Jeen-yus: A Kanye Trilogy is a documentary that follows two decades in the life of the artist formerly known as Kanye West, Yeezy, and now legally known as Ye, American music producer, rapper and fashion designer. There is not much I need to say about him. Ye speaks for himself under his many names, professions and public pronouncements.
The two men who began the documentary in the early 2000s, Coodie and Chike, had complete access from early on in Ye’s career. They were first believers, and were privy to his path from prodigy producer to multi-hyphenate celebrity.
But his lodestar from childhood is undoubtedly his mother, Donda West. Mama Donda appears in the middle of Part 1 when Ye takes the filmmakers to her home. At that time, while his skill as a producer was well known in the industry, he was fighting to be recognized and signed as a rapper, which was proving to be an uphill battle.
When we see Mama Donda, what is immediately striking is how much pleasure she takes in her son. It illuminates her face every time she looks at him. Visiting him in the studio, she unselfconsciously dances to his beats and beams at him with pure delight. And admiration. And unwavering support. From the moment of his birth, he is bathed in the waters of her abiding affection..
She celebrates everything he does. Not with a blind love, but one that is fully invested in his artistry and sees the genius in him. At the kitchen table, she recites one of her favorites of his raps with him, then repeats the mantra she has invoked after hearing many of his creations, “That’s a million dollars.”
She tells him, “You play tracks like Michael Jordan shoots free throws.” With each success, she affirms the joy they both feel because he is pursuing what he loves.
Then she says there is something she’s been meaning to tell him. His confidence “can come up like arrogance,” even though he is also humble. She reassures him that with all of his ability, it would be disingenuous for him to project an air of false humility because of what is inside him.
Looking squarely at him, she observes, “It’s important to remember that the giant looks in the mirror and sees nothing.” Her interpretation: everybody else sees the giant; and if he can remember to stay on the ground, he can be in the air all at the same time.
Later, Ye half-jokingly congratulates his mother on how well she raised him. But the film’s narrator reveals the deeper message of the visit – that Ye’s success is rooted in the unshakeable foundation his mother laid, and the sacrifices she made to help seed his dreams. The confidence he has in himself is because of the confidence she had in him.
Dr. Donda West, university professor, department chair and author, raised her son as a single mother in Chicago. After 30 years of scholarship, she retired in 2004 and moved to LA to become his full time momager. She died from post-cosmetic surgery complications in 2007, long before her son married and had four children, before most of his billion-dollar empire was built.
As we look at the many interviews and news stories Ye has generated since her death, it is easy to conclude that her absence has had a tremendous impact. In Part 3, the filmmakers sit in on one of Ye’s recent business meetings when his discourse begins to ramble into undecipherable realms. At that point, they turn off the camera. Whether he has maintained his feet on the ground and head in the air is up for the viewer’s interpretation.
But Donda’s presence in his life opened a door in him in childhood that still cannot be closed. It is his artistic and spiritual curiosity, defiant creativity, and the courage of his free-ranging self-expression in the face of mental illness and public opprobrium that, like the sun, perpetually shines through. It makes us hope, for his sake, that when he does look in the mirror, it is her loving face he sees.
