Who

West scored a monster hit with the 2005 song "Gold Digger" and monster publicity when he declared that "George Bush doesn't care about black people" on national TV.

Backstory

The son of a photojournalist and former Black Panther (his dad) and a college professor (his mom), West grew up in Atlanta and Chicago and studied English at Chicago State, before dropping out to pursue his music career. He nearly signed with Columbia Records in the mid-'90s, but the deal fell through, and he spent several years as a music producer working on tracks by Alicia Keys, Cam'ron, Janet Jackson, Eminem, and Ludacris. He soon gained a following thanks to his signature style—samples of classic soul songs with speeded-up vocals—and attracted serious attention with his work on Jay-Z's hit album The Blueprint in 2001.

Intent on moving from producer to performer—and despite his less-than-typical hip-hop image—in 2002 Kanye was signed by Jay-Z and Damon Dash to Roc-A-Fella. His 2004 debut album, The College Dropout, generated major buzz and earned eight Grammy nominations, but West didn't become a household name until his second album, Late Registration, hit stores in 2005. His most recent album, Graduation, debuted in the fall of 2007 and went platinum in its first week.

Of note

West became a hip-hop superstar in the wake of Late Registration thanks to his radio-friendly hits and unconventional image: He's avoided the tough-guy b-boy stance favored by gangsta rappers, choosing instead to bare his insecurities ("Self-Conscious") and address social issues like "conflict" diamonds ("Diamonds from Sierra Leone"). Famous for flipping out when he doesn't get the respect he thinks he deserves (see below), West's posturing would be intolerable if he didn't have the talent to back it up. Even producer Larry Charles (of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Borat) seems to be a fan—he's at work on an HBO reality series about West's life, which is expected to air in 2008.

Drama

During a televised 2005 Hurricane Katrina benefit, West made headlines when he ignored the teleprompter and declared "George Bush doesn't care about black people." West obviously enjoys making waves: In November 2006, when his single "Touch the Sky" didn't win Best New Video at the MTV Europe Video Music Awards, he interrupted the winners' acceptance speech to unleash an expletive-laden tirade about how much he paid to make his video, and how he'd been robbed of the award. More recently, he and 50 Cent had a highly-staged beef—the two both released albums on September 11, 2007, and 50 claimed he'd retire if West outsold him in the first week. West did beat him, but 50 has yet to fulfill his end of the bargain.

Close call

Just after signing with Roc-a-Fella in 2002, West was in a serious car crash which resulted in a broken jaw. Rather than ending his vocal career, the experience inspired his 2003 hit "Through the Wire," which he recorded while his jaw was wired shut.

Off hours

Like any hip-hop artist worth his salt, Kanye loves to drop coin. In 2007, the tabs reported that West insisted on ordering in from Indian restaurant in London and spent $3,900 to fly the $17.50 fish dish to New York, escorted by the restaurant's chef. His taste for excess, though, occasionally gets him into trouble. In 2006, he was sued by Mercedes Benz after he failed to make payments on a G500. When he isn't eating fish or driving around in his Benz, he's usually shopping. A clotheshorse par excellence, West is such a fan of Fendi that he once shaved its logo into his head—and he held his massive 30th birthday party in June 2007 at the midtown Louis Vuitton flagship.

Personal

In 2006, West proposed to longtime girlfriend Alexis, but he broke off the engagement in April '08. In 2007, he moved into a minimalist Midtown apartment designed by architect Claudio Silvestrin.