Real Name: Kanye Omari West

Nationality: American

Height: 5' 9"

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Born: June 8, 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Discovered: Kanye dropped out of Chicago State University to pursue his music career. He gained some fame by producing hit singles for major Hip-Hop/R&B artists, including Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, and Ludacris. Kanye himself worked on his solo album for a long period of time, having the release pushed back on multiple occasions.

Kanye became a major name in hip-hop production following the release of Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, which featured six tracks produced by him. Yet, many record companies put him aside because he was not a former 'street hustler' and did not wear the orthodox hip-hop apparel.

A car crash in 2002 left his jaw fractured in three places. With his mouth still wired shut and weeks after his accident, he recorded his song "Through the Wire." "Through the Wire", which sampled Chaka Khan's classic track "Through the Fire," would eventually become his lead single from The College Dropout, which was released on Roc-a-Fella Records in February 2004.

On August 30th, 2005, Kanye West released his second album Late Registration. The first two singles were "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" (which contained samples from Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever") and "Gold Digger" featuring Jamie Foxx. The album went on to sell over 904,000 copies in its first week, and spun off eight Grammy Award nominations including album of the year and record of the year for "Gold Digger." West announced that his third and fourth albums will be titled Graduation and A Good Ass Job, respectively.

Resume: Albums:

Late Registration (2005)

Hit Singles:

- Diamonds From Sierra Leone

- Gold Digger

The College Dropout (2004)

Hit singles:

- Through the Wire

- Jesus Walks

Known For: His strong political views.

Romance: Currently said to be dating hip-hop video queen Melyssa Ford.

Quotes: "if you have the opportunity to play this game of life you need to appreciate every moment. a lot of people don`t appreciate the moment until it's passed" - Kanye West

"nothing in life is promised except death" - Kanye West

"We buy our way out of jail but we can't buy freedom,
We buy a lot of clothes when we don't really need them,
Things we buy to cover up what's inside." - Kanye West

"They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus

That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes. But if I talk about God my record won't get played Huh?" - Kanye West

"I don't know whats better gettin laid or gettin paid." - Kanye West