--- description: With his new album set to drop on Feb. 11, a look back at the rapper's rocky start title: Kanye West Before Waves: Why He Couldn't Get a Record Deal image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a9c43916c3544d6/69887be3cd1bba48196ff3cb/1101050829_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why Kanye West Had Trouble Getting a Record Deal  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 10, 2016 5:00 PM CUT  The Aug. 29, 2005, cover of TIME The Aug. 29, 2005, cover of TIMECover Credit: KWAKU ALSTON FOR TIME  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 10, 2016 5:00 PM CUT Kanye West fans have been awaiting the Feb. 11 release of his latest album for months–hanging on every [name change](http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6873865/kanye-west-new-album-name-tlop "undefined") and[ track list hint](http://time.com/4192293/kanye-west-swish-track-list/ "undefined"). It’s a far cry from what record executives predicted over a decade ago, before the release of his 2004 studio debut _The_ _College Dropout_. As TIME explained in a 2005 cover story about West’s then-burgeoning career—his sophomore album, _Late Registration_, was about to drop—his middle-class background and decidedly bourgeois style turned off an industry accustomed to selling street-hardened swagger. For Kanye, that made the road ahead a tough one: --- > “” --- It was Roc-A-Fella, however, that eventually gave him a deal—and scored big when _The College Dropout_ was a major hit. And, as it became a success, so did the aesthetic that the record execs had been so wrong about. In one sense, however, it was Kanye who was wrong about himself: back in 2005, he told TIME that, as he and his career matured, he would likely tone down his public behavior, as he’d “have a lot more to lose.” More than a decade later, the man who has said that his latest release will be [one of the best albums ever made](http://time.com/4205917/kanye-waves-clarification/ "undefined") is anything but toned down. **_Read the whole 2005 cover story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Hip-Hop’s Class Act](http://time.com/vault/issue/2005-08-29/spread/78/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4206023/kanye-west-record-deal-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4206023/kanye-west-record-deal-history/"},"headline":"Why Kanye West Had Trouble Getting a Record Deal","datePublished":"2016-02-10T17:00:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:43:15.644Z","description":"With his new album set to drop on Feb. 11, a look back at the rapper's rocky start","url":"https://time.com/4206023/kanye-west-record-deal-history/","keywords":["Music","Kanye West"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a9c43916c3544d6/69887be3cd1bba48196ff3cb/1101050829_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a9c43916c3544d6/69887be3cd1bba48196ff3cb/1101050829_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Aug. 29, 2005","caption":"Aug. 29, 2005","creditText":"Cover Credit: KWAKU ALSTON FOR TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4206023/kanye-west-record-deal-history/","name":"Why Kanye West Had Trouble Getting a Record Deal"}}]}] ```