Watch Kanye West’s 2004 interview with his late mother
Kanye West was dedicated to his mother Donda. She was often by his side in public during the early stages of his career, and, behind the scenes, she took a prominent role in managing his business affairs. When she died at the age of 58 in 2007, Ye was devastated.
Donda’s influence on Kanye’s life has continued since her death, with Ye naming music and other projects in her honour. She was unquestionably a vital force within her son’s life, and, from the perspective of some people including John Legend, her passing marked a pivotal moment in Ye’s subsequent descent into controversy.
Donda was with Kanye from the very moment that he started to make a name for himself, as illustrated by an old ABC7 interview that both mother and son sat down for in 2004. This was the year that Ye’s debut album, The College Dropout, came out, meaning this period marked his first foray into genuine global superstardom.
The ABC7 crew spoke with Ye and Donda separately, but, during their chat with the latter, viewers were treated to some insight into what Kanye had been like as a very young child. Before he was able to talk, Donda explained, he would hum and make noises—preempting the musical nature that would become ever more apparent as he got older.
“Even as a child in the stroller,” Donda reflected, “he would sit back and suck these two fingers, and then sing to me as though the wheels were turning in his mind.”
By the age of just 12, Kanye was already beginning to take music seriously—and Donda supported him with that. After being convinced by her son that it was a good idea, she gave him $25 to spend on accessing a studio space, where he recorded his first ever song, ‘Green Eggs and Ham.’
As Kanye reflected to the ABC7 crew, he was optimistic about this track at the time. “I remember that was one of the songs that we had really liked,” he said. “We would try to go record it places, because this is going to be our big record.”
As for Donda, she was somewhat unsettled to discover that the studio that the young Kanye had booked was hardly the most professional of places. “Little did I know that we would drive up in front of somebody’s house,” she recalled, “and go down into a basement, where the microphone was hanging from a clothes hanger in from the ceiling. They did one take, two takes, three takes. Kanye wasn’t at all put off by it. He was very excited and happy to be there.”
Donda could see that her son had a real talent, and she was supportive of his decision to drop out of college to pursue his music passion. “We went back and forth,” she said, “and he was able to convince me that it was more important to follow his dream.” He did just that, and, for better and for worse, he became the biggest hip-hop artist of his generation.