Growing Up
Kanye West was born on June 8, 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in a middle-class background and showed an early interest in music. His mother, Donda West, was a professor of English and his father, Ray West, was a photo journalist.
Kanye's early life had a profound impact on his music and career.
His parents divorced when he was three, and West was raised by his mother mainly in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, where she began teaching at Chicago State University. When West was 10 years old, he moved with his mother to China for a year for an education exchange program in which Donda West taught at Nanjing University. West showed artistic ability at a young age, often winning talent shows as a child. He attended Chicago State University for one year before dropping out to pursue a career in music.