Kanye West’s life and career will be profiled as part of a new BBC Sounds podcast, released as a companion to a newly-announced documentary about the rapper on BBC Two.
The documentary, titled We Need To Talk About Kanye, is fronted by BAFTA award-winning investigative journalist Mobeen Azhar who will dissect how West went from being one of the most successful artists of his time to becoming a controversial figure condemned by society due to anti-semitic comments.
“Unfolding against the backdrop of Ye's 2024 election campaign, and at a time when his behaviour has sparked outrage and a re-evaluation of his place in popular culture,” the release stated. “This one-off documentary follows Mobeen as he attempts to understand the complex journey that led Ye to become one of the most famous and creatively successful artists of his generation. But more recently, to condemnation and notoriety.”
Following the documentary, which is yet to have a release date, an eight-part companion podcast series titled The Kanye Story will also premiere alongside it, featuring new guests that will make a deep-dive and bring insight into West’s life and career. The podcast is produced by Forest Sounds and will be hosted on BBC Sounds.
Azhar previously hosted another BBC podcast series and documentary titled Hometown: A Killing, also produced by Forest Sounds, in which he investigated the death of Mohammed Yassar Yaqu after he was shot by police on the M62 motorway near his hometown of Huddersfield. The journalist won a Presenter of The Year award at the Royal Television Society and Best Presenter at the Grierson Awards for his role in the podcast series and documentary in 2020.
Other podcasts series by the BBC that are fronted by acclaimed investigative journalists include Josh Baker presenting The Shamima Begum Story podcast as part of the BBC’s I’m Not A Monster series with first-hand accounts from Begum on her experience from disappearing as a teenager in London to reappearing as part of the Islamic State group four years later.
