In the last release of this three part documentary, Coodie Simmons shows Kanye’s life after fame.

By Anwuli Adeola Onwaeze

Last Wednesday, the final act of the jeen-yuhs trilogy was released. This finale shows the long time eruptive behavior of the now polarizing Kanye West. This is the longest amount of time covered in a part of this trilogy spanning from his overly honest remarks in 2004 to his widely loathed presidential election in 2020. 

After The College Dropout released and garnered Kanye so much fame and respect, Coodie was ready to start editing the footage he had. However, Kanye wasn’t ready to give up the persona he had created at the time and he didn’t want people to see such intimate footage. So, Coodie held off. You can see Kanye moving farther and farther away from the camera.

At West’s Grammy After Party in 2006 Coodie took it back to his interviewing days to cover the event. After showing clips of ecstatic celebs a drunken Kanye enters the screen to show us just how disconnected he is from the people that were around for his come up. He repeatedly calls Coodie Chike, their other close friend’s name, multiple times. The tension is so heavy during this moment, you can see Coodie tearing up a bit and rightfully so. Kanye and Coodie had been childhood friends, Coodie dropped everything to document his rise to success, Coodie and Chike were responsible for making most of his early music videos. Yet, Kanye couldn’t remember his name. This was just the beginning of their relationship becoming more distant. 

Coodie and Kanye still saw each other from time to time and Coodie even helped put footage together for Kanye’s foundation he started with his mom, Donda. But in 2007, Donda suddenly passed and Kanye’s life was turned upside down. While Kanye seemed outspoken and brash before his loss, he became even more so after it. He performed less than two weeks after his mother’s passing, displaying his unhealthy mental state. Coodie stuck around and made sure to be there for Kanye as much as he could, but Kanye had dived deep into his work. Months started to pass without them seeing each other. 

When GLC asked Coodie to film his recording session with Kanye, Kanye asked Coodie to stop filming him for the first time. So he did. For six years. For the first time we get a deeper look into Coodie’s personal life, he has a daughter and starts to experience the joys of fatherhood. All the while, Kanye was making headlines and he even became a father himself. 

They reunited in 2014 when Common invited Coodie to film his music festival in Chicago. Coodie and Kanye seemed to have somewhat repaired the bond they lost so many years before. 

The rest of the documentary covers Kanye’s relationship with mental health and the controversy that comes out of it. We see Kanye go through so many parts in his life: revealing his bipolar diagnosis, supporting Donald Trump, becoming more vocal about his religion, and so much more. 

I’ll leave most of the documentary for you to watch if you’d like, but this definitely was one of the most intimate looks I’ve had into an artists’ life. 

While I think some of the footage was personal and didn’t need to be included, most of it offered a sympathetic perspective of someone who is so hated now. Of course, this doesn’t excuse any of Kanye’s behavior, but it does call into question responsibility with fame, mental health, and parasocial relationships. 

Kanye was just a boy with a dream when he started out and now he’s huge. This change in status definitely got to his head, but the world watched him struggle with mental health and did nothing. Can we hold people accountable? How well do we know these artists? Are they responsible?