Kanye ‘Ye’ West and his mother Donda
(Picture: Netflix)Clarence “Coodie” Simmons vividly remembers his first on-air chat with Kanye West. Simmons was the co-founder and presenter of a rap show on Channel Zero and West was one of his first interviewees. “I would always want to hear about Kanye,” Simmons smiles, recalling his time documenting the early Noughties hip hop scene in Chicago. He was so impressed by West’s talents first as a producer, next as an aspiring rapper, that he left his job and home to follow West to New York City, camera in tow. “I had no idea what was going to happen,” Simmons laughs. “But I was just seeing Grammys. I was like: ‘he’s gonna win Grammys.’”
His hunch paid off: twenty years and twenty-one Grammys later, West is one of the biggest hip hop stars on the planet. Yet he’s also one of the most controversial. In between writing game-changing, critically acclaimed albums like My Dark Twisted Fantasy, he’s endorsed Donald Trump, run for president, had very public fall-outs with most of his close friends and collaborators and recently worked with Marilyn Manson who is facing multiple allegations of sexual assault (Manson has denied the claims). He’s currently in the middle of a messy divorce from Kim Kardashian and last week, to much condemnation, he also laid into pop sensation Billie Eilish (a moment that had echoes of his behaviour towards a young Taylor Swift in 2009).
Simmons’ portrait gives us some idea about how West has ended up here, thanks to his new, three-part fly-on-the-wall documentary, Jeen-Yuhs, which has been brought together from over 330 hours of footage. “I remember watching the film Hoop Dreams and I was impressed by how Steve James documented [basketball stars] Arthur Agee and William Gates for so long,” Simmons recalls, saying his idea for the film was inspired by James’ work. James filmed the sportsmen for over 250 hours. “I was like, ‘I’m going to do a Hoop Dreams on Kanye.’” Despite his own successful career as a stand-up under the mentorship of Bernie Mac, Simmons gave it up to become a filmmaker, knowing West was a compelling subject.
It’s taken him and creative partner Chike Ozah years to trim all the footage they amassed into this four-and-a-half-hour-documentary, which begins in Chicago with Simmons following a young, goofy-acting, retainer-wearing West as an aspiring rap artist. Despite his impressive skills as a producer, West wasn’t accepted as a rapper among his peers and as the documentary shows, the road to a record deal was much harder than many realise. “He didn’t make one song and was an overnight success,” Ozah explains, who first met West while he was working at MTV. “He put in so much work. It’s important to see how he reacted to adversity, how he let those ‘No’s’ fuel him.”
In one early scene, West walks unannounced into Roc-A-Fella Records – the famous hip-hop label co-founded by Jay-Z – and goes from room-to-room rapping to anyone who would listen, from A&Rs to slightly embarrassed admin staff. “He just had this energy about him. It was super-exciting to watch,” Simmons recalls, remembering how West hustled his way into sessions with the likes of Jay-Z and Pharrell, playing his songs to them at every opportunity. He remembers the same when he first met West at his barber’s shop in Chicago. “He would always come in and play his beats,” he laughs, recalling how he’d show his music to other rappers and producers who had a studio there. “Kanye used to kind of pester them to show him how to do beats,” he recalls, saying his determination and focus were formidable.
Yet there are many scenes of West looking awkward when his peers describe him as a producer, and of him refusing to accept deals that don’t position him as a rapper. After more rejections, complaints that people didn’t see him as “street” enough and his first ever rap-beef, we see a momentarily despondent West heading home to Chicago to his mother, Donda (a professor and chair of Chicago State University’s department of English, communications, media and theatre, before she retired and moved to work full-time with Kanye in 2004), who imparts advice to her beloved son. The scenes are some of the most emotive in the documentary.
“I did a funeral presentation for her, right after she passed,” Simmons continues, remembering her sudden death in 2007. “It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Every rough cut I’m bawling [my eyes] out.” The footage in part one of the film helps to show Donda’s central role in keeping her son optimistic in the face of adversity, but also grounded. Revealingly, she tells him “the giant who looks in the mirror sees nothing,” warning her son that while she was certain he would succeed, she is concerned egotism could consume him once success arrived. Pharrell is later seen offering similar advice: “never lose that underdog mentality”, he tells West, after hearing his first single and knowing he was on the cusp of superstardom.
Donda was certainly right about the success. West was signed eventually to Roc-A-Fella and his debut, The College Dropout won the Grammy for best rap album and went four-times platinum. She was also right about her metaphor. West’s ego seemed to grow in direct correlation with his fame.
Simmons tells me that he sent the clips of Donda to West after the pair lost contact for six years: it played a significant role in bringing them back together after some animosity. Simmons says it was her way of saying “you know, sometimes you come off a bit arrogant, but the giant looks in the mirror and sees nothing could be on the ground and in the air all at the same time. First thing I did when I [found the footage], I got Kanye’s email, uploaded it and then I sent it to him and my subject was ‘Kanye, your mother wanted me to send you this.’”
West bonded with Simmons as much over God as music. He believes Donda’s spirit helped bring him and West back together, as well as sending a message to West at a time he needed to hear it. After Donda’s death following a cosmetic surgery procedure, West spiralled, his behaviour becoming increasingly erratic, his songs more insular and introverted. He was later hospitalised following a “psychiatric emergency” while in the middle of a tour.
As it turned out, West had forgotten the moment with his mother. “Kanye called me and was like ‘not in a million years [did] I think she said that,’” Simmons remembers. “That’s what’s amazing about documentary and film; even when someone makes their transition like Mamma West, you can go back and see them, hear them and feel that energy... I think she’s been guiding this film.
“You got to remember his first hit song was ‘Jesus Walks’,” Simmons adds, saying he thinks Donda played another part in bringing him together again recently with West at a time he seemed uneasy about the film’s release. “I was in LA and ran into Kanye. I thought that was her putting it together again... he understands.”
Publicly, however, it seems West is far from comfortable with the film’s release. Only last week, he was demanding old rival Drake narrate the film, despite it being mostly finished. On Instagram back in January, he wanted a say over the final cut of the film so he can “be in charge of my own image.”
“The name of mine and Coodie’s [production] company is creative control,” Ozah says. “No” was the simple answer they gave to the star. “A documentary can’t be biased,” Ozah continues. “The last documentary we did that was a success... was about the life of [NBA player] Stephen Marbury. He gave us trust; he didn’t see that film until the film festival.
“Everything we do, our intention is always love, it’s always positivity,” he continues. “We’ll put out the facts, but it’s never meant to hurt anybody, that’s not the narrative we’re trying to create.” It’s clear they’ve tried to handle delicate issues sensitively - in one scene, so concerned is Simmons with West’s mental health that the camera is switched off as he goes to help.
The pair have struggled with trust issues with West in the past. They directed his first video together for Through The Wire, about his near-death experience following a car crash, the aftermath of which is shown in the film. “We were arguing with him like ‘No! It’s terrible and we can’t do it!’ and he just talked us into doing it anyway” says Simmons. “Then he saw it and was like, ‘Oh just let’s go back to the original way.’ We were like, trust us, this is what we do and this is what we love.” While the video “helped introduce him to the world,” Simmons says, it didn’t stop West later turning to other directors.
The gap between parts two and three of the film (which mirror the real-life gap during which contact between Simmons and West was suspended), starkly shows the gulf between West’s roots and what he’s become in recent years. The absence of Donda as a guide and West’s reaction to her death feels key, as does the conspicuous absence of Kardashian (she’s seen only momentarily in a singular shot).
“I feel like a lot of people have met Kanye through the media,” Ozah says. “[We] at least contextualise what he’s been through.” He hopes the film will help audiences to understand his friend’s journey more empathetically. Crucially, it also puts the focus back on his music.
It doesn’t, however, offer comfortable answers as to where West will head next as he prepares his next album – another tribute to his mother, Donda II. Ultimately, it seems by necessity to be a film about the risks of following your dreams as much as it is a celebration of doing just that.
“Our doc really is bigger than Kayne,” Ozah says. “The jeen-yhus is about unlocking and unleashing your own genius and following your own passion and using faith to overcome adversity.” He notes the way that West turned his potentially fatal road accident into a triumph with Through The Wire. “Our stories are all about making a positive impact in the world.”
“It’s going to help people not just rethink Kayne,” Simmons adds. “I think it’s going to help people rethink their own journey too.”
