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Kanye West is a producer, rapper, R&B artist and actor with an estimated net worth of $80 million. He was born in Atlanta, but raised by his mother in Chicago followed up in Oak Lawn Illinois. He dropped out of college to pursue his career in the music industry. He started as a producer for Roc-A-Fella records, but finally persuaded label head Jay Z to sign him on as a rapper.

His first album ‘The College Dropout’ came in at number two at the Billboard 200 and is still Kanye West’s best selling album in the US to date. Subsequent albums, Late Registration, Graduation and 808s & Heartbreak were also chart-toppers that received critical as well as commercial success. His production credits include an impressive role call of talent including: Jay-Z, Beyoncé, John Legend, Alicia Keys and Janet Jackson.

Kanye also has businessman skills, He started a chain of Fatburger restaurants designated for the Chicago area. He started Air Yeezy, a line of athletic shoes for Nike and another shoe line with Louis Vuitton. He has his own Kanye West Foundation, which benefits education for African American and Latino children, in addition to contributing time, talent and money to Hurricane Katrina relief, World Water Day, and Live Earth, among other organizations.

In October 2011, Kanye West premiered his women’s fashion label, DW Kanye West at Paris Fashion Week. He received support from DSquared2 duo Dean and Dan Caten, Olivier Theyskens, Jeremy Scott, Azzedine Alaïa, and the Olsen twins, who were also in attendance during his show.

Kanye West won 46 awards, among them 14 Grammyes, seven BET awards and two American Music Awards.

Kanye West's Popularity

This chart shows the evolution of Kanye West's popularity over time. The data is scaled based on the average search traffic seen by Google in the United States.