23 Years Ago Today, Kanye West Rapped With His Jaw Shut After Horrific Car Accident and Became a Rap Superstar - VICE

Kanye West wanted to be the biggest artist in hip-hop so bad in 2002. By that point, he was the resident producer for all artists on Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam, lacing artists with astounding soul-sampled beats. He could’ve just been content being the in-demand producer of the moment like Timbaland and The Neptunes.

But Ye always wanted more. He wanted to rap. He wanted to be where artists like Jay-Z were. So he tirelessly made those five beats a day for three summers and saved some of the best work for himself. One night on October 23rd, 2002, Ye finished a night of making beats for different artists in Los Angeles. Then, while driving his rented Lexus, he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed with another vehicle, nearly killing both of them.

Afterward, he had his jaw wired shut after reconstructive surgery. However, Kanye West wouldn’t be deterred. Only three days after the accident, he started rapping “Through The Wire” for fellow rapper Consequence. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘What the f**k is wrong with you? Why the f**k are you rapping right now?’” he recalled to Complex.

Originally, the song was released on December 14th, 2002, on his Get Well Soon mixtape. But on this day 23 years ago in 2003, it was the first single on The College Dropout, the album that made Ye a superstar.

Kanye West Released His Breakout Single On This Day 23 Years Ago Initially, the version of “Through The Wire” that was on Get Well Soon featured an Elton John sample of “I’m Still Standing” on the outro. However, because he couldn’t get the sample cleared, he removed it completely.

As for the infamous Chaka Khan “Through The Fire” sample, she loved what Kanye West did with it. “Kanye is an absolute sweetheart, truly adorable. I love him, and I love that track,” she said in a 2009 interview. “The way he’s used my sample is so clever – it’s like Chaka on helium.”

The success of “Through The Wire” made Roc-A-Fella confident in letting him make his own album. Despite the horrific car accident, Kanye West learned to look at it as a blessing in disguise. Moreover, it taught him to value time a lot more.

“Before, I was more willing to give my time to people and things that I wasn’t as interested in,” Kanye West told Steve McQueen in 2014. “Because somehow I allowed myself to be brainwashed into being forced to work with other people or on other projects that I had no interest in. So simply, the accident gave me the opportunity to do what I really wanted to do. I was a music producer, and everyone was telling me that I had no business becoming a rapper. So it gave me the opportunity to tell everyone, ‘Hey, I need some time to recover.’”