By Rahman Dukes

During my 10-year-plus experience at MTV News, I've had the pleasure of watching some of the biggest artists' careers take off. Fabolous: check. Alicia Keys: check. And none other than the esteemed Kanye West: cccccchhhhheeeeccckk!

Like my coworkers Erica, Shaheem and Yasmine, I've known Kanye for quite some time, and it's been a real joy watching his rise to stardom. I met 'Ye during his time with Jay-Z, producing tracks for the classic Blueprint album. My intern at the time noticed an article we ran on the fledging producer and informed us that 'Ye was his friend. And to put any doubt to rest, that very next day my fregging intern — my intern! — shows up at the MTV office on the 29th floor with none other than Mr. West. Incredible. At that time Kanye was an energetic, humble producer. He also told everyone that he was into rapping. As Shaheem pointed out, producers turned rappers were traditionally known to not go over so well, and in this case we had no reason to think Kanye would be any different. Boy, how wrong would we end up being.

I've had a number of memorable experiences with Kanye, from him playing tracks such as "Hey Mama" and "Jesus Walks" for us in a little Caribbean restaurant not far from MTV to chopping it up with him just days after his tirade against MTV during the 2007 VMAs. Read more...