Kanye Omari West (/ˈkɑːnjeɪ/; born June 8, 1977)[4] is an American recording artist, record producer, film director and fashion designer from Chicago, Illinois.

West first gained prominence as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records; here he achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's 2001 album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and Janet Jackson. His style of production originally used high-pitched vocal samples from soul songs incorporated with his own drums and instruments. Later productions saw him broadening his musical palette and expressing influences encompassing '70s R&B,baroque pop, trip hop, arena rock, folk, alternative, electronica, synthpop, and classical music.[5]

West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004; his second album Late Registration followed in 2005. Later albums include Graduation in 2007, 808s & Heartbreak in 2008, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. West released a collaborative album, Watch the Throne with Jay-Z in 2011, which is the duo's first collaborative album.

His five solo albums, all of which have gone platinum, have received numerous awards and critical acclaim.[6] All of albums have been commercially successful, with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy becoming his fourth consecutive No. 1 album in the U.S. upon release.[7] West has had six songs exceed 3 million in digital sales as of December 2012, with "Gold Digger" selling 3,086,000, "Stronger" selling 4,402,000, "Heartless"[8] selling 3,742,000, "E.T." selling over 4,000,000, "Love Lockdown" selling over 3,000,000,[9][10] and "Niggas in Paris" selling over 3,000,000,[11][12] placing him third in overall digital sales of the past decade.[13][14] He has sold over 30 million digital songs in the United States making him one of the best-selling digital artists of all-time.[15] He is also one of the most awarded artists of all-time.

West also runs his own record label GOOD Music, which is home to artists such as John Legend, Mos Def and Big Sean.[16]West's mascot and trademark is "Dropout Bear," a teddy bear which has appeared on the covers of three of his five solo albums as well as various single covers and in his music videos.[17]