Say what you want about Kanye "Ye" West, but you can't deny that the rapper is talented.
The three-part Netflix docuseries jeen-yuhs: a Kanye Trilogy is a testament to the challenges Ye has overcome. The first part documents his rise to popularity as a producer, with footage dating back to 2001, before he signed his first record deal in 2002. Throughout it all, Ye appears unfazed by the obstacles that appear in his way because, as his late mother, Donda West, insists in the series, he's destined for greatness.
Still, Ye acknowledges that record executives aren't looking to sign someone with his kind of talent. Sure, they respect him as a producer, but they didn't want to sign him to their label as an artist. Time and again, jeen-yuhs shows Kanye as he's approached with offers to produce but he wants more for himself.
At the time, DMX and Jay-Z were topping the charts with songs based on their gang experience, a trend that the "Heartless" artist says he respects but can't relate to. He explains, "I wasn't in the streets killing and shooting motherf--kers because I was determined. I felt like I wanted to f--king make it in music. So what? You going to hold that against me cause I ain't kill nobody?"
Ye adds that people assume he was "born with a silver spoon in my mouth" because he didn't have a rough upbringing, but he insists, "I had to hustle and be so positive."
"I was broke," Ye remembers. "I couldn't afford to get in a cab. They told me Shawn [Jay-Z] wanted me to play him some beats and they said he was like 20 blocks away. I grabbed my disc and ran into the studio because I didn't want him to leave before I got a chance to play him some beats, man."
There are moments when Ye seems frustrated by the constant hustling but narrator and co-director Coodie—Chike Ozah also directs—says that Donda was Ye's source of strength and humility. In one scene at Donda's apartment, she talks to Ye about believing in himself: "You got a lot of confidence and you come off looking arrogant, even though you're humble and everything, but it's important to remember that giant looks in the mirror and sees nothing."
Ye asks, "Do you think I come off too arrogant?" to which his mom says, "No, you come off just right cause of what's inside. Because you can't be a star and not be a star."
This conversation gives Ye the will to carry on, and sure enough, the artist lands his next big break when MTV features him on You Hear It First. In the segment, Ye promises that he's going to prove his critics wrong, vowing, "Everything that everybody says that I can't do—I'm gonna flip it to the positive. Like, I look at everything as a glass half-full [rather] than half-empty."
"I'm trying to get to the point where I could drop my last name," he continues. "Like I don't want to jinx myself or nothing but I'm gonna take this opportunity. Like I got some songs, I got some stuff in my heart that the world needs to hear."
And it seems Roc a Fella records was listening, because they signed the artist now known as Ye shortly after.
It was as if Ye were fulfilling his destiny, and his mom couldn't be prouder. And as they sat on the porch of his childhood home in Chicago, Ye joked to her, "I would like to congratulate you on the good job that you did with me."
All three parts of jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Triology premiere on Netflix Feb. 16.