by Sean Smith
She died suddenly and unexpectedly in Beverly Hills in November 2007, the day after she had undergone cosmetic surgery, which included breast reduction and liposuction. She was 58. The coroner said that the final manner of death could not be determined, but stated that ‘multiple post-operative factors could have played a role in the death’. His opinion, though, was that she died from some pre-existing coronary artery disease.
Kanye was devastated. Before she died, she had written a book entitled Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar, in which she described her love and admiration for her son. The affection was mutual. He was devastated by her death.
He was in the middle of a tour in Europe and cancelled some dates, but a week later, in Paris, had to be helped off stage when he was about to sing ‘Hey Mama’. He took time away to grieve, but returned at the Grammys in February 2008. This time he sang an emotional version of the song, and had the word MAMA shaved into his head.
Kim’s father, Robert Kardashian, was a year older than Donda when he died. That sense of loss would be a common bond between Kanye and Kim. She said simply, ‘I can really relate to his mother’s passing. He can really relate to my father’s passing.’ Surely it was only a matter of time before they realised they were made for each other.
17
Fancy Seeing You Here
The story of Kim and Kanye’s love affair should be made into a Hollywood rom-com. The audience would be secure in the knowledge that they would eventually end up together, despite a series of relationships with other people that kept them apart for years. Her sister Khloé was always telling Kim that he should be her husband.
When they first met, she was involved with Ray J and technically married to Damon Thomas. Kanye, too, was attached – he was still with Sumeke. Their long relationship fizzled out when he moved to Los Angeles. She is acknowledged as a vocalist on two tracks from The College Dropout, but doesn’t feature on the follow-up, Late Registration, a year later.
That album was number one in the Billboard charts and included one of his best-known songs, ‘Gold Digger’. It sold more than 3 million copies in the US alone and was one of the 10 biggest-selling songs of the decade. In the UK, he performed for the first time at the Brits in 2006, using 77 female dancers wearing little more than gold paint and skimpy bikinis.
At the time of Late Registration, he was dating Brooke Crittendon, a production assistant at MTV. She seemed a refreshingly normal girl, who found it difficult dating a superstar: ‘There was a lot of attention from other women. Kanye was very open and honest, but it ended up with me knowing too much. I don’t want to be silly and say it wasn’t cheating because I knew about it. But he wanted and needed me to be OK with certain things I wasn’t OK with.’
Brooke revealed that Kanye wasn’t the macho man he had set out to be in his music. Instead, he was a sensitive performer who liked to know she was standing by the side of the stage whenever he performed. Their liaison ended after one of an increasing number of rows, and Kanye went back to Alexis Phifer, a very pretty young designer he had dated briefly after Sumeke. She had been married for three years to American footballer Roman Phifer and had a young son called Jordan.
She and Kanye were together for three years and became engaged. He gave her a beautiful, large, square diamond ring by the New York-based Lorraine Schwartz. (She would also design the engagement ring Kris Humphries gave Kim.) They shared a passion for fashion – something clearly very important to Kanye in his search for a partner. Alexis moved into his home at the foot of the Hollywood Hills with views overlooking Hollywood Boulevard, but kept her design studio in downtown LA and went off to work every day. She was setting up her own label called Ghita, which she described as styles for ‘the confident woman who doesn’t mind showing a little of her sexuality’. Kanye never seemed to need the status of having a famous girlfriend, preferring to date unknown women most of the time.
He likes opulence and clothing. His dining-room ceiling paid homage to the Sistine Chapel, except it depicted Kanye flying among angels. His closets alone took up close to an entire floor. He clearly appreciated his fiancée’s dress sense, crediting her with being the first person he would allow to style him. He said, ‘Alexis was my original stylist. She helped me get fresh.’ During their time together, Kanye began developing his own fashion label, called Pastelle. He spent three years on the project, but it never reached stores.
His mother Donda acknowledged Alexis as one of the family in her 2007 book and all seemed set fair for a wedding. Kanye still appreciated the curvaceous charms of Kim Kardashian, however. They were no more than friends, but he later admitted that seeing a photograph of Kim with Paris Hilton in Australia in 2006 reminded him that she had a great pair of pins.
In September 2007, a photographer caught them together at the grand opening of the Intermix boutique in West Hollywood. Kanye was with Alexis and Kim arrived with her younger brother Rob. Kanye is in the middle of a picture taken that night with Alexis on his right arm and Kim on his left. Intriguingly, in 2014 Kanye told the audience at one of his concerts that seven years earlier he had told Kim he was going to marry her one day.
She admitted, ‘There was definitely a spark.’ That spark was in evidence again in 2008, when they made the pilot of a hip-hop puppet show called Alligator Boots. This was like an X-rated Spitting Image and very funny if you liked that sort of humour. In the opening scene, Kanye and Kim share a stage with a deep-voiced randy bear puppet called Beary White, who serenades her with a romantic ode: ‘Let me lay you down on my silky sheets and then come in close behind ya and then I’ll show you my desire and put my penis inside your vagina.’ Kim pretends to be outraged. ‘Excuse Me!’ she exclaims. Kanye was one of the executive producers, along with the television host Jimmy Kimmel. For some reason, Comedy Central decided not to commission it.
Throughout the show, Kim is a good sport, dressed as an outstandingly sexy Princess Leia, a dream costume for any Star Wars devotee with an interest in porn. For those with longer memories, Kanye was indulging in the same fantasy that Ross had in Friends, when he persuades Rachel to dress as the character. Kanye observed in the show, ‘And I want to have, like, Kim Kardashian play Princess Leia, because you know Kim Kardashian’s ass is so perfect.’
It may be with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, but the pair do seem very relaxed in each other’s company. The timing was always a little awry where Kim and Kanye were concerned. She said, ‘We were both in other relationships and we kept our distance and that was really that.’
All was not well between Kanye and Alexis. He had struggled in their relationship after the death of his mother. Alexis was pictured arriving on the red carpet for a fashion event in New York without her engagement ring. A story in In Touch claimed the pair had argued when she discovered a naked picture of Kim on his mobile phone. Any thoughts of marriage were soon put to one side.
Kim was involved with Reggie Bush then, so she wasn’t free. The next time they were seen at the same event was later that year, at the tenth anniversary party for Flaunt magazine in Los Angeles. Kanye was now dating a shapely former stripper from Philadelphia called Amber Rose. He had seen her dancing seductively in the video for the Ludacris song ‘What Them Girls Like’ and decided he wanted to find out more. She was very distinctive, with buzz-cut blonde hair and a voluptuous figure, and stood out among the young women who generally inhabit hip-hop videos. Oddly, she shares the same birthday as Kim, 21 October, although she is three years younger.
She was at home in the Bronx, where her family lived in the projects, when she had a call on her mobile phone. ‘Hi, it’s Kanye,’ he said. Amber, whose real name is Amber Levonchuck, had never met the rapper, so she hung up because she thought it was a prank call. He persisted, calling back until he persuaded her that he was genuine and wanted to fly her to Los Angeles to appear in the video for a song called ‘Robocop’.
The video was never released, but Kanye invited Amber to the Grammys
and bought her a Chanel bodysuit to wear. She explained why she fell in love with him: ‘When I told him I was an exotic dancer, he was like “I don’t care if you’re a crackhead. I don’t care if you’re a prostitute. I just want to be with you.”’
Amber moved to Los Angeles, where she and Kanye became one of the most striking couples in the music business. She signed with the Ford Models agency and said goodbye to her work as a pole dancer forever. She was with Kanye during his most controversial episode to date. At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, he charged on stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video and took the microphone from her. ‘Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!’ He was referring to ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)’.
It was a priceless moment. The audience at the Radio City Music Hall in New York was dumbstruck to begin with and then roundly booed him. His intervention will always feature in the most shocking moments in music. Even President Obama made an off-the-cuff remark about it, ‘The young lady seems like a nice person, she’s getting her award and what’s he doing up there? He’s a jackass.’
One can only speculate about whether Kim would have prevented him from getting out of his seat in the first place. Kim and Kanye have never admitted the extent of their feelings for one another in these early years, but the conspiracy theorists enjoyed Kanye’s contribution to ‘Knock You Down’, a song by Keri Hilson. In his guest verse, he raps, ‘You was always the cheerleader of my dreams, To seem to only date the head of football teams, And I was the class clown that always kept you laughin’, We were never meant to be, baby, we just happened.’ Obviously, the gossips assumed Kim was the cheerleader and Reggie was the head of the football team.
In February 2009, Kim and Reggie went to the Y-3 fashion show in New York only to find Kanye there, practically beside them in the front row. The actress Milla Jovovich sat between Kanye, who looked slightly ill at ease, and Kim, who had her arm locked around Reggie’s.
The following year, Kanye and Amber Rose split up. He was pleasant about it: ‘It was an amazing time and it came to an end.’ She took a different view, later accusing Kim of being a ‘homewrecker’ and her ex-boyfriend of unfaithfulness. She told the New York Post, ‘He can’t be faithful, and it’s not just with one person. He’s just unfaithful with a lot of different women. I got to the point where I thought, my heart can’t take it any more. I don’t deserve this.’ Amber was echoing the view of another of his former girlfriends, Brooke Crittendon.
According to Amber, Kim used to send Kanye salacious messages and photos. She claimed: ‘They were both cheating on me and Reggie with each other … She was sending pictures and I was like, “Kim, just stop. Don’t be that person.”’ Kanye subsequently denied this – when asked if Kim had sent him nude pictures while he was with Amber, he replied, ‘I wish.’
When Kanye walked into the new DASH boutique in the SoHo district of New York in October 2010, neither he nor Kim was attached. She had temporarily relocated to the city to open the store and film the experience with her sister Kourtney for their spin-off show. Kanye didn’t seem to mind the cameras when he flirted with Kim and gave them some advice about the shop. He also accepted an invitation to her thirtieth birthday party at TAO in Las Vegas. That was the glitzy, public celebration, but he also attended the private family party a few days later.
The great mystery about Kim and Kanye’s love affair was why, after being thwarted for so many years, they didn’t take this opportunity to begin a proper relationship. Perhaps they were each waiting for the other to make the first move, or maybe it was just a case of not having the time to devote to anything more than a casual friendship. Kim’s work schedule for the first series of Kim and Kourtney Take New York was very demanding and that may have been a factor. In the best romantic-comedy tradition, they may simply not have realised what their true feelings were then.
One of the storylines for the series involved seeing if Kim could find a new man. Surprisingly, considering the rumours at the time, he turned out not to be Kanye but Kris Humphries. Kanye did help Kim with her ill-fated singing attempt, ‘Jam (Turn It Up)’, and appeared in the unreleased video in some steamy scenes.
Despite their obvious and natural chemistry, Kanye again took a back seat during her whirlwind romance and ill-fated marriage to Kris Humphries. He wasn’t happy about it. Kim later revealed that he had expressed his interest, but she hadn’t followed up, as she was being swept away on the roller-coaster that led to her wedding in Montecito. Kanye wasn’t invited to the wedding, despite being continually described in Kardashian circles as a family friend.
Kanye dated a succession of attractive young women and there were even rumours that he had made a sex tape with one who bore some likeness to Kim.
At long last, Kim and Kanye’s time had come. Kim made the first move to start an exclusive romance with Kanye simply by calling him. She finally admitted the obvious truth: ‘I was always attracted to him.’ She realised how hurt he had been when she went off and married Kris Humphries. ‘I thought he was going to call me, since he knew that I was single again and he didn’t. I knew what he was thinking. And so I called him and I said, “Hello. I thought you were at least going to call me or something.”’
Just six weeks after she announced her split from Kris, Kim was seen in public with Kanye at an after-show party in Los Angeles. He had been performing at the Staples Center with Jay Z, as part of their Watch the Throne tour, which saw the two superstars join together for a series of 57 dates that grossed $75 million. Kim attended the concert with Khloé, Scott Disick and her mother. They had seats right next to the stage, so Kanye was able to interact with them during the concert.
The party afterwards was held at the Beverly Hills estate of billionaire Ron Burkle. Kanye and Kim chatted with a very pregnant Beyoncé, who is married to Jay Z, but spent most of the night deep in conversation with each other. For once, stories that they had eyes only for each other were completely true. One eyewitness declared, ‘Kanye was eating Kim up like she was a piece of cake. I think he was dying to kiss her, but there were too many people in the room.’
She continued to deny rumours that they were going out, which was hardly surprising, as her divorce was proceeding at a snail’s pace. Before they were officially an item, Kanye’s ex, Amber Rose, had become engaged to another rapper, Wiz Khalifa. Reggie Bush, too, had moved on to a new relationship and had settled down in Miami with a beautiful dancer called Lilit Avagyan, who bore a striking resemblance to Kim and, by coincidence, was Armenian.
In March 2012, Kanye invited Kim to join him for his Paris fashion week show. His fame had allowed him to pursue his interest for the past few years. He teamed up with Nike to release his own line of designer trainers, called Air Yeezys, a bow to the famous Air Jordan shoes he had loved so much as a child combined with his own preferred nickname, Yeezy. He designed a new shoe line for Louis Vuitton, as well as footwear for BAPE and Giuseppe Zanotti.
Since his Taylor Swift debacle, Kanye had spent much more time immersed in the world of fashion, especially after he cancelled a co-headlining tour with Lady Gaga in late 2009. Instead, he went to live in Japan to get away from the fallout. In Rome, he interned for four months at the Fendi fashion house, where he tried to interest them unsuccessfully in his design for a leather jogging pant. He also lived in Paris, which he loved and where he held two shows in 2011 and 2012.
In the romantic French capital, any reluctance Kanye had to begin a serious relationship with Kim vanished. She confessed, ‘The magic happened.’ Kim realised that the man she loved had been in front of her all along. She assured him that she was ready to make a commitment.
The show itself contained a lot of fur and very high, futuristic shoes. Kim wore a pair of Kanye West for Giuseppe Zanotti heels, made of calf leather and embroidered with pearls, which would cost $6,000 to buy and weren’t exactly rainpro
of. She topped off her outfit with a striking white fur stole.
Both Kim and Kanye have become the number one celebrity target for PETA, the animal rights organisation, because of their love of wearing fur. Two weeks after Paris, Kim was flour-bombed at the launch of her new perfume, True Reflection, as she posed on the red carpet at the London West Hollywood hotel.
She had arrived looking flawless in a black blazer, blue blouse and leather trousers. A few minutes later, she looked as if she had been caught in an unseasonal snowstorm. Apparently, the female assailant shouted, ‘Fur hag!’ before taking aim. The fire department was called to determine what the white powder was and concluded that it was plain flour. After she had spruced herself up, Kim said, ‘That probably is the craziest, unexpected, weird thing that ever happened to me. Like I said to my make-up artist, I wanted more powder …’
Kim remains a target, although that was the most obvious physical attack she has received. At the start of her promotional tour for her book of selfies, Selfish, in May 2015, anti-fur protesters queued for seven hours to confront her. They held up posters and spoke to her in person.
Kanye, who probably wears just as much fur as Kim, went back to songwriting after the fashion show. He couldn’t resist a dig at PETA in ‘Theraflu’: ‘Tell PETA my mink is dragging on the floor.’ The main focus of the track, which he retitled ‘Cold’, was that he mentioned Kim by name for the first time. ‘And I’ll admit, I had fell in love with Kim … Around the same time she had fell in love with him’. Many took that to be about Kris Humphries, but it could just as easily be a reference to Wiz Khalifa, whom he also names in the song, if the ‘she’ is Amber Rose – it works just as well for both.