Being Kanye West — by the directors who know him best

Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah spent years following the rapper’s journey from precocious talent to hip-hop titan and troubled star. As their documentary Jeen-Yuhs airs, they tell Elizabeth Aubrey the story behind the storm

- Elizabeth Aubrey

CLARENCE “Coodie” Sim-mons 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: 20 years and 21 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 Beautiful 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).