“You can’t be a star and not be a star. You gotta have some oomph about you,” Donda West, Kanye’s late mother, said in her son’s new documentary, jeen-yuhs. This quote is something that Kanye must have taken to heart considering he has been in the news since his rise to fame. Recently, Kanye has been in the news due to the drama between him and his now ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Before Kanye’s recent marriage drama, Kanye released his 14th album named after his late mother, Donda. Most recently, Kanye and his good friend Coodie, released jeen-yuhs, the documentary on the rap career of Kanye. 

Coodie, the director and videographer of the documentary, began filming Kanye in 2001, before Kanye had made his way as a rapper, still strictly a producer. Kanye was making beats for artists like Ludacris, Pharrell Williams, and Jay-Z before he was even signed as an artist. Although Kanye always understood the talent he had, he had to prove it to Roc-a-Fella records before they would sign him. Kanye did everything he could to promote himself as an artist and not just a producer, and would eventually convince the reluctant Roc-a-Fella records to sign him, even though they didn’t fully believe that Kanye could sell records. 

While Kanye was signed by Roc-a-Fella, he still felt like he was on the outside looking in. Kanye had to record at other studios and borrow time from other artists to produce his own album, and just when he felt he was making progress with Roc-a-Fella, Kanye was in a nearly fatal car crash which broke his jaw. While many would assume a wired shut jaw would slow down Kanye. Kanye wrote and recorded his debut single, “Through the Wire.” Kanye had finally earned the respect of Roc-a-Fella and they opened up his album budget allowing Kanye to drop his debut album “The College Dropout,” which truly made Kanye a star. 

The raw footage of how Kanye became a star is what truly makes jeen-yuhs stand out from other artists’ documentaries. Many artists have documentaries made about them after they have already become famous and it just films their life from their massive mansions and boujee lifestyles. Back in 2001, Coodie took a risk on a young kid from Chicago who only produced beats. Luckily for Coodie and Kanye, Coodie’s risk would reap a big reward when Kanye became one of the world’s biggest stars.