Books Recommended by Kanye West

Kanye West is an American artist, entrepreneur and fashion designer, specialized in hip-hop music (as a rapper, songwriter and record producer). He became known in the show business in the early 2000s for producing music for artists like Jermaine Dupri, Nas, Ludacris and Jay-Z. Kanye gained mainstream fame after releasing his first single as a solo artist in 2003, Through the Wire, which has sold over 1 million units in the US alone.

20 years ago, the idea that Kanye could be a rapper was considered absurd. No record label wanted to sign with him, saying he wasn’t “gangsta” enough, and Kanye still remembers how he ended up crying after being turned down for so many times. Not even Jay-Z wanted to sign him first at Roc-A-Fella, although Kanye produced several tracks for his 2001 album The Blueprint.

In 2004, Kanye released his debut album The College Dropout under Roc-A-Fella Records, although its founder Jay Z didn’t believe in Kanye. He admitted he accepted to sign Kanye as an artist in order to keep him at the label as a producer. The College Dropout soon gained commercial and critical success.

After the release, Kanye founded his own record label, GOOD Music (acronym for Getting Out Our Dreams). The label went to sign artists such as John Legend, Pusha T (who’s now also in charge of the business), and Big Sean.

During his career, Kanye got involved in a couple of businesses, such as opening fast food restaurants (that were ultimately shut down), a design company that would “pick up where Steve Jobs left off”, and investing in the high-quality music streaming platform Tidal.

Kanye is the founder and designer of the fashion brand Yeezy, most known for its sneakers created in partnership with Adidas. He has also worked with brands such as Nike and Louis Vuitton on clothing and footwear.

By 2019, the artist released 8 solo studio albums, 2 collaborative albums (including Watch the Throne with Jay-Z), and is one of the best-selling artists, with 140 million records sold and 21 Grammy Awards.

West is among the most critically acclaimed musicians of the 21st century and one of the best-selling music artists of all time with over 140 million records sold worldwide.

Despite the fact that Kanye is an author and his late mother was a university English professor, he reportedly doesn’t prioritize reading. He said that he stays away from books, especially fiction, and he found novels “self-absorbed” as a rule: “Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed. […] I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life.”

In 2008, Kanye co-authored “Thank You and You’re Welcome“, a book that he teamed up with J Sakiya Sandifer for, and said that it’s “a guide to creating then celebrating your moment”.

Kanye revealed that he’s currently working on a philosophy book that will be titled “Break the Simulation“.