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Kanye West's "Jeen-Yuhs" Doc Recalls the "College Dropout" Era

Everything We Learned From Kanye West's Jeen-Yuhs Doc

Kanye West's "Jeen-Yuhs" Doc Recalls the "College Dropout" Era

March 2, 2022 by Monica Sisavat Solís First Published: January 23, 2022

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Act 3: Awakening

West proclaimed he was a genius to his friends and was upset some didn't agree — yet. "Genius is developed through experience and through hardship, man," a friend told West, adding: "We was in the studio with JAY-Z. I saw a genius for the first time in my life. I thought you was a genius until I saw JAY-Z make a rap in five minutes, then I was like, 'Maybe Kanye's brilliant, but JAY-Z is a genius.'"
"Jeen-Yuhs" was supposed to be released after "The College Dropout," but West's fame made him insecure. Coodie said in a voice-over, "I guess things change when you get famous, because Kanye said he wasn't ready for the real world to see the real him. He told me he was acting now, playing a role . . . I sat back and watched the show like everyone else." West and Coodie eventually distanced themselves from each other amid the rapper's post-Grammys fame. It was Donda who kept Coodie in the picture.
West became enthralled in his work after Donda died in 2007. The rapper performed a show the week after his mother died. During the concert, he lamented that several people from Chicago asked him to come home and clear his head, but he didn't feel like anything was left for him there. "He kept working. He wouldn't stop," Coodie said when the Glow in the Dark Tour had begun. Their work relationship and friendship seized for the next six years because West didn't want to film anymore.
West admitted to feeling suicidal and dealing with addiction while recording 2018's "Kids See Ghosts" with Kid Cudi. "I like the fact that [Kanye] wants it to be positive and about all these things that we're touching on like suicide, death, and ghosts," Kid Cudi said behind the scenes. West later told Kid Cudi, "When I already had the house, the wife, and the kids, and the plaques, all the stuff, and sh*t would still have moments where I felt, like, suicidal. Here, still have moments where I'm addicted to Percocets and don't even realize it."
West recorded "Donda" in the Dominican Republic while running for president in the 2020 election. There, he shed more light on his mental state. "It's not a game. I go to the hospital for this. I took bipolar medication last night to have a normal conversation and turn alien to English," he said in a discussion with his team. "I do not communicate in a way that people understand in public, because it's just truth and we're in a world of lies." Coodie eventually stopped filming the conversation.

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