On this day in Hip Hop history, Kanye West released his debut album College Dropout 12 years ago. In honor of this moment we’ve compiled a list of the most memorable moments of ‘Ye’s career.
#1 Kanye West VS Taylor Swift
Everyone remembers the moment when Kanye West stole the show at the VMA’s by interrupting Taylor Swift‘s acceptance speech to announce who he thought deserved the award, long time friend Beyoncé. Time seemed to stop for the audience and folks at home as Yeezy shamelessly spoke his mind on a platform that honestly wasn’t his to use. Even Beyoncé, the woman who he was fighting for to win the award, was unaware of his intentions and stood by and watched him speak from the heart. Ironically, Beyoncé did win the award that night for Best Video, so at the end of the day Kanye got what he wanted.
#2 Kanye West VS George Bush
In 2005, tragedy stuck the country when the devastating Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans causing levees to break, flooding the entire city. Millions of people either lost their lives or their homes and had to live in the New Orleans Saints Superdome while FEMA tried to solve the problem. During an MTV fundraiser to help Katrina refugees, Kanye West took the time to voice his opinion on our country’s leadership at the time. Literally no one was expecting him to say what he said and MTV had to scramble to recover from his outburst.
#3 Kanye West Receives Roc-A-Fella Chain
At the end of Kanye West’s Through The Wire video you can see JAY Z, music mogul and owner of Roc-A-Fella Records, give Kanye West a Roc-A-Fella chain. To some this may have seemed like a miniscule event, but in the Hip Hop community it was a huge deal. The passing down of a chain is much like passing the torch; signifying Kanye West will be the future of Hip Hop and carry on the legacy that Jay built in the beginning of his career. At the time the chain was given, Kanye was just starting off in the industry and as we all know, he has lived up to and has even surpassed some of the accomplishments of his predecessor.
#4 Kanye Christ
In 2006, years before it was even announced he would be releasing a project called Yeezus, Kanye West posed as Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This of course came with much disapproval, as the majority of West’s more controversial moves have in the past. Coming two full years after the film The Passion of The Christ, this themed cover was used to signify Kanye West was going to be the self-appointed savior of Hip Hop music during a period of its history where club smash hits were beginning to outshine anything of substance.
#5 Kanye 2020
This past year at the VMA’s West was announced to be receiving the Video Vanguard Award and as you could expect, America was on their toes waiting to see what he would do this time. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to chance to epically interrupt anyone’s acceptance speech, but he did drop a few gems in a speech of his own. One of which was an announcement of entering the 2020 presidential race. His seriousness is still up for questioning, but he did tell Vanity Fair he’s “definitely” still thinking about running in the coming election.
