Kanye West
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About
Kanye West is an American rapper and producer. Beginning as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records[1], West released his first record in 2004, winning that year’s Best Rap Album Grammy award.[2] He is known on the internet for interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and his erratic Twitter behavior.
Online History
September 2005: Hurricane Katrina Remark
After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, NBC hosted a benefit telethon called A Concert For Hurricane Relief[6] on September 2nd. During the live broadcast, Kanye strayed from the teleprompter, saying “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” before the show’s producer cut away to another actor, unaware of the sudden change in broadcast.
The clip was made into a YTMND[3] on October 2nd, 2009. Several derivatives appeared on the site after, replacing “black people” with other things including “my stapler”[4] and “Mac people.”[5] The video was named the 25th best viral video of the 2000s by pop culture blog Complex[8], appeared on Encyclopedia Dramatica[7], and was parodied on a shirt worn by a puppet in a 2006 episode of Arrested Development.
September 2009: MTV VMA Awards
During a live broadcast of the annual MTV Music Video Awards on September 13th, 2009, Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for that year’s Best Female Video. An exploitable of Kanye began circulating around 4chan paired with the snowclone Imma Let You Finish.
July 2010: Joins Twitter
After a blog post[19] in which he claimed “everything that Twitter offers I need less of”[18] on May 13th, 2009, Kanye joined Twitter as @kanyewest[10] on July 28th, 2010. Importing the use of typing in all capital letters[26] from his blog, he began using the site to shout out to celebrity friends and post pictures of goblets and 19th century art. This initial burst of activity was covered by the Awl[20], TechCrunch[21], Entertainment Weekly[22], the Wall Street Journal[23] and TIME.[24]
<a href="https://twitter.com/ste_101holy">ste_101holy</a> shit bro thx for following - You are the chosen one dun dun dun dun</p>— Kanye West (kanyewest) July 31, 2010
On July 31st, Kanye chose one person to follow, a teenager from England named Steven Holmes[27], @ste_101.[28] Kanye and Steven exchanged several tweets[29] on the first night, calling him the “chosen one.”[31] Within a week, Steven asked Kanye to unfollow him due to unwanted attention.[30] Since then, Kanye has only followed five people, despite having over 5,841,000 followers as of January 6th, 2012.
Several tribute projects to his early tweets exist, including embroidered and framed versions[32] made by Etsy seller supervelma[33], a song by Josh Groban, and a Huffington Post[25] slideshow pairing the tweets with New Yorker cartoons. Several generators were created, including a mood-based edition[34], a Mad Libs version[35], and one with an API[36] to place Kanye quotes all over the web.
January 2011: Return to Twitter
He made a comeback to the site on January 4th, 2011. Over the course of 85 tweets and three hours, Kanye outlined a plan for a new company he has in the works, Donda, named after his late mother, who passed away in November 2007. He outlined the plan over several tweets, planning a 22 department company that would hire people from professions across the board including writers, nutritionists, musicians, lawyers, video game designers, and teachers to make products and experiences people want and can afford. He gained over 23,000 followers in the days following his rant.
We need as many amazing powerful smart talented wealthy people to be involved… Come get on board… don’t just sit there… reach out
— Kanye West (@kanyewest) January 5, 2012
The next day, news of his diatribe was covered by Entertainment Weekly[12], MSNBC[13], Washington Post[14], Mashable[16]. Spin Magazine[15] collected statistics from the tweet session which included a total word count of 1623, 9 fashion brand name drops, and 1 Matrix reference. In one of these tweets, Kanye gave out an email address for the company, contactDONDA@gmail.com. A fake Twitter account, @DONDAWorldwide[17], was created that night, claiming they had made the Gmail account and talking about the potential projects the company would undertake.
Kanye just made the sickest lanyard. It had 5 plasma screens on it!! #DONDA
— DONDA Group (@DONDAWorldwide) January 5, 2012
Personal Life
Kanye West was born on June 8th, 1977 in Atlantic, Georgia. He grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, before taking college courses in the city at the American Academy of Art and Chicago State University. While in college, he began producing tracks for local rap and hip hop artists and ultimately dropped out of school to focus on his music career. In 2000, Kanye began producing for Roc-a-Fella records before recording a verse on the Jay-Z song The Bounce.
After this opportunity, Kanye decided put producing to the site to focus on his solo career. His first single, Through The Wire[9] was recorded after Kanye was involved in a near-fatal car crash and while his jaw was wired shut. Since 2003, Kanye has released five solo albums, two collaborative records, won 14 Grammy awards, and started his own record label.
Search Interest
Search for Kanye West peaked in September 2009 following the Taylor Swift incident at the MTV VMAs.
External References
[1] Wikipedia – Kanye West
[2] Wikipedia – List of awards and nominations received by Kanye West
[3]YTMND – Bush Doesn’t Care
[4]YTMND – George Bush Doesn’t Care About My Stapler
[5]YTMND – Bush Doesn’t Care About Mac
[6] Wikipedia – A Concert for Hurricane Relief
[7] Encyclopedia Dramatica – George Bush doesn’t care about black people
[8] Complex – 25. Kanye West: “George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People”
[9] YouTube – Kanye West – “Through The Wire”
[10] Twitter – @kanyewest
[12] Entertainment Weekly – Kanye West’s twitter is back! And yes, it’s pretty much amazing
[13]MSNBC – Kanye West goes on 3-hour Twitter rant
[14] Washington Post – Kanye West and the Donda Twitter rant: A translation
[15] Spin – Kanye West’s Late-Night Tweet-a-Thon, By the Numbers
[16] Mashable –
In 86-Tweet Dispatch, @KanyeWest Says New Company Will ‘Pick Up Where Steve Jobs Left Off’
[17] Twitter – @DONDAWorldwide
[18] TechCrunch – Kanye West Is Mad As Hell At Twitter -- And He’s Not Going To Take This Anymore!
[19] WebArchive – Kanye West blog from May 13th, 2009
[20] The Awl – A Brief History of Kanye West’s Twitter
[21] TechCrunch – Kanye West Finally Has A F*cking Twitter
[22] Entertainment Weekly – Kanye West already has the funniest Twitter feed of all time
[23] The Wall Street Journal Speakeasy – Kanye West Twitter: The Rapper’s First Tweets
[24]TIME – Kanye West and His Magical, Unstoppable Twitter Feed
[25] Huffington Post – Kanye West’s Tweets Matched With New Yorker Cartoons
[26] Gizmodo –
[27] NY Daily News – Kanye West picks one lucky teen to follow on Twitter, bringing overnight fame to Steven Holmes
[29] Guardian – Kanye West only follows Coventry man on Twitter
[30] Entertainment Weekly – Kanye West’s lone Twitter follow bails, says no thanks to media attention
[31] Twitter – Kanye West @ste_101
[32] Huffington Post – Kanye West Tweets, Hand-Stitched, On Etsy
[33] Etsy – Your Favorite Kanye West Tweet – Hand-stitched and Framed – Limited Edition
[34] Openscope.net – Kanye West Tweet Generator
[35] Atom – Kanye West Apology Generator
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