119 Fun Facts About Kanye West

Raised in Chicago, Kanye West was born in which southern city?

Atlanta was his birthplace, on June 8, 1977; his parents divorced when he was three, and he moved with his mother to Chicago, the city he came to represent.

West spent a year at age 10 in which country, where his mother was a Fulbright Scholar?

China: Donda West taught English at Nanjing University for a year on a Fulbright; by her account Kanye was the only foreigner in his class and picked up the language fast, though he later forgot most of it.

West dropped out at age 20 from which school, where his own mother chaired the English department?

Donda West chaired the English department at Chicago State University, where Kanye enrolled after a painting scholarship at the American Academy of Art; he dropped out at 20 to pursue music.

Which Chicago producer became West's early friend and mentor?

No I.D. was a friend of the Roc-A-Fella talent scout who took West on, and West calls him "my mentor" on Last Call, the closing track of his debut album.

West's 2001 production work is credited with revitalizing Jay-Z's career on which album?

The Blueprint carried four West productions among its thirteen tracks, including the Nas diss Takeover and Izzo (H.O.V.A.), which gave Jay-Z his first top-ten hit as a solo act.

What happened to West in October 2002 that inspired his debut single?

A car crash shattered his jaw on October 23, 2002; he recorded Through the Wire at the Record Plant two weeks later with the jaw wired shut.

Through the Wire samples, and puns on the title of, a 1985 song by which singer?

The sped-up sample is Chaka Khan's Through the Fire, a 1985 single from her album I Feel for You; its writers David Foster, Cynthia Weil and Tom Keane share credit on Through the Wire.

Which comedian stood beside West when he went off-script during a 2005 Hurricane Katrina telethon?

Mike Myers had just read his scripted lines about the flooded city when West abandoned the script to attack the government's response; a visibly stunned Myers carried on reading his part.

Which animated series mocked West's ego in 2009 with a fish-sticks joke his cartoon self can't understand?

South Park's 'Fishsticks' drew a humble reply: West blogged the next day that it hurt his feelings but was pretty funny, and that he had been working on his ego.

The College Dropout debuted at number two in 2004 behind Feels Like Home, by which jazz-pop singer?

Norah Jones sold over a million copies of Feels Like Home that week against West's 441,000; his next nine solo albums, through Donda, all opened at number one.

Slow Jamz, West's first Hot 100 number one, was also the lead single from which rapper's album Kamikaze?

Twista released Slow Jamz as the lead single from Kamikaze, and its run to number one helped carry that album to the top of the Billboard 200; a longer cut appears on West's College Dropout.

Which College Dropout single won Best Rap Song at the 47th Grammys?

Jesus Walks won Best Rap Song in February 2005 even though its own lyrics predict that radio will not play a record about God; it was also nominated for Song of the Year.

With 10 nominations at the 47th Grammys, West lost Best New Artist to which band?

Maroon 5 took Best New Artist in February 2005 over West, the night's most-nominated artist; he still left with three Grammys, including Best Rap Album for The College Dropout.

Which film composer co-executive produced Kanye West's Late Registration, adding strings and harpsichord?

Jon Brion, composer of the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind score, had never worked with a rapper; West sought him out after hearing that score and his Fiona Apple productions, and Brion added live strings to the beats.

Gold Digger, which topped the Hot 100 in 2005, samples a 1954 recording by which artist?

Gold Digger samples Ray Charles's 1954 hit I Got a Woman; Jamie Foxx, who sings the hook, had just won an Oscar for playing Charles in the biopic Ray.

At the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, West protested that his losing video Touch the Sky starred which Baywatch actress?

Pamela Anderson appears in the Evel Knievel-style Touch the Sky video; when it lost Best Video to Justice vs Simian, West walked on stage to argue that it had 'cost a million dollars' and should have won.

Graduation shared its September 11, 2007 release date with which rapper's album Curtis?

50 Cent said he would stop releasing solo albums if Curtis lost the sales race, then took it back within days; Graduation sold 957,000 copies in its first week to Curtis's 691,000.

Which Japanese artist designed the cartoon Dropout Bear artwork for Graduation?

Takashi Murakami got the job after West visited his Kaikai Kiki studio in Japan; he set Dropout Bear in a futuristic 'Universe City' and later made the Kids See Ghosts cover too.

Stronger built its hook on a sample of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by which French duo?

Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (2001) supplies the vocoder hook; the duo later joined West on stage at the 2008 Grammys, where Stronger won Best Rap Solo Performance.

Which milestone did West reach with Stronger in 2021, a first for one of his singles?

Diamond certification came from the RIAA 14 years after release; West had kept reworking Stronger even once it was out, redoing the drums after they sounded weak in a club next to a Timbaland track.

Which company built the drum machine that gives 808s & Heartbreak its name?

Roland built only about 12,000 TR-808s and the machine was a commercial failure; its booming kick later became a hip-hop staple, and West made it the backbone of this album.

Heartless was originally intended for which artist's album before West kept it for 808s & Heartbreak?

Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 was the job West had been hired for when the Heartless beat came together; he kept it and started his own album instead, refusing when his co-producer suggested giving beats to Jay-Z.

Whose acceptance speech did West interrupt at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards?

Taylor Swift had just won Best Female Video for You Belong with Me when West grabbed her microphone to say Beyoncé had 'one of the best videos of all time'; Beyoncé later invited Swift back to finish her speech.

Which politician was caught off the record calling West a "jackass" after the 2009 VMAs incident?

Barack Obama called West a 'jackass' in an off-the-record aside before a 2009 CNBC interview; ABC News staff who overheard it posted the remark on Twitter, and the network apologized to the White House.

Where did West record most of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy during his post-VMAs exile?

Honolulu's Avex studios became West's base for the album: he block-booked all three rooms around the clock and brought in guests including Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver.

Which artist painted the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy cover with the armless winged figure?

George Condo painted five covers for the album; the main one shows West straddled by a nude, armless winged woman, and Condo later said West had asked for an image provocative enough to get banned.

What kind of creature crashes to Earth in Runaway, West's 35-minute film for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy?

A phoenix, played by model Selita Ebanks, falls from the sky and becomes West's girlfriend in Runaway; he shot the film in Prague in four days, saying the crew worked 20-hour days.

What was GOOD Fridays, which West ran from August to December 2010?

GOOD Fridays was a weekly free song giveaway: every Friday from August 20 to December 2010, West posted a new track online for free, and several, including Monster, landed on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Which two soul singers are credited as features on Watch the Throne purely through samples?

Otis Redding is credited on Otis (sampling Try a Little Tenderness) and Curtis Mayfield on The Joy (sampling The Makings of You), both billed as features though neither was alive to record.

What record had the Watch the Throne roadshow set by June 2012?

Highest-grossing hip-hop tour ever was the mark it held until Drake's Summer Sixteen Tour in 2016; on stage the pair ended shows by repeating one song, 11 times running one night in Paris.

Which veteran producer did West bring in to strip down Yeezus in about 15 days?

Rick Rubin, co-founder of Def Jam, was brought to Yeezus in late May 2013 with the album not yet finished; in about two weeks he stripped tracks to their bones, cutting the record to ten songs.

Which rapper supported West on the Yeezus Tour, his first solo tour in five years?

Kendrick Lamar, fresh off good kid, m.A.A.d city, opened most dates of the Yeezus Tour's first leg from its October 2013 start in Seattle; A Tribe Called Quest opened two New York shows instead.

Which working title did The Life of Pablo carry just before West chose its final name?

Waves replaced Swish in January 2016 and set off a Twitter feud with Wiz Khalifa before West settled on The Life of Pablo weeks later; the album had started out as So Help Me God.

Which streaming service had The Life of Pablo exclusively for weeks after its 2016 release?

Tidal had the album to itself after West tweeted it would 'never never never be on Apple'; about six weeks later it reached other streaming services anyway, and a fan sued West and Tidal over the promise.

Where did West produce the five seven-track albums of mid-2018, including Ye?

West set up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the 2018 'Wyoming Sessions', producing Daytona, Ye, Kids See Ghosts, Nas's Nasir and Teyana Taylor's K.T.S.E. and hosting the Ye listening party there on May 31.

How was the mountain photo on the cover of West's album Ye taken?

On West's iPhone hours before release: Kim Kardashian revealed that he shot the cover on the drive to the Ye listening party on May 31, 2018; its green caption reads 'I hate being Bi-Polar its awesome'.

Kids See Ghosts is West's 2018 collaborative album with which artist?

Kid Cudi had fallen out with West in 2016 before the two made up and formed Kids See Ghosts; a decade earlier West had signed him to GOOD Music and credited him as a co-writer on 808s & Heartbreak.

Where did West's Sunday Service give its first public performance, on Easter Sunday 2019?

Coachella hosted Sunday Service's first public show on April 21, 2019, atop a specially built hill; West had pulled out of headlining the festival that January when organizers would not build him a giant dome.

On what date did the Sunday Service Choir release its debut album, two months after Jesus Is King?

Christmas Day 2019 fitted the title: Jesus Is Born, the Sunday Service Choir's 19-track debut, arrived two months after West's Jesus Is King, a date he had promised the day before that album came out.

Which smooth-jazz saxophonist appears as a guest on Jesus Is King?

Kenny G plays the saxophone solo on Use This Gospel; West had hired him to serenade Kim Kardashian among roses on Valentine's Day 2019, and the album won Best Contemporary Christian Music Album at the 2021 Grammys.

Which fast-food chain does West name in a song on Jesus Is King?

Chick-fil-A is the punchline of Closed on Sunday, which plays on the chain shutting every Sunday, a rule its founder kept to honour the Lord's Day.

While finishing Donda in 2021, West lived in a locker room converted into a studio at which venue?

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, hosted West's first Donda listening event in July 2021, and he simply stayed on, taking over a locker room as his bedroom and studio while he finished the album.

What was the Donda Stem Player, launched with Kano Computing in 2021?

A device for remixing the album's songs, the Stem Player splits each track into four stems a listener can mix; West then put Donda 2 out only on it, so Billboard ruled that album ineligible to chart.

With which singer did West team up for the 2024 album Vultures 1?

Ty Dolla Sign and West billed themselves as ¥$ for Vultures 1, released outside the major-label system on West's own YZY label; it still debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in February 2024.

The chant loop driving the 2024 number-one Carnival was recorded by which club's ultras?

Inter Milan's Curva Nord ultras were brought into the studio to record the chant; it loops through Carnival, which topped the Hot 100 in 2024 and gave Playboi Carti and Rich the Kid their first number ones.

What was the first shoe of the Adidas collaboration, released in February 2015?

Yeezy Boost 750 was the first shoe out, in a run of 9,000 pairs that sold out and was restocked within weeks; the Boost 350 followed that June.

Why did West say he left Nike for Adidas in 2013?

Nike refused to pay him royalties on his shoe designs, West said; Adidas agreed to royalties and left him full ownership of the Yeezy brand.

How were Yeezy Gap clothes displayed when they hit Gap stores in July 2022?

In unsorted trash bags, shoppers had to dig for Yeezy Gap clothes; West, who had rapped about a job at Gap on his debut album, called himself an innovator and ended the ten-year deal that September.

What does the acronym in GOOD Music stand for?

Getting Out Our Dreams is what GOOD stands for; the label's first album, John Legend's Get Lifted, went on to win the Grammy for Best R&B Album.

Whom did West appoint president of GOOD Music in November 2015?

Pusha T, signed to GOOD Music in 2010, was named the label's president in November 2015 and held the post until stepping down in late 2022 after he and West fell out.

Under what banner did West run for president in 2020?

West ran under the Birthday Party banner, telling Forbes in July 2020 that 'when we win, it's everybody's birthday'; he had announced the campaign on Twitter on July 4, 2020.

Roughly how many votes did West win in his 2020 run for president?

About 70,000 votes was West's haul nationwide, nearly all from the 12 states where he made the ballot; Tennessee gave him the most, and he conceded the next morning.

Why did West say he wanted to be known as Ye?

It is the Bible's most used word, West claimed to radio host Big Boy in 2018, adding that there it means 'you'; a Los Angeles judge made the one-word name Ye legal in October 2021.

Which West album closes with Bound 2, whose video put Kim Kardashian on a motorcycle?

Bound 2 is the closing track of Yeezus (2013), a soul-sampling outlier on an abrasive album; its video, with Kim Kardashian riding a motorcycle with West, was parodied by Seth Rogen and James Franco.

West's Graduation lost Album of the Year at the 2008 Grammys to a Joni Mitchell tribute album by which artist?

Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters beat Graduation and Amy Winehouse's Back to Black; it was West's third straight nomination for the top prize, after his first two albums, and he lost all three.

Which animated sitcom featured West voicing a rapper named Kenny West?

The Cleveland Show cast West as Kenny West, a teenage rap star who faces Cleveland Jr. in a rap battle over a girl in the 2010 episode Brotherly Love; West came back to voice him in later seasons.

Which fast-food chain did West's company KW Foods buy the Chicago-area rights to?

Fatburger, the Los Angeles burger chain, was meant to get ten Chicago-area restaurants under KW Foods; only two opened, the first in Orland Park in September 2008, and that one closed in early 2011.

Which streaming service reportedly paid about $30 million for Jeen-Yuhs, the documentary filmed across two decades of West's life?

Netflix bought the film from Coodie and Chike, the duo who directed West's Through the Wire video and kept filming him for two decades; Billboard put the price at $30 million, a figure Variety was told was wrong.

Which institution gave West an honorary doctorate in May 2015?

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago made West an honorary doctor on May 11, 2015, then rescinded the degree in December 2022 after his antisemitic statements.

West's very first sneaker collaboration, released in January 2007, was with which brand?

A Bathing Ape made a College Dropout edition of its Bapesta for West; Nike and Louis Vuitton shoes followed in 2009, the same year his own long-planned clothing line was cancelled.

At which Italian fashion house did West intern in Rome in fall 2009?

West interned at Fendi in Rome in late 2009 alongside Virgil Abloh, pitching ideas for menswear during his break from music after the VMAs; his own women's line debuted at Paris Fashion Week in 2011.

Where did West and Kim Kardashian marry in May 2014?

The couple married on May 24, 2014 at the Forte di Belvedere, a 16th-century fortress overlooking Florence, after pre-wedding festivities at Versailles; they had four children before the divorce was finalized in November 2022.

Which comedian lip-syncs Can't Tell Me Nothing on his farm in the song's alternate video?

Zach Galifianakis filmed the alternate video on his own farm with singer Will Oldham in 2007, and it went viral on YouTube; two years later the song turned up in his film The Hangover.

A live album by which English trip-hop group inspired the string arrangements on Late Registration?

Portishead's 1998 live album Roseland NYC Live, recorded with a full orchestra at New York's Roseland Ballroom, gave West the template for the strings on Late Registration, which took over a year and about $2 million to make.

Who did West name as his running mate for the 2020 presidential race?

Michelle Tidball, a preacher and self-described 'biblical life coach', came from Cody, the small town where West had bought ranch land and based his campaign; he named her in his July 2020 Forbes interview.

West paid $85,000 to license a photo of which singer's bathroom for the cover of the 2018 album Daytona?

Whitney Houston's drug-strewn bathroom, photographed in 2006, replaced the planned cover at the last minute; West paid the $85,000 fee himself, and her former husband Bobby Brown called the choice bad taste.

Which 2015 single teamed West with Rihanna and Paul McCartney?

FourFiveSeconds, released in January 2015, paired West and Rihanna over Paul McCartney's acoustic guitar; the three performed it at that year's Grammys.

In January 2026 West published a paid full-page apology for his antisemitic remarks in which newspaper?

The Wall Street Journal carried the full-page letter, titled 'To Those I've Hurt', on January 26, 2026; West blamed bipolar disorder and wrote that he had gravitated to 'the most destructive symbol I could find'.

West announced his album Bully at a September 2024 concert in which city?

Haikou hosted what was billed as a Vultures 2 listening event at Wuyuan River Stadium; West used the stage to reveal a different album, Bully, and previewed its song Beauty and the Beast.

Kanye West went off-script to criticize President George W. Bush at a 2005 telethon for which disaster?

Hurricane Katrina relief was the cause of NBC's live benefit, where co-presenter Mike Myers, visibly surprised, simply carried on reading the script.

Which actor and singer provides the opening hook on Kanye West's chart-topping single Gold Digger?

Jamie Foxx recorded his part because West was unsure the song's sample would be cleared. The single became West's second Hot 100 number one.

Whose guest verse on Kanye West's 2010 posse cut Monster did most critics single out as its highlight?

Nicki Minaj joined the song partly out of admiration for Jay-Z, and GQ later wrote that her verse stole the show.

At the 2015 Grammys, Kanye West briefly walked on stage as which artist accepted Album of the Year?

Beck had just won for Morning Phase when West stepped up, then left without saying a word. West later said he thought Beyoncé should have won.

Almost 135,000 people signed a petition against Kanye West headlining which British music festival in 2015?

Glastonbury kept West on the bill regardless, and he headlined its main Pyramid Stage that June as planned.

Which two actors starred in Bound 3, a 2013 parody of Kanye West's Bound 2 music video?

Seth Rogen and James Franco shot their spoof as a shot-for-shot remake while filming The Interview. Kim Kardashian said she and West found it very funny.

Which singer's debut album Get Lifted was executive-produced by Kanye West for his GOOD Music label?

John Legend was managed by West at the time, and the album won him the Grammy for Best R&B Album.

Kanye West mostly sang on 808s & Heartbreak, running his vocals through which pitch-correcting processor?

Auto-Tune won West over while he was working on remixes for Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy. He said he liked how it made every off-key note obvious.

What name did Kanye West and Kim Kardashian give their first child, a daughter born in June 2013?

North is the eldest of the couple's four children. Saint, Chicago and Psalm followed, the younger two born via surrogate.

Kanye West makes an uncredited cameo as an MTV host in which 2013 comedy sequel?

Anchorman 2 casts West as Wesley Jackson, one of the famous faces who pile into the film's all-out battle between rival news teams.

Kanye West's guest verse helped which British singer's American Boy win a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration?

Estelle wrote the song about meeting a man from the United States, and will.i.am built it on the instrumental of his own track Impatient.

Which singer joins Kanye West on Good Life, the Graduation single celebrating his own success?

T-Pain came up with the song's concept over dinner with West, then recorded a stack of hooks for him to choose from.

The chorus of Kanye West's single Heard 'Em Say is sung by the frontman of which pop rock band?

Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine heard an early version on a flight to Rome with West and realized a chorus he had already written would fit.

Which gospel singer helps close Kanye West's Ultralight Beam, the opening track of The Life of Pablo?

Kirk Franklin ends the song alongside West and a ten-piece choir, after a verse from Chance the Rapper that critics singled out for praise.

Kanye West's guest verses feature on the single version of which chart-topping Katy Perry song?

E.T. reached number one on the Hot 100 in April 2011 with West aboard, giving him his fourth chart-topper and Perry her fifth.

Kanye West produced Stand Up, the first Hot 100 number one for which Southern rapper?

Ludacris co-produced the 2003 club hit with West, who also pops up in its video alongside Tyra Banks and Katt Williams.

Kanye West announced a 2020 presidential run while accepting which honor at the 2015 VMAs?

The Video Vanguard is MTV's career prize, named for Michael Jackson, and West was only the third rap act to win it.

Which music site gave Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a perfect 10 on its release?

Pitchfork had not handed a new release a perfect score since Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in 2002.

Which Australian designer at Kanye West's Yeezy company did he marry in a private ceremony in December 2022?

Bianca Censori holds bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture from the University of Melbourne. The wedding was her first marriage and West's second.

Which daredevil sued Kanye West over the jumpsuit-clad stunt rider he played in the Touch the Sky video?

Evel Knievel settled amicably after West paid him a visit, only days before the stuntman's death in November 2007.

Kanye West's father Ray, later a newspaper photojournalist, was a former member of which political group?

The Black Panthers counted Ray West as a member. He later became a Christian counselor and opened a café in Maryland with startup money from his son.

Kanye West won a 1997 scholarship to Chicago's American Academy of Art, where he took classes in what?

Painting did not hold him for long: West soon transferred to another Chicago college to study English, then dropped out to make music.

Kanye West recorded his live album Late Orchestration with an all-female string orchestra at which London studio?

Abbey Road hosted the one-night show for 300 invited guests, and the album's cover photograph nods to the Beatles record named after the studio's street.

In Kanye West's short film Runaway, his character falls for a creature who is half woman and half what?

Phoenix is the role played by model Selita Ebanks, whose character crashes to Earth as a meteorite at the start of the film.

Which Kanye West tour cast him as a space traveler stranded on a distant planet with a talking ship named Jane?

Glow in the Dark supported Graduation in 2008, with Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco among the opening acts.

Which Detroit rapper earned a GOOD Music deal after freestyling for Kanye West at a radio station in 2005?

Big Sean was given sixteen bars by a reluctant West, left him a demo tape, and was signed two years later.

For a 2021 Donda listening event at Chicago's Soldier Field, Kanye West built a full replica of what?

His childhood home rose at the center of the stadium, and West emerged from it dressed in black as pictures of his late mother were shown.

Kanye West made 808s & Heartbreak after his mother's death and the end of his engagement to which designer?

Alexis Phifer had dated West on and off since 2002 and was engaged to him from August 2006. She said the pair split amicably and stayed friends.

What was the name of Kanye West's late-1990s Chicago rap group, which released World Record Holders in 1999?

The Go-Getters teamed West with fellow Chicagoans GLC, Timmy G and Arrowstar, and put out their only album through his company Konman Productions.

Which creative director of Kanye West's agency Donda later became artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear?

Virgil Abloh first met West while working on his designs at a Chicago print shop, and went on to found the label Off-White.

The chorus of Kanye West's Stronger paraphrases a famous maxim by which German philosopher?

Friedrich Nietzsche's dictum about surviving setbacks is steered by West toward the more physical subject of a girl who tests his patience.

On his 2013 track I Am a God, Kanye West impatiently demands which food at a French restaurant?

Croissants then earned West a spoof open letter from a so-called Association of French Bakers, urging patience because the pastry is a work of art.

Which African country's civil war and illegal diamond trade gave a Kanye West single from Late Registration its title?

Sierra Leone came into the song after Q-Tip told West about blood diamonds; it had begun as a track about the demise of Roc-A-Fella Records.

Which comedian delivers the long closing monologue on Blame Game, from Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy?

Chris Rock begins his monologue about five minutes in, as the new man West overhears talking with a former lover on the phone.

Which Kanye West single with Chris Martin casts Chicago as a sweetheart he left behind to chase fame?

Homecoming grew out of a 2001 demo called Home (Windy), a nod to the city's nickname, given a new beat and a Chris Martin chorus.

The chorus of Kanye West's All Falls Down, sung by Syleena Johnson, reworks a live song by which artist?

Lauryn Hill's Mystery of Iniquity, from her MTV Unplugged album, could not be cleared as a sample, so West had the passage sung afresh.

Kanye West's 2010 comeback single Power takes a swipe at which long-running American television comedy?

Saturday Night Live still booked him that October, and West performed the song with an entirely new verse in place of the insult.

The spoken intro to Kanye West's Dark Fantasy rewords a Cinderella poem by which children's author?

Roald Dahl's rhyming retelling of the fairy tale is reworded in the opening narration, which critics praised for its mock-English accent.

Which Kanye West single, featuring Paul McCartney on electric piano, is sung as a message from his late mother?

Only One came from sessions West said he could not remember singing; he felt his mother, Donda, had spoken through him to his daughter.

Which soul singer, name-checked in Kanye West's Slow Jamz, also supplies the sped-up sample that runs through it?

Luther Vandross's 1981 cover of A House Is Not a Home is the sample, sped up into what critics called chipmunk soul.

In the spoken outro of his 2018 song Yikes, Kanye West presents which condition as a strength?

Bipolar disorder also appears in the caption scrawled across the cover of Ye, the album the song comes from, which is how West confirmed it.

Which Southern rapper voices the people, arguing with Kanye West about Donald Trump on a 2018 single?

T.I. is credited on Ye vs. the People as the People; the pair recorded it after a studio conversation about West's support for Trump.

Which 2018 Kanye West release builds through a long soul sample, then ends with him scatting nonsense syllables?

Lift Yourself was widely read as trolling: West announces that a great verse is coming, then delivers gibberish before the track abruptly stops.

Kanye West's The College Dropout carries a spoken life story of nearly nine minutes straight after which song?

Last Call is about West's switch from producer to rapper, a move record labels had resisted because he lacked the gangsta image then in fashion.

Which star-studded Kanye West single follows a parolee trying to beat a restraining order and see his daughter?

All of the Lights layers in fourteen backing vocalists, among them Elton John, who also plays the piano part.

On the Watch the Throne track New Day, Kanye West and Jay-Z each address a verse to whom?

Their future sons are warned about the burdens of fame, over a beat credited to RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Pinocchio Story, the hidden freestyle closing Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, was recorded live in which Asian city?

Singapore was where West improvised the song on stage, and the recording made the album at the request of Beyoncé.

Kanye West's Donda track Jesus Lord ends with thanks from the son of which Chicago gang founder?

Larry Hoover's son thanks West for taking his father's case to the White House; West and Drake later staged a benefit concert for the same cause.

The Donda track Praise God opens with Kanye West's late mother reciting lines by which American poet?

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize, awarded in 1950 for her poetry collection Annie Allen.

Kanye West's Coldest Winter, mourning his late mother, reworks the song Memories Fade by which English band?

Tears for Fears put the original on their 1983 debut The Hurting, and band member Curt Smith has said he is fond of West's version.