Kanye West was born in Atlanta in 1977 and moved to Chicago shortly after his mother, Donda, and father, Ray, divorced in 1980. West was 3 years old.
Chicago and nearby suburbs were home to key locations where the artist of the yet-to-be-released “Donda” album came of age. A listening party for the album took place at Soldier Field Aug. 26.
Here is a guide to Kanye West’s Chicago, from his South Shore childhood home to sites of notable performances.
1. John H. Vanderpoel Elementary School
(Then Vanderpoel Magnet School) 9510 S. Prospect Ave., Chicago
Kanye’s mother, Donda, recalled in a July 2004 interview, that her pre-kindergarten son was asked by testers at the Beverly school to draw a man. Instead, Kanye drew a football player. “They asked him again to draw the man, and Kanye said, ‘Fine, I’ll draw a man that’s wearing a football suit,'” she said.
2. Childhood home
7815 S. South Shore Drive, Chicago
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Donda West bought the home with her partner, Ulysses B. Blakeley, for $40,000 in late 1981. Kanye lived in the 1,600-square-foot house for about eight years, though his mother owned it until 2003, according to research by Tribune reporter Tracy Swartz. Donda West died in 2007 after undergoing cosmetic surgery.
The house has fallen into disrepair, with the city claiming it had “dangerous and unsafe conditions” in 2019, yet work continues on the home.
3. Chicago Academy for the Arts
4. Rainbow Beach Park
West’s mother, Donda, recalled in her 2007 book the incident that propelled her to move out of the city with Kanye.
5. Blue Island home
11917 Longwood Drive, Blue Island
Shortly after the bike incident, Kanye, his mother and Donda’s partner, Willie Scott, moved to Blue Island.
6. Christ Universal Temple
11901 S. Ashland Ave., Chicago
7. Community High School District 218 administrative office
(Then Polaris School for Individual Education) 10701 Kilpatrick Ave., Oak Lawn
Kanye received several awards for art he produced during his time at the school. A portfolio of his high school work was worth thousands, according to an “Antiques Roadshow” appraiser.
8. Tinley Park apartment
5920 Lake Bluff Drive, Tinley Park
Fifteen-year-old Kanye and his mother moved to the suburb when Donda and her partner, Willie Scott, separated.
Kanye was disappointed in 2003, his mother wrote in her 2007 book, when he didn’t get the opportunity to appear onstage when Jay-Z and 50 Cent’s “Roc the Mic” tour stopped at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre (then known as the Tweeter Center), just 10 minutes away.
9. American Academy of Art
Kanye received a partial scholarship to attend the art and design school, but decided to leave after one semester.
10. Chicago State University
Kanye enrolled as an English major at the same school where his mother was chair of the English department. He dropped out after the first semester of his sophomore year to pursue music.
11. WHPK-FM 88.5 studio
5706 S. University Ave., Chicago
A freestyle rap battle between Kanye and Common was recorded during a show hosted by DJ JP Chill on the University of Chicago’s radio station in 1996.
Warning: The video below contains explicit lyrics.
12. Kanye’s first apartment
His first apartment in the Beverly neighborhood was an opportunity for Kanye to focus on creating music.
Warning: The video below contains explicit lyrics.
13. Dragon Room
809 W. Evergreen Ave., Chicago
During a February 2004 interview, West cited the former club as one of the locations where he engaged in freestyle rap battles.
14. House of Blues
West headlines two sold-out shows
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at the venue just days after the Feb. 10, 2004, release of his debut album, “The College Dropout.” He’s joined onstage by Common, John Legend and violinist Miri Ben-Ari.In February 2005, “Kanye West Day” was celebrated at the House of Blues following a proclamation by Mayor Richard M. Daley.
15. Former site of Borders bookstore
West signs 500 copies of his second album, “Late Registration,” though an estimated 1,000 fans wait in line to meet him on Sept. 1, 2005.
16. Credit Union 1 Arena
(Then known as UIC Pavillion) 525 S. Racine Ave., Chicago
Wearing preppy clothes, the 28-year-old chats about growing up on the South Side, working dead-end jobs and trying to establish himself as a hip-hop producer on Nov. 14, 2005, during a concert. Tribune critic Greg Kot called it one of his favorite shows of 2005, saying it was “unlike any hip-hop concert ever staged, more like an avant-garde multi-act play than a wave-your-hands-in-the-air party.”
17. Butler Field at Grant Park
The first hip-hop act to headline Lollapalooza, Kanye closes the second night of the festival on Aug. 5, 2006, in front of 50,000 fans. The South Side native’s mother, Donda, watches from the wings. Kanye also performs at Lollapalooza in 2008 and 2011.
18. Fatburger
15100 S. LaGrange Road, Orland Park
The Southern California burger joint opened in 2008 and was operated by Kanye’s KW Foods LLC. According to a July 2009 Tribune review, “The whole experience feels more like a pleasant malt shop than a McDonald’s assembly line.” A Beverly location — less than a mile east of the rapper/producer’s first apartment in the neighborhood — came later.
Both locations, however, were closed by 2011.
19. Auditorium Theatre
50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive, Chicago
Kanye was awarded an honorary doctorate during a graduation ceremony for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on May 11, 2015.
In 2018, Kanye tweets he will be teaching a course at the school, but SAIC confirms “there are no plans for him to do so.”
20. Avalon Regal Theater
In September 2018, Avalon Regal Theater owner Jerald Gary told Tribune reporter Darcel Rockett that Kanye was committed to help restore the South Shore structure, “I can tell you that it is 100 % true that we have Kanye’s commitment to help fund the remaining repairs to get the venue opened. I’m not at liberty to talk too many details.”
Kanye, his wife, Kim Kardashian, and their daughter, North, toured the space on the Season 16 premiere of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” in 2019.
21. Harold Washington Library
“I’ve got to let you all know that I’m moving back to Chicago,” Kanye tells high schoolers on Sept. 17, 2018, at “Open Mike,” Chance the Rapper’s open mic event. “I’m never leaving again.”
22. Guaranteed Rate Field
Kanye and his son, Saint, throw out the first pitch at the City Series finale on Sept. 23, 2018. After the game, Kanye tweets a photo of him and his late mother, Donda, doing the same in 2007.
23. Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant
1270 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville
West and eight bodyguards arrive around 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 18, 2018. He orders three of the restaurant’s chicken stuffed tacos before taking photos with customers and heading to The Cantina, or “The Can,” to play pool.
24. Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
1300 S. Linn White Drive, Chicago
With no stage, roughly 2,000 people gather around singers and musicians — and, unknowingly, Kanye, himself, who was wearing sweats with a hood up and sunglasses — during a windy, rainy edition of his Sunday Service on Sept. 8, 2019. Chance the Rapper makes a guest appearance and Kanye delivers a minute or so of his signature “Jesus Walks.”
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25. Gap
Covering three stories of the Gap’s facade is a 60-foot-high and 240-foot-long handwritten note announcing his Yeezy Gap line and a 10-year partnership with the clothing chain that first appeared in July 2020. Kanye worked at the clothing store when he was 15 and rapped about the experience on “Spaceship,” which appeared on his album, “The College Dropout.”
Sources: baiduhai reporting and archives; “Raising Kanye: Life Lessons From the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar”