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BBC documentary about Kanye West's 'complex journey' to fame in the works

The BBC film will be set against the backdrop of Kanye West's ongoing 2024 presidential election campaign
The BBC film will be set against the backdrop of Kanye West's ongoing 2024 presidential election campaign

The BBC has announced a one-off documentary and accompanying podcast series charting how Kanye West went from international fame and critical acclaim to "condemnation and notoriety".

We Need To Talk About Kanye, the TV special’s working title, will air on BBC Two and be presented by journalist Mobeen Azhar, who fronted the broadcaster’s Battle For Britney documentary.

The rapper, now legally known as Ye and one of the world’s most successful musicians with more than 160 million records sold, has recently come under fire over a series of antisemitic remarks.

The BBC film will be set against the backdrop of his ongoing 2024 presidential election campaign in the US, after an unsuccessful bid for the White House in 2020.

It will follow Azhar as he attempts to "understand the complex journey that led Ye to become one of the most famous and creatively successful artists of his generation, but more recently to condemnation and notoriety".

An eight-part podcast series titled The Kanye Story will also accompany the documentary.

Early last year Netflix aired a three-part series, Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, charting West’s early years in the music industry.

It drew on reels of intimate footage dating back two decades, showing West’s evolution from unknown rapper to international star, fashion designer and businessman.

Source: Press Association

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