Kanye West: 9 Surprising Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

What's up, Believe Nation? I made the Did You Know series to try to learn a little bit more about some of our famous entrepreneurs and maybe introduce you to some, a few surprising facts that you might find interesting. So today we're going to learn 9 surprising facts about Kanye West. Number 1: Michael Jackson told Kanye he could sing.

What about Michael?

You talk about Michael all the time. You did a remix for him.

Did you ever have an MJ personal encounter?

Yeah, I sat with Michael Jackson. I met him over Leonard Cohen's house, and I just vibed out with him. And then like, I think Michael would have wanted to put that battery in my back to do 808s. I played Good Life, and he was like, "Who's that singing right there? I like that voice." It was my voice. He gassed me up. Next thing y'all know, y'all have me in the night-a here. I was like, "Michael Jackson told me I could sing." Fuck all y'all, you know.

Fact number 2: Kanye originally went to art school but dropped out so he can do music.

Originally I went to art school. I had scholarships at a bunch of different art schools. Everybody thought I was gonna be an artist.

When did you do some of these pieces right here?

Back, um, '94, '95. Most of these are like this.

Okay, what's this? You got a blue ribbon on this one.

That's because I won.

Congratulations.

I remember this. I was really into anime and Japanese art.

This one is kind of eerie.

It was a good, um, exercise that the teacher gave us, and it's not very good, but since it was a dude looking like he was dead, I just put my name on it and put 1977 to 1995, which is the year which I actually drew it. And somebody should have killed me for how bad this actually was, but—

but this is almost like a premonition of a sort of Because, you know, you were like this at the end of your car accident. You were in the bed like this and you thought it was your deathbed.

Right. So I would never draw myself dead ever again.

You ever find time to do this anymore?

Seldomly. Now drawing, I just use it as a language. Like, I want it to look like this. I love to draw, but I just love music more. See, my thing about the drawings is I couldn't turn them up loud enough. I wanted to do something where people have it on all the time, and basically now what my music is, is a soundtrack to millions of people's lives. You couldn't get that feeling from art school. I couldn't get it.

Number 3: Before writing his own music, he produced music for other stars like Jay-Z.

So I used to just take the New Jersey Transit, and I'd pack up all my stuff, pack up all my DATs, and put them in a bag and just walk over here to Baseline. And that was the key right there, being able to walk up in the Baseline and play these rappers these beats. I remember it was Beanie Sigel's birthday, and I came and I played a bunch of like soul beats. Like we had soul beats here and there, but I had a bunch that I was building up, like just like from the success of "Can't Be Life." I was like, "I need to make some more stuff in this vein right here." So I'm playing Beanie some beats, and he gets to smiling like, "Yeah, it's hot." But he had to go somewhere. I don't know, he was going somewhere for his birthday. Hov came in. I remember he had a Gucci hat on, like the fisherman joint. And Hip Hop, my manager, who definitely saved my life, was like, yo, play that one beat for Hov. And it came on. Dun, dun, dun. And he was listening to it like, oh, this is crazy right here. Then it got to the chorus. And the chorus was like, ain't no love in the heart of the city. Dun, dun, dun. And he was like, oh, oh, oh.

He was doing his face like that.

He's like, "Play the next beat, play the next beat." I played another beat. He listens to it like, "Yo, man, you a soulful dude." And everything that Hov is saying is like in stone. I will never forget none of these words, 'cause I'm off the train, I'm from Chicago, I got $10 in my pocket right now, and I'm just having the opportunity to play these beats. So I'm, you know what I'm saying? I've had different so-called hit records and everything up to that point, but at this point, It's like, I'm just— this is like the moment of truth for me right here. So now I play another beat, then I play another beat, then I play this one beat, and it was like, "Never, never, never, never change. I never change." Yo, he took his hat down, he's like, "Ooh!" I was like, "Yo, maybe he like 'em. Maybe he like my beats." So he was like, "Yo, put them joints on CD." And then he left out, right? I was like, okay, I'm putting these joints on CD, let's see what happen. So then, 2 weeks later, the Blueprint was finished, right? So basically at that point, everything started rolling. Everybody's like, yo man, I heard you had half the Blueprint album. I heard you did half of Jay-Z's album. I couldn't even believe it myself. Now, 'cause of hip-hop, G, the blueprint, and then I'm over here with the opportunity to get my music out, which is what I wanted since third grade, you know what I'm saying?

In 2002, he survived a near-fatal car crash which prompted him to write Through the Wire.

When I had my accident, I found out at that moment nothing in life is promised except death. If you had the opportunity to play this game of life, you need to appreciate every moment. A lot of people don't appreciate their moment until it's past. And then you got to tell those Al Bundy stories. You remember when I But, um, right now is my time and my moment. Thanks to the fans, thanks to the accident, thanks to God, thanks to Rockefeller, Jay-Z, Dame Dash, G, my mother, Rhyme Fest, everyone that's helped me. And I plan, I plan to celebrate. I plan to celebrate. And scream and pop champagne every chance I get, because I'm at the Grammys, baby!

Fact number 5: He announced in 2020 that he's going to run for president.

As you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.

I was actually watching. I saw him do it, and I said, that's very interesting. I wonder who gave him that idea. Miley Cyrus said, "Oh, I was gonna vote for Trump, but now I'm voting for you." So it sounded like she was all made up for me and he took her away. He's actually a different kind of a person than people think. He's a nice guy.

Fact number 6, he has an amazing work ethic and completely immerses himself in his projects.

I got to watch Kanye make some of the last record, not the—

Dark Twisted Fantasy record.

Yeah, the Twisted Fantasy record, man. And you know, he lived it. He was living it, man.

Like when you say he lived it, like was he literally in the studio like a mad scientist?

Single day? Yeah, my man was in the studio kind of every day, but the studio— first of all, I hope he doesn't, you know, you know, Kanye get mad at you, then you get dissed on a record. But no, I was just impressed. Like, first of all, everybody in the studio had suits on.

Everybody.

You're kidding me.

I'm serious.

Was that like a prereq?

Yo, I thought he had like flown in a bunch of guys from like Europe or something, but like all the, all the engineers and everybody was in like black suits and white white shirts and black tie. Like, he, he set up a mood, right?

Yeah.

When you walked in there, you felt this mood. When you went in, especially like when you went in Electric Ladyland, you felt like—

that's interesting.

It was— yeah, he set a mood, man. And, you know, and you knew he was gonna be there. It was— I stopped in there a few nights.

Yeah.

And we did, um, what did we do? We did The Blame Game. We did The Blame Game. Yeah.

Wow, that's interesting.

But he, you know, when you talk to him, he's living it.

He's immersed in it.

He's immersed in it. And when he does the fashion, he's immersed in it.

Yeah.

Fact number 7, Kanye suggested that John Stephens change his name to John Legend.

It used to be John Stephens.

Yes.

And it was Kanye West who said, change to Legend.

You know, the first person actually was a guy named J. Ivy, who's also from Chicago and is a friend of mine and Kanye's. And he's a poet. And we're working on Kanye's album. And Kanye was having me sing all these parts. And J. Ivy was just like, man, we're going to have to call you The Legend. Because my voice is kind of old school. I've always had an old soul. And he just felt like that name was appropriate for who I was.

Have you always known you always had an old soul?

Always knew I had an old soul. When I was 7 or 8 years old, my Halloween costume was— I was dressed up as a businessman with a briefcase. Because I wanted to be grown when I was 7. I liked how my grandfather carried himself. Like, I just wanted to be grown even when I was a little kid. And then Kanye was like, man, you should just call yourself John Legend. And I was like, no, that's ridiculous. You know, of course Kanye's got a new album called Yeezus, so he's not afraid to say big, bold things. And you know, maybe I'll just roll with this whole John Legend thing.

Fact number 8, he filters his ideas by speaking with thought leaders like Elon Musk and Bill Knight.

It's a difference between somebody who working for somebody else's idea and a person who made the idea. Because me and Phil Knight gonna talk like this, the way me and Elon Musk talk for 3 hours like this, the way me and Eric Schmidt talk like this.

Who are the people you just named?

Elon Musk has the car company Tesla, also has SpaceX, also invented the Hyperloop. Uh, uh, Eric Schmidt is the head of Google. Got it. Um, so I'm just saying, like, current civilization, living civilization that can actually have a full conversation with what it is I'm attempting to do. So it's a lot of my ideas that I put out in the world have now then been pilfered through by, you know, corporations, whether it's Sonic ideas. Because Yeezus, at the end of the day, you could like it, you cannot like it, but it's a group of new ideas.

Fact number 9: he's won 21 Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all time.

I'd like to thank everybody who accepted, you know, me trying to break, you know, new boundaries in music. I wake up in the morning and just think about what stereotypes I want to break. And, you know, we pushed the envelope with the last album, with Stronger, with records that they thought wouldn't play on urban radio. And it's our responsibility as musicians to keep pushing each other and keep competing with each other. It's a really great competition. I see artists like Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Chris Martin all in the same room, and we're gonna push this music to the point where it was like in the '60s, in the '70s, when you talk about Led Zeppelin and Hendrix and the Beatles. We will be the new Beatles, the new Hendrix. They say in any other industry, you know, you're supposed to do better than the past, you know, like computers should get smaller and faster. But whenever you say, I want to be Elvis, they say, what's wrong with you? I want to be Elvis. Everybody asked me the question. They want to know what kind— I know he's gonna wild out and he's gonna do something crazy. Everybody want to know what I would do if I didn't win. I guess we'll never know.

Thank you guys so much for watching this video. Love to know what did you think. Let me know, leave it down in the comments below. What was your favorite surprising fact? How many of them actually surprised you? Are there If there's more that you want to add to the list, leave it down in the comments. Thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon. Bonus fact number 10: Walt Disney is one of his idols.

I'm standing up and I'm telling you, I am Warhol. I am the number one most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.

Walt Disney I mean, taste, culture, art, just the quality of life.

This is what I'm here to do.

So when I compare myself to Steve Jobs or Walt Disney, Howard Hughes, David Stern, Michelangelo da Vinci, Jesus or whatever it is, I'm saying these are my heroes. These are people that I look up to. This is the type of impact I wanna make on the Earth. If I can make this type of impact up to this point, What can I do if you call Bob Iger and say, yo, give him a shot? If you call Oprah and say, yo, back this kid. Back this kid. This kid's parents were educators. He wants to educate. He wants to look at curriculums and say, how do we simplify that? Exactly what I did in music, I want to apply to product. I want to apply to education. This is what my company, Donda, is about.