Netflix’s new three-part Kanye West documentary, jeen-yuhs, has generated a ton of conversation since part one debuted last week. Directed by Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah, the doc followed Kanye as he tried to convince the world he was more than just a producer. Despite Kanye often recounting his struggles to be taken seriously, fans were shocked to see footage of people casually dismissing his potential.
While act one was the long-form version of the “Through The Wire” video, “Act II: PURPOSE” could have easily been titled “The Making of The College Dropout.” It mostly takes place after Kanye’s infamous car crash as he becomes determined to complete his debut album. We see Kanye go to a dental surgeon and perform at Def Poetry Jam, but the bulk of the footage is him in the studio working on the album—a thrilling look at the master at work, making creative decisions in real-time.
jeen-yuhs has plenty to offer, but it does not feature the type of sit-down interviews contextualizing the story that other music documentaries often have. To provide that context, GQ will break down each episode to explore the implications.
1990 in Oklahoma City. The opening scene, in which see a teen Kanye rapping at a family function, is the earliest footage in the documentary and was presumably not shot by Coodie and Chike. It’s not featured in the doc, but Ye returned to Oklahoma City during the 2003 holiday season to spend time with family and reconnect with his cousin, The World Famous Tony Williams (as his stage name has it), who is mostly known for his backup vocals on Kanye albums. Ye was finishing up The College Dropout and Tony Williams talked his way onto the album, adding soulful vocals to songs like “Spaceship” and “Last Call.”
The Roc-A-Fella “Paid In Full” News Conference. Part two really kicks off with a Roc-A-Fella news conference led by Dame Dash. It’s a few months after Kanye signed to the label and Dame says, “There’s a lot going on at Roc-A-Fella.” The label’s roster was stacked during this period. Obviously, they had established heavy hitters Jay-Z, Cam’ron, and Beanie Sigel. But they also had Freeway, Young Gunz, The Diplomats, Memphis Bleek, Julez Santana, MOP, and even Ol’ Dirty Bastard as Dirt McGirt. It’s easy to see how someone like Kanye could get lost in the shuffle and why he didn’t quite fit the brand the same way a fellow rising star like Peedi Crack did.
We also see Kanye getting his G Wagon. You can hear Coodie say, “Oh, I’m driving this,” but Consequence is the one who would “borrow” it and drive around stunting in Queens when he was tired of taking the train. A portion of this clip originally made its way to the internet back in 2011, right around Watch the Throne’s release.
Recording Jay-Z’s “The Bounce” and the Posse Cut “Champions.” Next up, we get to see Kanye hustle his way onto two songs. First, he asks Jay-Z to let him rap on the Timbaland-produced Blueprint 2 cut, “The Bounce,” and Jay obliges. (Technically, it’s not the first time Kanye’s voice is on a Jay song—he does an uncredited hook on The Blueprint’s “Never Change.”)
We also get to see Jay and his longtime engineer Young Guru coach Kanye through his verse. Here’s something you might not notice: Kanye never goes into the booth with a writing pad (or even a Blackberry). Jay is famous for never writing his raps, but if you watch the doc, Kanye does all of his verses off the dome as well. According to Coodie, Kanye didn’t write his verses–instead, he would get Coodie to record him rapping and play the footage back to refresh his memory.
Afterward, we see Kanye add his verse to Paid in Full Soundtrack posse cut “Champions.” It’s not the most essential song in Ye’s catalog—although die-hards will point to it as one of his standout verses to this day—but like many scenes in part two, it highlights how Kanye’s work ethic helped create his buzz. Dame Dash originally asked Kanye’s frenemy, Just Blaze, to flip the sample but—much to Dame’s annoyance—Just refused. Dame appreciated how quickly Kanye jumped on the assignment, which might be why he let him rap on it. As Jay says, “A closed mouth don’t get fed.”
Posted At The W. After his infamous car crash, we catch Kanye posted up at The W Hotel in Los Angeles—you can even spot a bottle of Boost on the table, possibly the inspiration for the line “I drink a Boost for breakfast, an Ensure for dessert” in the opening bars of “Through The Wire.” Seeing Kanye work on his album in a hotel room is the first of many scenes in part two that will become familiar practices; Kanye and Jay-Z similarly worked on Watch The Throne in The Mercer Hotel in New York.
When Kanye heads to the dentist’s office, he gets picked up by a woman who we can only assume is his ex, Sumeke Rainey. She later gets a shoutout on “Never Let Me Down” when Kanye raps, “Nothin’ as sad as the day my girl’s father passed away/So I promised to Mr. Rainey, I’m gonna marry your daughter.” Although their relationship ended at some point after The College Dropout was released, her father played a surprisingly large role on the album. Kanye was not the consummate crate digger like some of his production peers, and nearly all of the album’s samples came from a crate of records Mr. Rainey gifted him.
The “Slow Jamz” Session. We get to see Jamie Foxx recording the “Slow Jamz” hook, but the song is underplayed in the doc relative to its importance to Kanye’s rise–the success of “Slow Jamz” was one of the biggest reasons Roc-A-Fella finally believed in him. While The College Dropout spawned several Top 40 hits, “Slow Jamz” was the only song on the album that went to number one.
Part one of jeen-yuhs showed that The Roc wasn’t 100% behind Kanye even after hearing songs like “All Falls Down.” But Kanye didn’t believe in “Slow Jamz” nearly as much as fellow Chicago legend Twista, who was on the song before Foxx and made it the lead single to his album on Jay-Z’s advice. The verse we see Foxx lay down appears on The College Dropout version of the song, but Twista’s Kamikaze features the superior version that you hear in the music video—which his label, Atlantic, paid for. Twista was proven right about “Slow Jamz” when Kamikaze sold over 300K copies in its first week (Kanye would sell over 400K) and became his best-selling album.
Jamie Foxx knows a thing or two about industry skepticism too. While he had a thriving comedy and acting career, people were hesitant to support his other talents, just like Kanye. Undeterred, Foxx built the studio you see here in his house before he had a music career. As Foxx recounts in this interview, he would invite musician friends to his parties so he could try to get them to record in the backroom. He also let any artist who wanted to perform grab the mic, and one of those artists was Kanye West, who killed it with a freestyle that led to Fox’s appearance on “Slow Jamz.”
“Breathe In, Breathe Out.” The next College Dropout song we see Ye work on is the Ludacris-assisted “Breathe In, Breathe Out.” It’s the album’s least beloved song (something Spotify stats support) but it did have one important fan: former Def Jam executive Lyor Cohen.
In the doc, Coodie claims there was no budget for Kanye after his car crash. But according to Plain Pat—who worked in A&R Administration and handled the bills, and whom Kanye praised as the “first person at Def Jam to recognize my talent” in a recent Instagram post—Def Jam was frustrated by Roc-A-Fella racking up huge studio bills and shut off the label’s entire budget (except for Jay-Z). When Kanye stopped by Def Jam to play music, he was introduced to Lyor, who loved “Breathe In Breathe Out” (he was less enthused about “Jesus Walks”) and opened up Kanye’s budget the next day. Despite feeling more like a mixtape cut, there was a real debate about it being a single.
Impressing Pharrell. While the doc highlights how many people doubted Kanye, it also shows how many people believed in him. Pharrell—who was one of the hottest producers in the world at the time—buys into Kanye’s talent as a rapper almost instantly and gives him thoughtful advice. Years later, Skateboard P would have a very similar interaction in the studio when he met a post-Section.80 Kendrick Lamar.
Recording “Get ’Em High.” We don’t get to see Common or Talib Kweli record their verses for “Get’Em High,” but the beat was originally made for Kweli, who passed on it because he already had a song with “throw your hands in the air” as the hook. Kanye asked Kweli to add his verse as a last-minute addition to the album.
Hanging With DeRay. One of the most memorable parts of the “Through The Wire” video is the comedian DeRay Davis joking, “Without an arm I spit!” Here we get the full scene. It becomes clear that the people featured in the video listening to the track are reacting to the original version of the song, recorded when Kanye’s jaw was actually wired shut, rather than the slurred effect of the re-recorded version. The tell-tale sign is Kanye rapping, “At the same hospital where Big and Tupac died.” (Biggie died in L.A., while Tupac died in Las Vegas.) The final version of the song has him rapping, “At the same hospital where Biggie Smalls died.”
We also get footage of DeRay recording the album’s intro while doing a Bernie Mac impersonation (Kanye wanted the late Mac, but couldn’t get him). Years later, Kanye would walk up to DeRay and hand him a stack of money (“enough to buy a small car”) for the skits. When we see DeRay and Coodie performing at the Improv, it’s a reminder that comedy—and a sometimes endearing corniness—has always been a part of Kanye’s vibe. That comedic aspect shows up on the album’s much-reviled final single, “Workout Plan,” which isn’t even mentioned in the doc.
The “Never Let Me Down” Session. We get another peek into Kanye’s album recording process that’s endured to this day: Incomplete handwritten tracklists.
The date isn’t mentioned here, but according to Kanye’s then-manager Kyambo “Hip-Hop” Joshua, “Never Let Me Down” was recorded the night Jay-Z played Madison Square Garden for his Fade To Black concert movie (Jay added his verse to the song at the last minute). Kanye would later rap on “Big Brother” about not getting invited on stage and being told he could buy two tickets, though Jay has refuted Kanye’s account.
We also spot John Legend in the session, and this is the night he got his stage name. He was going by the name John Stephens at the time, but according to J. Ivy, Kanye told John he sounded “like one of the legends” and started calling him “The Legend.” Soon enough, everyone started calling him John Legend and the name stuck.
One person we don’t get to see is Tarrey Torae, who was J. Ivy’s girlfriend at the time and later became his wife. She serves as the song’s “choir” because the actual choir Kanye hired dropped out after they realized the song had curse words. Torae had another important contribution to The College Dropout; her family is the family Kanye is rapping about on “Family Business.”
Def Poetry Jam. After watching Kanye suffer the indignity of being less of a priority to The Roc than Young Steff, we see him performing on Def Poetry Jam, a place he’d later return to perform an early version of “Gold Digger.” The film positions this as one of the many things he did to create momentum for himself, but it also highlights Chicago’s imprint on Kanye, as spoken word and poetry slams are major scenes in the city of wind.
Back to the DentistKanye’s Second Dental Surgeon Visit. In the second dentist visit we see in the doc, Kanye is told he needs to get dental surgery, but he opts against it because it would delay his album process. It’s unclear if he ever did get that surgery, but whenever we see Kanye recording vocals in part two, his rapping is smoother than it was before. Kanye’s car accident is similar to 50 Cent’s shooting: It serves as their hero origin story, but it also inadvertently fixed their instruments. Consequence would later note how the crash changed Kanye’s voice, saying, “Whatever diction issues he had, he came back with a super clear voice. The same way [50 Cent’s voice changed after he got shot], Kanye’s voice changed. But instead of getting shot, he went through a windshield.”
The College Dropout Cover Shoot and Finishing Sessions. Dear kids: Albums used to come with something called booklets. The College Dropout had a great booklet, with yearbook photos of all the guests and most of the shots you see being taken in the doc. According to Plain Pat, the iconic bear mascot (which was also used on Late Registration) was not planned, it just happened to be at the school where the cover was shot. The bear costume also kept Kanye’s face on the cover. Kanye’s face has never appeared on any of his album covers.
Later, we see the “Finishing Sessions” for The College Dropout. Although Kanye would complete the mastering and release the album on February 10, 2004 with a brown cover, he remastered the album several times and eventually released a version with a white background. Kanye tinkering with an already released project was a sign of things to come on songs like “Stronger,” “Love Lockdown,” and most notoriously the Life of Pablo album.
We also see the first cracks in Kanye’s relationship with Coodie over the “Jesus Walks” video. Kanye’s logic that an epic song like “Jesus Walks” needs an epic video courtesy of Hype Williams made sense. Hype was already an absolute legend at this point, having done videos like Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money Mo Problems,” and Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’.” Even though Kanye didn’t end up using Hype for “Jesus Walks” —Michael Haussman and Chris Milk both directed clips—Kanye wasn’t happy, as Coodie predicted. Ultimately, Coodie and Chike shot the third version of the “Jesus Walks” video. Nevertheless, Hype would go on to make videos for Kanye songs like “Stronger,” “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” and “Gold Digger.”
Following the scenes of Kanye falling out with Dug Infinite in part one, this is the second time we see Kanye falling out with an associate as his fame grows. It’s hard not to feel for Coodie, who also took issue when Kanye went on Rap City and claimed he came up with the concept for the “Through The Wire” video by himself.
New Year’s Eve Party. It’s only for a brief second, but it looks like Kanye is spotted here talking with fashion designer Alexis Phifer. It’s unclear what the extent of their relationship was at that time, but Kanye and Phifer reportedly dated on and off between 2002 and 2008. They were even engaged at one point, but their relationship fell apart soon after the death of Kanye’s mother in 2007. Many songs on 808s are said to be inspired by Phifer.
Getting Interviewed With Diddy. Part two is mostly focused on College Dropout, but we get to see a few glimpses of Late Registration here as Kanye works on “Gold Digger” (a song originally meant for Ludacris’ artist Shawnna) and “Crack Music.” Meanwhile, Diddy is working on the Press Play cut “Everything I Love.” Kanye seems more excited to be hanging with Diddy than he does at any other part of the doc. It’s important to remember that Kanye was always more inspired to be like Puff than, say, Q-Tip. That pop sensibility starts to come across in the coming years.
The Grammy Speech for The College Dropout We finally get to one of the best moments of Kanye’s career; his Grammy speech after winning Best Rap Album for The College Dropout. When Kanye talks about people wondering if he would do something crazy if he lost, it feels like a foreshadowing of subsequent outbursts like interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs and declaring that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” during a Hurricane Katrina telecast.
But at this point, Kanye seems to be referencing the 2004 American Music Awards, when Gretchen Wilson won Best New Artist and he stormed out in protest. He later alluded to the incident on “Diamonds From Sierra Leone,” rapping, “I was sick about awards, couldn’t nobody cure me/Only playa that got robbed but kept all his jewelry/Alicia Keys tried to talk some sense in him/Thirty minutes later seein’ there’s no convincin’ him.” Just another example of how Kanye was always Kanye.