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What Made Kanye West A Pop Culture Icon | TheRichest.com

Kanye West has not always personified the hardly accepted speech crasher from your favorite MTV circa videos. In fact, before his break into the major leagues of entertainment, the ingenious urban icon had traversed realms of poetry to fine arts and music production leading into superstardom as a recording artist, fashion designer and political figure since the very initiation of his creative floetry.

There are so many ways to look back on the legendary careers of the world's most famous artists and one is to go back to the beginning.  The 1.5 billion dollar multi-Grammy-winning artist was made manifest to his late mother Dr. Donda C. West, an English Professor at Clark Atlanta University, and Ray West a former black panther and photojournalist for The Atlanta Journal publication, on the 8th of June 1977.  Although, he was born near the Atlanta corporation, Georgia state republic, Kanye's creative genius was nurtured near Chicago, Illinois.

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The gemini personality, Kanye has two-facedly 'killed' and rebirth himself time and time again throughout his career in artistic expression.  As early as third grade, Kanye was known to write poems and even perform raps.  By the time he reached the age of maturity and entered the working world, Ye tested the waters of college but shortly after dropping out, which plainly inspired his debut album 'The College Dropout' from 2004, Kanye proved his soul's intentions of going full throttle as a recording artist in the music business.

However, there are several levels to Yeezy's undeniable icon status.  Prior to releasing the first album, which was an automatic classic by being Kanye's highest grossing studio project grossing $3.5 million, he served the hip-hop culture as a master producer.  In the mid-to-late 90's, Kanye had broken records for the likes of Janet Jackson, Ludacris, Eminem and deal-making album, The Blueprint when former comrade Jay-Z, heavily swayed by then partner Dame Dash, honored the chicago producer's talent by signing him to Roc-A-Fella Records in 2001.  Shortly after the deal was sealed, a life-transforming car wreck ignited Ye's soul to record 'Through The Wire' with a completely broken jaw -- wired shut.  Here again, we see Kanye's career take a near-deathly turn, for the better, and tragedy fueling major wins.

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Unmasking the ego, Kanye's undeniable work ethic is a testament to his living iconic build.  Anyone who can turn a $53 million dollar debt into billions unlike plenty of forerunning artists who after a series of unfortunate events enveloped at their peaks like TLC and MC Hammer. Another example of this persistent energy playing out wins for Kanye is the clearly his highly-publicized marriage to Kim Kardashian resulting in a full family of four children yet divorce after nearly seven years.

Ye's exploration of ventures outside of recording have also played a colossal role in the 42-year-old's elite title.  Although, fashion critics had mixed reviews for the rapper, $1.5 billion in sales speaks another tone.  After covering the September issue of Harper's Bazaar in 2016, it's no wonder USA Today agrees the talented rapper is indeed iconic however still questioned why the rapper has an inferiority complex, however his announcement for presidency in 2020 goes to show Kanye's regardless attitude towards public opinion.

Conclusively, the bleeding of emotion from '808's and Heartbreak' is another prime example of how a natural musical mastermind would iconically paint the studio red.  By the climax of Kanye's career on the mic, fans were utterly shocked by his announcement to wade the waters of the Gospel scene.  Critically acclaimed, Ye's latest album 'Jesus Is King' dropped in 2019 and yielded major applause and his first Grammy in the Gospel category, bringing his career total to 22. With lyrics like the following, a blatant outpour of Kanye's 'black sheep' persona, is evident:

Told the devil that I'm going on a strikeI've been working for you my whole lifeNothing worse than a hypocriteChange, he ain't really differentHe ain't even try to get permissionAsk for advice and they dissed himSaid I'm finna do a gospel albumWhat have you been hearin' from the Christians?They'll be the first one to judge meMake it feel like nobody love me

So what are the ingredients of an authentic pop icon?  Following the blueprint set by Kanye West, one can summarily point to the facts.  Unpopular opinions may help build fame and lead to multi-billion dollar business moves that come from virtuoso skills and fearless navigation in an society full of dogmatic disparagement.

READ NEXT: 6 Ways Kanye West Earns And Spends His $1.3 Billion Fortune

Sources: USA Today, Promolta, Quora, Vox MagazineGenius, Variety, Cheatsheet

 



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