THE TRUTH ABOUT KANYE WEST'S TERRIBLE CAR ACCIDENT
By NICOLE ROSENTHAL
History - Science
In 2002, Kanye West was best known for his role as a producer, making several beats for Jay-Z’s 2001 album “The Blueprint,” and rapping on the song “Never Change.” However, it was only after being seriously injured in a car crash in Chicago in 2002 that West took his career as a solo artist seriously, releasing his debut single, “Through the Wire,” not long after.
Although West was attacked by Twitter conspiracy theorists in 2016 who accused him of faking the entire thing, court records have verified Kanye's accident. The crash happened in 2002 when the rapper left a late-night recording session and fell asleep at the wheel of his rented Lexus, crashing into another car.
West was rushed to a hospital with a fractured jaw following the accident, and he wrote and recorded “Through the Wire” while his mouth was wired shut. This incident was his motivation to pursue music full-time, and MTV reported at the time, “West's life is not in danger, and [...] he is in stable condition with a fractured jaw.”
Moreover, the car owner involved in the accident, Miguel Villasana, sued West one year after the crash over a motor vehicle claim. AllHipHop reports that the plaintiff had “a totaled car, two broken legs, a broken pelvis, broken knees, a shattered ankle and was out of work for over a year,” and a public document acquired by Spin shows a record of the lawsuit being filed and dismissed.