The documentary Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy has taken 20 years to make and is created by filmmakers Clarence "Coodie" Simmons and Chike Ozah.
The first part, Visions, premieres on Netflix on February 16 and depicts the time when Kanye West was a young and promising but unknown artist.
Tina Mehrafzoon, music journalist at P3, thinks that the viewer gets the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in the first part.
- Visions depicts the time before Kanye was the huge icon he is today.
Here he is instead a guy who wants to be taken seriously as a rapper, but who does not get a record contract because you do not believe in him in that role.
Here you see how he really tries, he has these visions and ambitions to become more than "just" a producer.
You see him as an ordinary person, she says.
Started filming early
Coodie and Chike, as the creative duo is called, have directed several of Kanye West's music videos over the years and started working with the rap artist early.
Coodie drew attention to Kanye West on Channel Zero, a local entertainment channel in Chicago, when he worked there in the 90's.
- Coodie has a more prominent role in the documentary because he makes the narrator's voice.
Coodie is the one who picks up the camera and decides to follow Kanye from the beginning, which is what we get to see in the documentary.
He understands early on that Kanye is going to be something big, says Tina Mehrafzoon.
A few weeks ago, Kanye West published a post on Instagram in which he wrote that he wanted to approve the documentary before it was released.
At the same time, Coodie and Chike have been clear that they decide on the material, says Tina Mehrafzoon.
- Kanye has gone out and said that he wants to see the documentary and have the final word, but both Coodie and Chike have been clear that they own the documentary and the story, so that the story will be as true as possible.
So apparently Kanye's staff just had to take a look and give their approval.
Determined already in the 90s
Kanye West has been involved in many controversies over the years.
In 2009, he suspended Taylor Swift when she was to receive the award for best music video at the MTV Music Awards and said that the award should have gone to Beyoncé.
Are these sides of him noticeable?
- It is impossible to avoid Kanye's determination which he already had in the 90s and which has made him who he is today.
You could say that it is the reason why he runs like a steamroller, regardless of whether he is very rude to a colleague, says Tina Mehrafzoon.