Kanye West’s former fiancée has shared a glimpse of the polarizing artist’s creative process during The College Dropout album era amid the 20th anniversary of its release.
According to Ye’s ex-fiancée, Alexis Phifer, his initial sketches of the iconic bear were drafted at her house in 2004 just before the album dropped. She shared a lengthy Instagram Story recently detailing a great deal of West’s process crafting the bear, remarking on how Ralph Lauren exclusively inspired the bear and that he started drawing the head first.
Phifer claims West was going to throw the sketches away after he faxed them to the record label until she convinced him to let her “keep the art.”
Phifer dated West on and off for years before getting engaged in 2006, only to call it quits about a year later. Not only have the drawings, considering she kept the drawings for some 20 years, stood the test of time, much like the music, but so has West’s influence.
Kanye's ex girlfriend Alexis Phifer, just disclosed that she preserved the original sketches of Kanye's iconic 'dropout bear' from his debut album "The College Dropout," which he had intended to discard.
— Donda Times (@dondatimes) February 10, 2024
20 years later, she still have them ❤️ pic.twitter.com/8YXUYIaYHi