Kanye West is a pop culture geek. He's made three official short films and most of his music videos have such a clear narrative and visual flair that they could pass for shorts themselves. But before 'Ye started flexing his artistic muscle, the Chicago native's love for film and TV was blatantly obvious. How so? He could never shut up about it.
Whenever Mr. West drops an album, you can bet it will contain jokes and allusions to the most popular films leading up to its release, lines that, sometimes, come masterfully short of being too on-the-nose. Based on their sheer amounts of mentions, A Different World is his favorite sitcom, with Martin a close second. And like the rest of us, he loves Quentin Tarantino's movies. (Given the subject matter of the singles, fingers crossed for an awesome Django Unchained reference on West's upcoming album, Yeezus).
With his one of his two latest records, "Black Skinhead," containing a multitude of references to films like 300, Inglourious Basterds and King Kong, we've decided to take a look back through the super MC's entire discography to compile all of his many cinematic name-drops. Read on for a complete history of Kanye West's movie and TV references, in honor of his birthday today.
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Written by Frazier Tharpe (@The_SummerMan)