The Facts Behind Kanye West's Documentary Jeen-Yuhs

Kanye West's Documentary Jeen-Yuhs (Netflix)

JAKARTA - The director duo Coodie & Chike, Clarence Simmons, and Chike Ozah, are the people behind Kanye West's trilogy of a documentary entitled jeen-yuhs (read: genius) which is a summary of 21 years of West's life. Coodie and Chike are also the creatives behind West's music video for Through the Wire.

Quoted from Netflix production notes quoted by Antara, Monday, here are some interesting facts behind jeen-yuhs.

The documentary consists of three parts, each about 1.5 hours long. The first part is "Vision", the second is "Purpose" and the third is "Awakening". Coodie said he first met Kanye in Chicago and saw his charisma and passion and talent. Coodie had always known Kanye was going to do great things.

"The genius thing in this film is not Kanye, me, or anyone else in the film, the genius is being able to bring out the genius side of you, that's the goal. Everyone has a goal, when you find it, your genius side will shine."

The main point of this documentary, said Chike, is not about Kanye, but about the story of achieving dreams and making them come true while putting faith in the power of God. Hard work is definitely needed, but if the effort is carried out continuously, one day, success will be at hand. The current generation does not know much about the relationship between Coodie and Kanye, the majority only knows Kanye as a famous rapper who is also a billionaire.

"But when we started this film, Kanye wasn't a billionaire. So seeing that development really empowered us. It's been an amazing experience."

This film provides a history lesson about hip-hop in Chicago in the late 90's. Sounds and tones are very different. Because the documentary is made over a long period of time, viewers can see the development of two or three generations of hip-hop since the late 90's. Audiences will see how the music evolved, how the language of the film changed. Early in the film, Coodie shot with a VHS camera and progressed to digital. "Over 21 years, you can see the growth of many aspects."

Coodie argues, Kanye hasn't changed much since they first met. Sometimes he gets angry all of a sudden, but that's been the case for a long time. It's true that meeting Kanye is not as easy as it used to be, they also don't talk often anymore, but Kanye is still the same person.

It was a challenge for Coodie and Chike to wrap up 21 years of footage into a four-hour trilogy. Coodie is grateful that his team is solid and very compact in shrinking 400 hours of recording into four hours. They learned from "Benji", a documentary they had made, and gave an idea of how to make a documentary.

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Coodie and Chike still remember very well how they first met Kanye. Chike met while still working at MTV, when he was impressed with Kanye who was friendly and highly appreciative of art and design, the type of person who could be a fun chat with. At that time, Chike recalled, not many black people in his circle of friends could be friends in discussions about art and design.

"I was at MTV as the only black person on the design team. Kanye used to come up to me, I showed him sites because I was into motion graphics at the time. It was really fun and that's how we got close," says Chike.

Coodie used to work on Channel Zero and interviewed many people, including Kanye. They immediately became close like brothers.

They both hope this trilogy can be an inspiration for young people to follow their instincts and what they love. There are many ways to be successful, including doing what every individual wants to do.