Biography: Kanye West
Welcome to the biggest ego in popular music. It's so big it's threatening to eclipse his accomplishments, which is no small feat -- for all the stage crashing tantrums and general insanity, Kanye West is one of the most inventive and commercially successful producers today. He got a leg-up from Jay-Z, making a big mark with his production on The Blueprint LP as a relative unknown, and has never looked back: producing hits for most every notable name in hip hop, releasing three Grammy winning albums under his own name, eventually going full circle to air his gripes with his benefactor Jay-Z himself on "Big Brother" (for one, Jay stole his idea to do a track with Coldplay, the scoundrel). With 2007's Graduation, Kanye made a bid for the hipster vote with his Daft Punk samples, Peter Bjorn & John stage shares, and Zach Galifianakis videos. Mostly, it worked. But a misstep at Bonnaroo '08, performing a Glow In The Dark set as the sun rose at 4:45AM after two hours of delay, led to some serious backlash. Kanye explained but didn't apologize. Not like anyone was holding their breath.
