Kanye west late registration album cover high res

In October 2002, West was in a car accident that almost cost him his life and left him with a jaw wired shut during his weeks-long recovery. Unfortunately, that effort was a long time coming, pushed back repeatedly until a freak accident threatened to end his solo career before it even started. More high-profile productions followed, and before long, word spread that West was going to release an album of his own, on which he planned to rap as well as produce. His star turn came on Jay-Z's classic The Blueprint (2001) with album standouts 'Takeover' and 'Izzo (H.O.V.A.).' Both songs showcased West's signature beatmaking style of the time, which was largely sample-based in these cases, the former track appropriated snippets of the Doors' 'Five to One,' while the latter sampled the Jackson 5's 'I Want You Back.' Alongside fellow fresh talent Just Blaze, West became one of the Roc's go-to producers, consistently delivering hot tracks to album after album. However, it was West's work for Roc-A-Fella at the dawn of the new millennium that took his career to the next level.

West first got his foot in the industry door in the late '90s, doing quite a bit of noteworthy production work for the likes of Jermaine Dupri, Foxy Brown, Mase, and Goodie Mob. With guidance from local producer No I.D., West went on to learn the finer points of studio production, programming, and sampling, the latter technique becoming a hallmark of his early-2000s work. However, his music dreams would eventually eclipse academics and he dropped out of college, setting the stage for his best-selling school trilogy.

One of his major inspirations, Donda West helped shape young Kanye, taking him to China in the late '80s on education exchange and establishing a strong base that made him a top pupil in high school. As his career progressed throughout the early 21st century, West became a superstar on his own terms without adapting his appearance, his rhetoric, or his music to fit any one musical mold.ДЄ proud and vocal Chicagoan, West was actually born in Atlanta, moving to the Windy City with his English professor mother after his parents split when he was three years old. His production abilities seemed boundless, as he not only racked up impressive hits for himself (including number one singles 'Gold Digger' and 'Stronger') but also had smash hits with longtime collaborator Jay-Z (on their 2011 Watch the Throne track 'Ni**as in Paris') and even Paul McCartney (along with Rihanna on 2015's 'FourFiveSeconds'). And yet, his steady presence in the celebrity limelight couldn't eclipse his musical talent. With his outsized personality, he courted plenty of controversy, posing for the cover of Rolling Stone as Jesus Christ, claiming that 'George Bush doesn't care about Black people' during a televised Hurricane Katrina fundraiser, and infamously interrupting an awards speech by Taylor Swift in 2009. This flamboyance made for good press, something that West enjoyed, for better or worse, throughout the course of his career.

With a backpack and brightly colored polo shirt, his dapper fashion sense set him apart from many of his rap peers, while his attitude often came across as boastful and egotistical. Early on, West paired his beats with tongue-twisting raps and outspoken confidence. One of the most influential and critically lauded artists of the early 21st century, Kanye West went from hip-hop beatmaker to worldwide hitmaker as his production work for artists such as Jay-Z led to a major-label recording contract and, ultimately, a wildly successful solo career that counted an unbroken string of chart-topping, multi-platinum albums and nearly two-dozen Grammy Awards for classic sets like 2005's Late Registration, 2007's Graduation, and 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Kanye west late registration album cover high res