Kanye Omari West, (otherwise known as Ye, Konman, The Louis Vuitton Don, Yeezy, and most recently Yeezus) was born on June 8, 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was raised by his mother, Donda West, in Chicago, Illinois, after his parents divorced, at the age of three. From an early age he showed great artistic potential, writing poetry at age five, and began to record rap demos at age thirteen.

His first studio album, The College Dropout, was released in 2004, and met with huge success. 

Since then, West has released five more studio albums:
Late Registration (2005), Graduation (2007), 808s & Heartbreak (2008), My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), Watch the Throne (collaboration with Jay-Z) (2011), and Yeezus (2013)
West has collaborated witrh dozens of artists, including Jaimie Foxx, Kid Cudi, Bon Iver, Elton John, Nicki Minaj, Alicia Keys, John Legend, and of course close friends Beyonce and Jay-Z. 
West has won 124 awards in his career, including four Billboard Music Awards, seven BET Awards, and an impressive nineteen Grammy Awards.

 

His brutally honest, unpredictable, and unapologetic persona has given him a reputation in the media as a brash, over-the-top egomaniac whose passion drives him to disregard anything and anyone else to get his point across. Most people remember these traits through West’s various public outbursts, such as 2005’s infamous deviation from the script of a Hurricane Katrina benefit concert, where he declared “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Kanye also has a checkered past at award shows, publicly arguing on four separate occasions how he should have won various awards. The most famous of these incidents being at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when he stormed the stage, grabbed the microphone from Best Female Video winner Taylor Swift, proclaiming that his close friend Beyonce’s video for Single Ladies was “one of the best videos of all time.” This incident sparked huge controversy, with West being called out by social media users, celebrities, and even President Obama, who called him a “jackass.”

Yet critics everywhere hail Kanye West as a genius, and one of the biggest influences in pop culture.
Why? Because every outburst is a planned move in creating an ever-changing persona. Flavorwire’s Tom Hawking explains:
 

“West’s attitude has defined his career, and without it, he might never have become one of the most famous rappers of all time. As he rapped in his guest verse on Rhymefest’s “Brand New,” “They say your attitude determines your latitude,” going on to describe himself as “still the motherfucker that you love to hate/ But [you] can’t because you love what I make.” This, perhaps, gets to the heart of West’s persona — you can love him or hate him, but he won’t be ignored”