Saddest part of Netflix’s new Kanye West documentary

A candid new Netflix documentary about Kanye West makes for uncomfortable viewing, given the rapper’s latest public meltdown.

If Netflix’s new Kanye West documentary, Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye West Trilogy, proves anything, it’s that the old Kanye was, in some ways, both radically different and shockingly similar to the man making tabloid headlines today.

The first part of the three-part docuseries – an 87-minute episode titled act i: VISION that was released on Netflix this week – takes place entirely before the year 2003. Kanye West, in his early twenties, has found success as a music producer, making beats for other artists, including Jay-Z.

But he dreams of releasing his own rap album – it’s the reason he relocated from Chicago to New York City – and he is trying desperately to get somebody, anybody to care.

In those early years, the rapper’s struggle is meticulously captured on film by his friend and the documentary’s co-director, Clarence “Coodie” Simmons.

Initially a stand-up comedian, Coodie saw something in Ye (as he now goes by) when he first interviewed him in 1998, for a Chicago public access show called Channel Zero. He decided to uproot his life to follow Ye around, filming him for a documentary he would direct alongside his creative partner, Chike Ozah.

The doco focuses on Kanye’s early years.

The doco doesn’t reveal much about the infamous version of Ye who trends on Twitter today, because Ye started to cut Coodie out of his life as his fame rose. But the early, behind-the-scenes look at the rapper – before Kim Kardashian, before Taylor Swift, and before Donald Trump – is a morbidly fascinating look at who Kanye West used to be.

Most of Part 1 takes place in 2002, when Ye is a young producer in NYC looking to get signed by a label.

It’s clear to see that he’s talented, that he knows it, and that he’s frustrated others don’t. Sometimes his drive for success comes off as admirable – like his determination to record debut album The College Dropout despite his label’s refusal to give him studio time – but other times, it comes off as uncomfortably shortsighted, like a failed stunt he pulls at the headquarters of Jay-Z’s label, Roc-A-Fella.

Sometimes there are prophetic moments that make the current Ye’s bizarre behaviour make sense – like when he jokes, after being mistakenly billed as simply “Kanye” with no last name, that he ought to just change his name to Ye.

Part one of the doco shows a young Kanye hungry to make it big.

Other parts are harder to reconcile with the present-day Ye.

Though he’s certainly confident, the old Kanye displays shockingly perceptive moments of self-awareness – something the public hasn’t seen from the rapper in some time.

After arguing with a colleague over whether or not he’s earned the label “genius,” he turns to the camera with a laugh, admitting that it’s funny he would ever be offended by simply not being called a genius.

At one point, he acknowledges his self-involved nature with a sheepish smile: “It’s a little narcissistic, or whatever, but f**k it.” You can’t help but feel this whisper of humility was swiftly silenced when The College Dropout went platinum, and that it was the only thing keeping the rapper grounded.

While I’m certain Ye doesn’t want my pity – his groundbreaking rap albums and financial success speak for themselves – it’s hard to feel anything but sad comparing the young, hungry West who worked so hard for his success to the celebrity who has become a public joke at best, and a public villain at worst.

Tabloids and celebrity journalists continue to dutifully report Ye’s Instagram posts slamming Pete Davidson, and his public – some would say abusive – attempts to win back his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, but it feels like even public interest in that spectacle is waning.

The Kanye of 2022 has fans worried, as tabloid scandals overshadow the music. Picture: Taylor Hill/WireImage

Some fans have stayed loyal, certainly, but many have given up. In Part 3 – which will be released on Netflix on March 2 – footage of Ye in 2020 avidly consuming Fox News videos of Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson on his phone is almost hard to watch.

Coodie does his best to provide an empathetic look at Ye’s mental health struggle as context; it doesn’t make his anti-abortion views any easier to swallow.

Kanye West is hardly the first person to lose sight of their goals in light of success, but it’s rare to have the evidence so clearly captured on film. Jeen-Yuhs won’t give viewers much insight into the current state of Ye, but it will make them miss the old Kanye.

This article originally appeared on Decider and was republished with permission