Netflix acquired rapper Kanye ‘Ye’ West’s documentary, jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, for a staggering $30 million that contains footage from over twenty years of his life. However, the filmmaker is disappointed over the recent controversy regarding the editing of the three-part documentary.
Created by Coodie and Chike, aka Clarence Simmons and Chike Ozah, in their third collaboration with West, the documentary features archival footage and other domestic videos besides interviews to show the life and persona of the rapper and trace the trajectory of his career.
Although Ye has not been an active part of the documentary, he has taken an interest in controlling the editing process. He even took to Instagram to talk about how he “must get final edit and approval” before its release on Netflix to “be in charge of [my own] image”. However, the filmmakers talked about how it was important to keep things “from the perspective of a filmmaker” to make the project “authentic”.
However, Ye has recently gone ballistic on Instagram, posting content that attacks anything he disapproves of. Among them, he even attacked the filmmakers, asking for final approval and demanded superstar rapper Drake narrate the events. Simmons, who has known West for a long time, was admittedly “disappointed” to see the rapper’s lack of trust in him despite him promising to do so.
Simmons has always paid heed to West’s demands, even withholding the release of the footage back in 2005 as Kanye did not feel comfortable “for the world to see the real him”. After following West for years, the filmmaker has amassed over 320 hours of footage, convinced that the rapper would reach great heights.
The editing row has indeed created a lot of publicity regarding the documentary showing West at his most vulnerable, documenting his climb, his mental health problems, his outbursts, the infamous car crash and more. Simmons concluded, “The world needs to see this. It’s not about me and Kanye.”
Watch the eerie trailer for jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy that is set to begin streaming in weekly-instalments from February 16th, 2022:
