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It’s been about two decades years in the making, but the long-awaited jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy finally drops on Netflix today. The doc explores Kanye West‘s meteoric rise to fame and creator Clarence ‘Coodie’ Simmons tells ABC Audio now is the right time to unleash the three-part event.
“There was other times where we could have put out this documentary, in 2006 and in 2014. But God had another plan for it and I think this is the perfect time,” said Coodie, who first met Ye about 21 years ago. He said he recognized something was different and special about the “Gold Digger” rapper and that’s why he wanted to tell his life story.
“I wanted to follow this charismatic, great personality kid that was so talented to see if he was going to win Grammys… That was the goal,” said Coodie. He says he continued filming after that — almost 20 years — and has over 300 hours of footage to show for it.
jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy arrives as the Grammy winner continues to make headlines during his public fallout with ex Kim Kardashian, but Chike Ozah, who helped bring jeen-yuhs to life, says the doc will humanize the rapper and show “a new side a lot of folks haven’t seen.”
“I think what they’ll learn about Kanye is just another side to him that Coodie was able to capture,” Ozah said in reference to Coodie’s 21-year friendship with the rapper. “A lot of people only met Kanye through the media… Coodie’s relationship with Kanye and his lens — it just is able to capture a certain empathy and a vulnerability.”
The first part of jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy is available to stream now on Netflix.
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'Coodie' Clarence creator kanye Long-Awaited perfect release simmons
