If there ever was an artist who was going to have a documentary rolling on themselves from the very beginning of their career, it's Kanye West.
The dizzying result of more than 20 years of intimately shot footage, "jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy" is an enthralling, essential chronicle of one of the world's greatest living artists and most fascinating — and frustrating — personalities. Love him or hate him, you can't take your eyes off of him, and the three-part, four-and-a-half-hour "jeen-yuhs" never blinks in its depiction of the man behind the myth, and how the myth eventually eclipsed the man.
"Jeen-yuhs" — sound it out if it's throwing you off — is directed by Clarence "Coodie" Simmons and Chike Ozah, who are professionally known as Coodie & Chike. Coodie was documenting Chicago's hip-hop scene in the 1990s for a TV show called "Channel Zero," and he first met Kanye at hip-hop super producer Jermaine Dupri's birthday in 1998. From there, the cameras never stopped rolling, and Coodie, who also narrates the film, is along for the ride as Kanye becomes one of the world's biggest superstars.
