KANYE WEST

BIOGRAPHY  Kanye Omari West born on June 8 th in Atlanta, Georgia.  His father, Ray West, was a former Black Panther member and the first black photojournalist for the Atlanta Journal- Constitution.  His mother, Dr. Donda West, was a Professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, and the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University.

CHILDHOOD  At the age of three, his parents divorced and he and his mother moved to Chicago, Illinois.  West was an exceptional student growing up, he received A’s, and B’s in school. He attended art classes at the American Academy of Art in Chicago.  later went onto attend Chicago State University for one year before deciding to drop out and pursue a career in music

EARLY CAREER  In 1996, West had his first music production on a Chicago rapper called Grav’s album “Down to Earth”.  Between 1998 and1999 he produced for major hip- hop artist such as Jermaine Dupri, Foxy Brown, and Goodie Mob.  In 2000 when he got his big break when he began to produce for artist on the Roc-a-Fella Records label.

 After his success on Jay-Z’s “The Dynasty: Roc La Familia”, his sound was heavily featured on Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint” album  He produced the track for Jay-z’s song “This Can’t Be Life” which was well received, and began producing more tracks for Jay-Z.

 Between 2002 and 2003 he produced for artist like Nas, Scarface, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, T.I., Nas T.I. Talib Kweli

 In October 2002, Kanye was in a near death car crash while driving back home from the studio.  The car crash is what gave inspiration to his first hit single “Through the Wire”,

 “Through the Wire”, which was featured on his debut album “The College Dropout”.  The album included guest appearances by Jay-Z, Ludacris, Consequence, Common, Mos Def, and Syleena Johnson, and was later certified triple platinum.

 West’s second album “Late Registration” released in 2005 took a more diverse road.  Late Registration sold over 860,000 copies in its first week and topping the Billboard 200.  By the end of the year, it reached over 2.3 million units sold in the United states alone.

 In 2007, Kanye released his third album “Graduation” which went double platinum and won four Grammy Awards.  In 2008, “808s & Heartbreak” was released, a pop album that contained no rapping just singing using auto-tune. It incorporated synthpop, electronica, R&B, and electropop.

 “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” was released in November  For this album, West spent the first half of 2010 in Hawaii working on it and had outside production involved that came from, RZA, Q-Tip, Pete Rock

 On September 12, 2010, Kanye performed his new song, “Runaway” feat Pusha T, at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.

COMPOSITION HISTORY RUNAWAYI WONDER

RUNAWAY (9:08)  Written by Kanye West, Terrence Thorton, Emile Haynie, Jeff Bhasker, and Mike Dean.  the song contains a repetitive piano riff as the melody, various musical instruments, voice samples, and an auto-tune device.

I WONDER (4:03)  Written by Kanye West and Labi Siffre,  Recorded between

LISTENING GUIDE

Runaway By: Kanye West featuring Pusha T I.0:00 Introductiona simple piano plucking plays as the melody. Very calm moderate tempo. II. 0:38 Production introthe production comes in while the piano is still playing. A deep synthesizer bass is used. Vocal samples are played “we gotcha” from left to right speaker. III. 1:02 Verse1Kanye begins to sing the first verse “And I always find something wrong” with deep emotion. The piano melody continues to play along with the production.

V. 1:44 Verse 2The piano melody and production kick back in while he begins to rap about romantic issues. In the background, you can hear a double voice scream “yeaaa”. VII. 2:28 ChorusSings chorus again, while the synthesized clap and different drum kick begin to play. IX. 2:50 BridgeKanye begs his girlfriend to runaway. A cello and light string section begin to play. The clap is still playing during this part. The bass is not heard. The sample saying “we gotcha” is also heard.

XI. 3:33 Verse 3Verse 3, performed by Pusha T. Piano melody, production, and bass begin to play again. XII. 3:56 Verse 3The string section begins to play in a deep tone. XV. 5:03 ChorusBegins to sing the chorus again with the loud clap brought in. XVI. 5:25 End of chorusStrings are brought in again as Kanye stops singing. Piano melody and production are still playing.

XVII. 5:46All other music stops and only the piano melody is heard. XVIII. 6:08 Bridge 2Kanye Begins to sing using the auto-tune device, while a cello and string section begin to play and the piano melody is still heard for the remainder of the song. Kanye’s voice using the device sounds like an electric guitar. This is perhaps my favorite part of the song.

I Wonder By: Kanye West and Labi Siffre. I.0:00 IntroductionBegins with a piano melody and vocal sample of “My Song” by Labi Siffre. II. 0:35 Verse 1Kanye begins his verse while a heavy drum kick electric snare come in, and an electronic keyboard begins to play the melody in an upbeat tempo. Labi repeats And I wonder” throughout this verse III. 1:15 Chorus Labi begins to sing the choruagain, while the heavy drum and snare kick are still playing. An organic piano begins to play while the electric keyboard stopped.

IV. 1:35 Verse 2Kanye begins his second verse, the piano stops, and the electric piano returns. V. 2:15 ChorusLabi sings the chorus again, but the electric piano stops. The organic piano comes in along with a heavy string set. VI. 2:35 Verse 3 Kanye begins his third verse, all the instruments stop except the string set, which is now playing the melody. VIII. 3:15 The electric piano stops, and all that is left playing is the drum, kick, and en electric harp sound.

IX. 3:36The string set comes in louder to accompany the drums and harp sound. X. 3:58 OutroThe Drums stop, and the strings finish out the song.

BIBLIOGRAPHY  Cole, Matthew (November 20, 2011) “Review: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. Slant Magazine. (2011) Web. 3 Oct beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy/2325http:// beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy/2325  Kanye West Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Web. 3 Oct  Knopper, Steve (November 15, 2005) “Kanye Couldn’t Save Fall”. Rolling Stone. (2005) Web. 3 Oct  Tyrangiel, Josh (December 16, 2005) “Best of 2005: Music”. Time Magazine. (2005) Web. 3 Oct