Kanye West

In October 2002, Kanye West fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car in Los Angeles, shattering his jaw. Two weeks later, with his jaw wired shut, he recorded "Through the Wire," rapping through the metal about the accident. The song became his first hit as a rapper and launched The College Dropout in 2004. Until then he had been known mainly as a producer, the man behind much of Jay-Z's album The Blueprint.

He was born on June 8, 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in Chicago. His mother, Donda West, was an English professor, and his father, Ray West, was a former Black Panther who became a photojournalist. His birth hour is unknown; an 8:45 a.m. time that circulates online was traced by astrologers to an unverified tip, so his Ascendant cannot be read. His Sun is in Gemini, with Jupiter also in Gemini. Gemini is the sign of duality, words, restless curiosity and contradiction. A Gemini Sun with Jupiter magnifies all of it, and West's career has been defined by contradictions: brilliant and self-destructive, generous and cruel, inventive and erratic.

Mercury, Venus and Mars are all in Taurus, the sign of sensuality, texture, beauty and material things. Taurus planets describe a love of rich sound and design, and West is celebrated as a producer for his lush, sample-heavy textures, from the soul samples of his early work to the maximalism of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Taurus also concerns possessions and aesthetics, and he built Yeezy, a fashion and sneaker brand that made him a billionaire through a partnership with Adidas.

His Moon is in Pisces, a sign of deep sensitivity, emotional porousness and imagination. In 2007 his mother died after complications from cosmetic surgery, and his grief shaped the raw, melancholy 808s & Heartbreak the following year. In 2018 he spoke publicly about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Saturn in Leo describes struggles with pride, recognition and authority. West's public life has been marked by repeated controversies: interrupting Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, declaring on live television in 2005 that "George Bush doesn't care about black people," and, in 2022 and later, making antisemitic statements that led Adidas and other companies to end their partnerships with him.

Uranus in Scorpio and Pluto in Libra describe sudden, intense upheavals in relationships. He married Kim Kardashian in 2014; they had four children and divorced in 2022. He legally changed his name to Ye in 2021.

Neptune in Sagittarius suggests a search for meaning through faith and grand visions. West turned to gospel music with Jesus Is King and his Sunday Service performances, and he ran a short-lived presidential campaign in 2020.

He has won more than twenty Grammy Awards, and his influence on hip-hop production and fashion is enormous. The Gemini Sun made him a figure of constant contradiction; the Taurus planets gave him the ear and the eye that made his work matter.