Where to find it: Netflix
Length: Three 2-hour films
Synopsis: Kanye pesters his way into becoming one of the biggest pop culture figures of the early 21st century
Recommendation rating: 5/5
What I like about it: invaluable early footage, a must-watch if you have even a slight interest in the subject matter (my wife’s review: “I have far more respect and sympathy for him now”)
What I don’t like about it: it’s a showcase of candid footage rather than a complete picture of the subject, it isn’t didactic in drawing conclusions and people will see what they want to see in him
Review:
I’ve always wanted to understand Kanye West, an inscrutible enigma whose talent in music production is overshadowed by his talent for controversy and publicity-seeking. This documentary finally helped me feel like I understand ye to the extent I’ll ever be able to and met my high expectations of being his ‘Rosebud’. It was filmed by an old friend/associate of ye, Coodie, who wanted to make ‘Hoop Dreams for MCs’ but found himself following his first subject longer than anticipated, only for that subject to pull his co-operation about 5 years into production. This footage finally sees the light of day in this trilogy, split roughly into ‘Kanye tries to make it’, ‘Yeezy makes it’ and ‘ye isn’t well’.
A particular highlight is every single moment that Donda West is on-screen and learning how foundational she was to her son getting not just a start in production but most of his early friends. The clearest statement made in the films, in my opinion, is that Donda was Kanye’s ‘rock’, his tether that kept him grounded while chasing his dreams, and that her early and tragic death was the catalyst for Kanye’s descent into hedonism then religious fanaticism, mental illness and sadly increasing irrelevance. Other highlights are Kanye invading the Roc-a-Fella offices to play his mixtape to any receptionist who will listen and generally pestering his way into the industry, candid home video of him telling jokes to his friends, socially-awkward clashes with his mentors as he finds success and early moments of ego-driven behaviour that range from inconsiderate, like being offended by Dame Dash calling him “one of the best rapper/producers ever” because he felt it was qualified praise, to downright cruel such as when he big-dicks Coodie at the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy launch party.
Due to the circumstances of the footage and how Kanye shelved the project, it could never be complete. The 2010s are pretty much missing from this documentary because the producers didn’t want to use too much archive footage, they instead assume that you lived through the decade and know about his temporarily-stabilising marriage to Kim Kardashian and his unhinged foray into politics. The final episode catches up with Kanye in 2020 and is the most heartbreaking of the bunch: having come to see a smart, talented and political young man who lost his way, the final episode shows how little hope there is of him regaining it. We find Ye shopping for thousand-dollar pottery, flying pop stars into his ranch to uncomfortably lecture them about abortion, and ranting with a paranoia not seen in a producer since Phil Spector as business executives schmooze him into licensing his name yet again. Several times, Coodie turns off the camera because he feels exploitative filming obvious breakdowns. Overall, the level of access given to a man who keeps the world at arm’s length makes this one well worth the investment in hours.
Content notes (may contain spoilers): death, big feelings