This Kanye West piece is special to me.

Love him or hate him, you cannot deny the importance of Kanye.

I remember when I got his first CD, I got it early from Dame... back then he had all the new CD's early. People in Minneapolis were excited for Kanye's first CD, a bunch of his tracks were getting passed around in the mixtapes and he was dropping crazy beats and tracks with some of my favorite artists like Most Def, Talib Kweli, Jay, Common, plus a bunch more.

His first CD didn't disappoint. I mean Jesus Walks is still one of my favorite tracks of all time. Fast forward to where he is with his religion and it makes a lot of sense. "They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, that means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, but if I talk about God my record won't get played Huh?" -Ye

The reason I made this specific piece is the importance of what was happening during this time.

The Yeezus Tour served as West's first solo concert tour in five years, and featured a man-made mountain, diamond encrusted masks, and a catwalk, it was this tour that had the New York Post reviewer praising “an extravaganza of music and theater that gives the world windows into [West’s] erratic persona.”. This visual feast was created through a collaboration between set designer Es Devlin, West's design company DONDA, fashion house Maison Margiela, artist Vanessa Beecroft, and more. This was the tour burned into memory through those full-face masks

The Yeezus tour was happening. Kanye was going on these "rants". In the rants, he was speaking about being empowered by the corporations so that he can create without being stifled and marginalized. He was beginning for someone to give him money or some kind of deal. Many people started calling him crazy during this time.

Less than a year later he signs his Adidas deal.

"Kanye let the cat out of the bag during an interview with Hot 97 afternoon radio star host Angie Martinez and since then has said that he hopes to have Adidas products out by Fall 2014. "I'm going to be the 2Pac of product," he said, referencing icon California rhymer Tupac Shakur. Time will tell." -Billboard Magazine

At the time of him signing the deal, in 2013 the Adidas stock was worth $60.06 with a market cap of $19.382B. Today that same stock is worth $165.47 with a market cap of $54.473B. Almost tripling the value of the company in less than 10 years.

Kanye has been delivering on his promise and now his "crazy" rants actually make a lot of sense.

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“If you're a Kanye West fan, you're not a fan of me, you're a fan of yourself. You will believe in yourself. I'm just the espresso.” -Kanye West