Credit: Alamy

Kanye West, despite all his controversies, is one of the most influential hip-hop artists of all time. But unlike most of his peers who can make a similar claim, he isn’t from any of hip-hop’s central hubs. He isn’t a New Yorker or an LA boy—he’s from Chicago.

Ye was, admittedly, born in one of hip-hop’s other famous centres, Atlanta, Georgia, but he didn’t grow up there. After his parents broke up while he was a young child, his mother took him to live in Chicago. He grew up there, for the most part, except for a brief stint living in China.

In Chicago Ye enjoyed a middle class sort of lifestyle surrounded by the arts. He started writing poetry from a very young age, but as he got older he started making music and even painting, too.

Kanye pursued a third-level education in Chicago, initially attending an art academy there before transferring to Chicago State University to study English. But music was his true passion, and, famously, he dropped out of college aged 20 to try and make it in the rap business.

As a young music-maker, Ye started producing beats for artists based around the Chicago area. His first official production credit was for a Chicago-based rapper called Grav, whose 1996 debut album, Down to Earth, featured eight Kanye-produced tracks.

Ye’s early beats were generally for fellow Chicago artists, but towards the end of the ’90s he finally started to break out of his local bubble. He provided a song for New Yorker Foxy Brown’s 1999 album Chyna Doll, and, from there, he became well-known outside of his home city.

Chicago has played a very important role in Kanye’s life, having facilitated his early artistic development in a very visceral way. This is something that he always seemed to be very aware of—and he was grateful for it.

In 2017, Hypebeast uploaded an interview that Ye had given four years previously in which he reflected on the importance of Chicago to his life. “I’m lucky because I’m from Chicago and because I’m from Chicago, I don’t give a fuck,” he said at one point. “So, I care but don’t give a fuck. That’s what it is.”

Ye seemed to argue that people from Chicago have a very particular manner. They’re relaxed sorts, while, at the same time, they retain a sort of sincerity. “Someone from Chicago is very sincere,” he said. “They got they heart like that. They don’t give a fuck about what anybody is saying as long as it’s from their heart.”

There is, Kanye claimed, an authenticity to people from Chicago, which he clearly treasures. “This ain’t no fake ass,” as he phrased it. “We ain’t smiling for people and stuff like that.”