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Kanye West (pronounced KAHN-yay) (born Kanye Omari West, June 8, 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American music producer and rapper from Chicago, Illinois.

Previously best known for producing hit singles for Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, and Ludacris, Kanye himself worked on a solo album for a long period of time, having the release pushed back time and time again. A car crash on October 23, 2002 left his jaw fractured in three places. With his mouth still wired shut and only weeks after having an encounter with death, Kanye West began recording "Through The Wire," reliving his near-fatal accident. "Through The Wire", which sampled Chaka Khan's classic track "Through The Fire", would eventually become his lead single from The College Dropout, which was released on Roc-a-Fella Records in February 2004.

West also has his own clothing line - "Pastel Clothing" , and his own record label - "G.O.O.D. Music" (an acronym for Getting Out Our Dreams), under which John Legend's platinum selling debut album Get Lifted has been released, along with Common's latest album - "Be". Other artists on his label include Keyshia Cole, GLC, Consequence, and Farnsworth Bentley.

Kanye West is currently finishing his follow-up studio album, Late Registration, due for release on August 30th, 2005. He recently released the first two singles from Late Registration, "Diamonds (From Sierra Leone)" (which sampled Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever") and "Gold Digger" (which sampled Ray Charles's "I Got a Woman"). West's 3rd and 4th albums will be titled "Graduation" and "Good Ass Job", respectively.

In 2005, Kanye West received ten Grammy Award nominations, making him the most nominated artist of 2005. He received two nominations in the Album of the Year category, one for The College Dropout, and one for his work on Alicia Keys' album The Diary of Alicia Keys. His work with pop icon Janet Jackson also earned him a nomination for her single I Want You, produced by West, which was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

At the 47th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony held on February 13, 2005, Kanye won Best Rap Album for his album The College Dropout and Best Rap Song for his single "Jesus Walks".

In 2004, Kanye appeared on MTV's prank show, Punk'd. Ashton Kutcher tricked Kanye into thinking that his music video shoot for the song "Jesus Walks" was censored by the Los Angeles Film Commission due to a "rule" about filming on Sundays without a permit. To the audience's amusement, Kanye stole back the music video footage from them and then jumped into his van for his safety until Ashton Kutcher stopped the van.

Kanye has collaborated with numerous artists including rapper Twista, on songs such as "Overnight Celebrity" and "Slow Jamz" (also featuring Jamie Foxx) - which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. Kanye also features on Brandy's single, "Talk About Our Love". Some of the many other artists he has worked with include Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Dilated Peoples, Mariah Carey and John Legend.

On 2 July 2005 West appeared on the Philadelphia bill of Live 8, using the global platform to refer to "man-made diseases placed in African communities", expressing his belief that AIDS was created by the U.S. government to exterminate Africans in Africa. He made the parallel between the government using AIDS to exterminate Africans and using crack to destroy African-American communities and halt the civil rights movement. He also criticised politicians for "riding home in their Benzs and Bentleys while poor Africans starve".

In a recent MTV interview, West criticised rappers of discriminating against homosexuals, "Not just hip-hop, but America just discriminates. And I [wanted to just] come on TV and just tell my rappers, just tell my friends, 'Yo, stop it.'" GLAAD recently recognized West for these comments, and for the tolerant views that he models.