Kanye Omari West was born June 1977, in Atlanta Georgia, but essentially grew up in Chicago Illinois (with a spell in China, when his mum landed a job there).

Unlike so many of his compatriots though, he did so in a distinctly middleclass home; his father a photojournalist and Black Panther, his mother a Professor in English, who taught at universities.

Image Credit

He took to singing at a very young age and was supported by his parents in his endeavours, although his mom took a pretty dim view when he dropped out of college aged 20, to pursue his music career.

She was cool enough to recognise it was probably the correct decision though, after his first album ‘The College Dropout’ hit the charts in 2004. He made his mark first as a music producer however, eventually landing a role within Jay Z’s Rock-a-Fella Records in 2000, producing for Alicia Keys and Janet Jackson, among others.

Image Credit

Jay Z admitted he initially saw West as a producer, rather than rapper and employed him as such. However, in 2002, Kanye was in a near-fatal car crash, amongst other things, smashing his jawbone when he fell asleep at the wheel. His jaw wired up, he wrote much of the album as he convalesced and indeed, recorded the song, ‘Through The Wire’ whilst his jaw was still wired up. This became one of the breakout hits on his debut album, ‘The College Dropout’.

Image Credit

Four out of five of his albums have gone on to reach the coveted top spot in the American charts and he has won 53 major awards to date, including 21 Grammy Awards. He has worked with pretty much everyone he has wanted to within the music firmament, including John Legend, Mobb Deep, Taleb Kweli, Common and of course, his long-term collaborator, Jay Z.

Aside from all this, he also runs his own women’s fashion label, ‘DW Kanye West’, which, since its launch in 2011, is doing rather well.

So what of his garage? Well, as a man never backward in coming forward and with a few spare quid floating around, why wouldn’t he splash out on a few tasty items, try them on for size?

Image Credit

Let’s see, there’s a Matt black Lamborghini Aventador, with a 6.5 litre L530 V12 engine, seven-speed ISR semi-automatic transmission, doing 0-60 in 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 217 miles per hour. 

Then there’s an Aston Martin DB9, a Ferrari California, a Lamborghini Murcilago, a White Lamborghini Gallardo, a Mercedes McLaren SLR Sterling Moss, a Mercedes S-Class AMG, a Mercedes G63, a Mercedes G500, a Maserati, a Bentley, a top end Maybach 57s, a Rolls Royce Phantom and the obligatory 253mph Bugatti Veyron.

Image Credit

What really catapults him into the realms of a super-spending collector though, is two things: In 2006 he used his charitable organisation, the Kanye West Foundation, to fund a Formula BMW racing car in the World Finals. That and probably the fact that, having become a father with his wife, reality TV queen Kim Kardashian, he forked out $2.4million for a couple of Latvian-built Prombron Iron Diamonds, made by Dartz Motorz.

Image Credit

Why do they cost so much? Well, they’re bulletproof, landmine-proof, bombproof high security vehicles, designed to deter the most determined would-be kidnapper of his kids. Oh- and they have a whale foreskin leather interior. I kid you not.