Catching You Up On jeen-yuhs Ahead Of Episode 3

jeen-yuhs, pronounced “genius” by the way, is Kanye West’s documentary which has been in the works for over twenty years, shot by Coodie and Chike. The way it’s spelt is truly fitting because while many of us would agree that Kanye is a genius in some form or fashion, he’s certainly an unorthodox one.

While we’ve seen footage in bits and pieces from the documentary over the years, the announcement of the full doc only came in May of last year. Netflix reportedly acquired it for $30 million, which seems fair since the footage is so highly valued.

The first episode of jeen-yuhs, titled VISION, shows just that. Kanye is young and getting beat placements for big artists, but struggling to get people to believe in and take him seriously as a rapper. We see how his and Coodie’s relationship formed and some of the behind the scenes struggles of even a somewhat successful artist with big dreams.

One of the more memorable scenes sees Kanye at the Roc-A-Fella office in New York City. At this point, he had already laid down the blueprint for The Blueprint, but as far as he was concerned, producing was only him getting his foot in the door and to really set things off, he needed a record deal.

He walks through the office, playing ‘All Falls Down’ for a couple of execs. They seem mostly uninterested and are easily distracted. To hear a GRAMMY nominated song that hit #7 on the charts get an extremely flat reaction from those in the music industry is a truly unique experience. It’s hard not to feel sorry for Ye as you see him disheartened by the response, or lack thereof.

This is a theme throughout the first episode; Ye trying to get people to believe in him. It really feels like it’s him against the world. His name gets spelt wrong on big platforms, friends are dissing him on the radio and even when someone does believe he’s the future, there’s little that they can do to support him.

Of course, knowing who Kanye West is now, whether you like him or not, it’s hard not to be incredibly inspired seeing his humble beginnings. It’ll make you feel that no matter how hard a journey is for you, the destination can always be reached.

The episode ends with Ye getting signed to Roc-A-Fella, but of course, the hard work is really yet to begin.

PURPOSE opens on a high note, amidst the chaos of signing a deal. Ye is asked what’s next for him with the Roc, he buys a new car and his beats are in even higher demand. He finds himself in the studio with Young Guru and JAY-Z, where Hov is working on The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse. Kanye raps what ended up being his verse on ‘The Bounce’, his first real collaboration with JAY despite him not even being credited on the original version of the album.

He gets coached by Jigga in the booth and when he’s done recording his verse, JAY says “a closed mouth don’t get fed, you wouldn’t have said nothing, you wouldn’t have been on that”. It’s a testament to the Chicagoan’s perseverance.

This episode also covers the near-fatal car crash that Kanye was in in 2003. As well as being a life-altering experience for him as it would be for anybody, it really put a pause on things with his career, killing his momentum. It meant that Roc-A-Fella’s focus shifted to other artists who fit their image a little more and now Ye was left trying to once again prove himself to a label, albeit this time one that he was signed to.

Not getting studio time of his own, Kanye has to find time in other artists’ studios when he can. Here, we see a lot of The College Dropout get recorded, including ‘Slow Jamz’, ‘Breathe In, Breathe Out’ and ‘We Don’t Care’. Seeing classic moments like DeRay Davis’ hilarious skits or Jamie Foxx’s intro on ‘Slow Jamz’ get recorded is mind-blowing and makes you wonder how footage like this was left vaulted for so long.

In the end, the video for ‘Through The Wire’ gets a great response and helps put Roc-A-Fella’s attention back on Kanye. He gets to release his debut album to worldwide success. The change feels almost overnight for Kanye, even though we’ve seen first-hand that it clearly wasn’t. The episode ends with Ye’s famous GRAMMY speech.