Netflix Purchased A Kanye West Documentary 21 Years In The Making For $30 Million
Billboard - A multi-part documentary featuring never-before-seen home videos and other rare footage of Kanye West is coming to Netflix in 2021 via two music-video and filmmakers who have been chronicling the artist-turned-billionaire entrepreneur's life and work for more than 20 years.
Sources familiar with the project say the streaming service has acquired the yet-to-be titled project from TIME Studios and Clarence "Coodie" Simmons and Chike Ozah -- more commonly known as Coodie & Chike -- who directed two of West's first videos, "Through the Wire" and the third version of "Jesus Walks." (In a 2014 interview with Billboard, Simmons said that West asked them to take another crack at interpreting the song because, he said, the first two versions, helmed by other directors, "don't have the soul and feeling that I want.")
One of those sources says Netflix acquired the miniseries for upwards of $30 million. It is expected to debut on the streaming service later this year.
Coodie and Chike are staples in Chicago and its music world. They came on the scene back in the late 90s and early 2000s when Kanye was coming up. They had the foresight to film almost 24/7 from what sources claim and you know that it's going to be GOLD.
To me its not even a debate how much more incredible early Kanye was compared to Kardashian era Kanye. If we're talking home videos like the "Thru The Wire" then this has the potential to be one of the greatest music documentaries ever.
The fact Kanye gave his blessing on this which kind of makes it "authorized" gives a ton of credibility to the project as well.
A close source claims the documentaries premise will revolve around Kanye's rise as a producer and rapper coming up in Chicago in the 90s and how fame affected him.
It will also give us an up close and personal look on how the death of his mom, Donda, in 2007, severely affected him. I've maintained since day 1 that this was the point in Kanye's life where his life started to go off the rails.
He was never the same from that point on. And you can't really blame him. It's tragic.
Props to Coodie and Chike to play the long game with this project too. They could have sold this thing ten years ago and cashed out but they waited and let the Kanye craziness factor multiply and watched the stock rise.
In the meantime, you might have caught some of their works like the 2012 ESPN 30-for-30 film Benji, about the shooting death of Chicago icon Ben Wilson, a promising high-school basketball player, and its impact on his Chicago community.
They also did the 2019 Netflix documentary about Stephon Marbury, A Kid From Coney Island.
Real excited for this to drop.