his today. But hey, a Joni Mitchell Blue had a similar initial perception. Kanye looks more wounded back here than he ever does today.
Kanye knew he was destined for greatness
Throughout the runtime, Ye constantly asserts that his music is bringing something new to the table. He knows it, and some others can see it too. One exec from Def Jam describes Ye as being cool enough for the streets, but accessible/pop enough for a broader audience. There’s one point where Ye realizes he’s oversharing his secret genius when discussing the vision for his debut album. Jeen Yuhs makes it adamantly clear that Kanye knew what he was doing, and he labored for his sound. His kindred spirit and fame were earned – it was no fluke.