WALKING IN YE’S SHADOW
WHEN YOU LOOK AT KANYE WEST, WHAT do you see? An egomaniac? A hip-hop legend? A god? Is he “very cool,” to quote Donald Trump, or “a jackass,” to quote Barack Obama?
When Coodie Simmons looks at Kanye West, he sees a brother. The filmmaker, a fellow Chicagoan, met West—who recently changed his legal name to Ye—at a South Side barbershop in 1995. Intrigued by his combustible talent and charisma, Simmons began filming him for a documentary he hoped to release once West won his first Grammy. Simmons racked up hundreds of hours of footage in which West chased down industry executives, feuded with former collaborators, and winced through jaw surgery following a life-changing car accident. But after West won multiple Grammys in 2005 and grew
