47 Bizarre Kanye West Facts That Will Make Your Day
1. Kanye met No I.D. through Donda West, who worked with No I.D.’s mother as a teacher in Chicago.
2. Donda convinced the 19-year-old No I.D. to meet 14-year-old Kanye and “teach him how to do music.”
3. He lived in China for a year in the fifth grade.
4. Of his time in a Chinese school, Kanye has said “I got A’s and B’s. And I’m not even frontin’.”
5. Before he was signed, he would jump on tables during label meetings and scream, “I’m the next Michael Jackson!”
6. He was arrested in 2000 for stealing printers from Office Max in a case of mistaken identity.
7. At age 13 he wrote a song called “Green Eggs and Ham.”
8. And he begged his mother to pay $25 per hour for studio time.
9. He sold his first beat to Chicago rapper Gravity for $8,800.
10. Then he used the $8,800 to buy Polo clothes and a Jesus Piece.
11. Kanye claims he has synesthesia, meaning he can see sounds.
12. Kanye studied English at Chicago State University before dropping out to focus on music.
13. He once said, “I think I’m gonna move to London. Get a fake-ass British accent like Madonna.”
14. Kanye personally asked Seth Rogen and James Franco to perform their spoof of “Bound 2” at his wedding to Kim.
15. But it didn’t happen because they all agreed it was a silly idea.
16. He once worked as a telemarketer to pay his mother $200 per month in rent, which she demanded.
17. Kanye opened two Fatburger restaurants in Chicago through his company KW Foods LLC. Both locations have closed.
18. He has claimed to “TiVo rap videos so I can study them. To learn what steps to take to crush them all.”
19. He narrowly avoided another infamous rant when Common’s “They Say” was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collab at the Grammy’s over “Heard ‘Em Say” and “Gold Digger.”
20. But he apologized to Common when “Late Registration” beat “Be” for Best Rap Album that year.
21. After the Taylor Swift incident, Mos Def visited Kanye’s home and told him to flee the U.S.
22. Kanye took Mos Def’s advice, escaping to Japan, then Rome, before settling in Hawaii for six months to record “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.”
23. Also after Taylor Swift, “South Park” fried him for two hours in a parody episode titled, “Fishsticks.”
24. While recording MBDTF, he asked food delivery men for their opinions on the album when they stopped by his studio.
25. He made Pusha T re-write his verse on “Runaway” four times. Each time, pushing Pusha T to get more angry.
26. He used his own money to finance the “Glow in the Dark Tour” when Best Buy backed out of sponsoring it.
27. He kept a tracklisting of Common’s “Be” in the studio to make sure his album was just as good.
28. He made his first beat in the seventh grade.
29. The beat was for a “sexual video game.” “The main character was, like, a giant penis,” he explained. “It was like Mario Brothers, but the ghosts were, like, vaginas.”
30. The idea was abandoned due to the “labor intensive process.” “It literally took me all night to do a step, ’cause the penis, y’know, had little feet and eyes.”
31. We know he’s from the Chi, but he was actually born in Atlanta.
32. His father, Ray, was a photojournalist and Christian Counselor in ATL, while his mother was an English professor at Clark Atlanta.
33. Thanks to hip-hop, we know that Blue Ivy was conceived in Paris, while North West was conceived in Florence. TMI?
34. Kanye paid $35,000 to shoot the “Through The Wire” music video.
35. Initially, Chaka Khan refused to clear the sample for “Through The Wire.”
36. Kanye brought Chaka’s son to a BBQ and played him the “Through The Wire” music video. Two weeks later, Chaka cleared the sample.
37. Michael Jackson called Kanye to compliment the jacket he wore in the “Stronger” music video.
38. He’s thought of becoming a male porn star “once or twice.”
39. He invested two million dollars and over a year of work into creating his sophomore album.
40. Kanye and Jay Z performed “N*ggas In Paris” 12 times in a row on one night in Paris.
41. He refuses to work with Royce Da 5’9”.
42. Kanye recorded “The College Dropout” in Los Angeles while recovering from his car accident in 2002.
43. After the success of “College Dropout,” Kanye bought himself an 18th century aquarium with 30 koi fish.
44. Kanye once had a blog called KanyeUniverseCity.com.
45. In 2008, he posted a nude picture of Kim to his blog as he dubbed her his “girl of the week.”
46. One week later, he posted a picture of Kourtney Kardashian in a bra and made her his “girl of the week.” Awkward?
47. Before Bey’s digital album, Kanye planned a theatrical release for all of the music videos from “Late Registration.”
47 Bizarre Kanye West Facts That Will Make Your Day was originally published on ioneglobalgrind.staging.go.ione.nyc
