That’s right! On the 23rd of October, 2002, while driving back home from a late studio session in Los Angeles, Kanye West dozed off behind the wheels and collided head-on with another moving vehicle.
This landed him a shattered jaw in three different places, difficulty in speaking due to the excruciating pain and a jaw almost slammed shut by doctors as a form of treatment and reconstructive surgery.
But here comes the brain-burster!
• Instead of resting and waiting to heal. Kanye started writing “Through the Wire” just 3 three days after the accident and went back to the studio just two weeks after to record the track.
• With a jaw wired shut, Ye still went ahead to record “Through the Wire” with his mouth barely opening.
• The song samples Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” and buttresses Kanye’s point of making art even when physically broken.
• The track became the launchpad for his career as it convinced his label, Roc-A-Fella Records, to allow him to release his debut solo album titled The College Dropout (2004).
• In turning a near-death experience into music that turned the tables of Hip-hop forever, Kanye’s feat forever goes down as a practical example of passion overriding pain.