Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) is a notoriously hands-on creative. And on Friday (Jan. 21), the rapper/producer/fashion mogul who is known to obsess and tinker over every detail of his projects spoke out vociferously about one that is about him, but not by him.
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“I’m going to say this kindly for the last time,” West wrote on Instagram alongside the poster for the upcoming Netflix documentary series Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, which is slated to debut on the streamer on Feb. 16 after Iconic Events releases the first chapter exclusively in theaters on Feb. 10; the first chapter, Vision, will debut on Sunday (Feb. 23) at the virtual Sundance Film Festival.
“I must get final edit and approval on this doc before it releases on Netflix,” West said in his post; a spokesperson for Netflix had not returned requests for comment at press time. “Open the edit room immediately so I can be in charge of my own image.”
The three-part doc, featuring never-before-seen and rare home videos of West captured by the team of Clarence “Coodie” Simmons and Chike Ozah, was compiled from more than two decades of footage shot by the pair. At press time it unclear how, or if, Ye has been involved in the editing process or if he has the power to block or delay its release; at press time spokespeople for West had not returned requests for comment on whether the rapper has any creative control over the project.
A description of the film promises, “You can’t manufacture a project like jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy; it takes decades of vision, commitment, prayers, and perspective to produce. It seems providential that Coodie & Chike should be the ones to make the definitive film about West’s career thus far, as they were the filmmakers who introduced him to the masses with their documentary music video for ‘Through the Wire.’ This epic three-film documentary features hours of fly-on-the-wall footage and paints a sweeping portrait of one of pop culture’s most controversial figures.”
In the recently released second trailer for the project West was shown flexing his signature bravado in 2002 in a conversation with longtime collaborator Rhymefest about whether it was okay for the MC — best known at the time for his production on Jay-Z’s 2001 The Blueprint album — to refer to himself as a “genius.”
“But who are you to call yourself a genius,” Rhymefest asks Ye, who turns to the camera flashing a smile at a time before he’d even released his acclaimed solo debut album, 2004’s The College Dropout.
See West’s post and watch the trailer below.
