my wishlist for a Kanye biopic

livia treviño
Jul 28, 2017
2 min read

A couple of weeks ago, I read on Indiewire that Trey Edward Shults, the director of "Krisha" and "It Comes At Night" wants to make a biopic about Kanye West. I never knew I needed this movie until now. I believe in this potential project so much that I even created a wishlist for it:

His Mother

There's no way this story could be told without Donda West. Other than her untimely death, I don't know much about her. Donda died of complications from multiple surgeries in 2007 when she was only 58. To this day, Kanye blames himself for her death. To anybody who reads about the circumstances surrounding Donda's death, there is no way it was caused by Kanye. The fact that he holds himself accountable to this day and how it effects him is something to explore.

The VMAs

This is where the story starts to me, but I'm not really interested in the incident itself. I distinctly remember watching Kanye perform on Jay Leno the night after the incident. After he performed, he sat with Leno to talk about what happened. I expected to see the "monster" people made him out to be, but all I saw was a broken man. Leno asked him what he thought his mother would say about what he did if she was still alive, and he started to cry. We all know how Taylor Sift's life changed, but we never really saw how Kanye's did.

His Love Story

I've always admired the Kim & Kanye love story. For those of you who aren't familiar, Kanye has been in love with Kim for years. The only reason I watch Keeping Up With the Kardashians is to catch the rare moments where he makes an appearance, so I'd be disappointed if she wasn't included.

The Concert

I remember the day that Kanye canceled the remainder of his tour at the end of 2016. I watched the videos of what seemed like mental breakdowns and it was extremely troubling. It all happened months after his wife was robbed at gunpoint and 6 years, almost to the day, of his mother's funeral. In my mind, this would play out Rocky-style, where he falls and slowly picks himself back up with a snowy mountains background, making the best album of his career.

The Music

If you're going to have a movie about Kanye, he needs to at least produce the music for it.

Whenever people talk about Kanye, I think they see this "angry black man" that the media loves to portray him as. And sometimes, I think he sees himself that way too, but I don't buy it. If there's going to be a movie about Kanye West, I want it to be about the REAL Kanye West. The one who has problems and deals with them, loves his family more than anything, is unapologetically good at what he does and just desperately misses his mother. There's no doubt in my mind that Trey Edward Shults can pull it off.

What do you want to see from a biopic about Kanye? Let me know by commenting or tweeting me @livia_trevino