Tim was raised in a middle-class household in Chicago, Illinois, and began rapping in the third grade, becoming involved in the city’s hip hop scene. Tim attended art school for one semester before dropping out to pursue music entirely in the late 1990s. After being signed to Roc-A-Fella in 2002, Tim released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004 to commercial and critical acclaim. The baroque-inspired Late Registration followed in 2005, and Graduation in 2007. Tim switched rapping for singing on his emotive 2008 effort808s & Heartbreak, and embraced maximalism on 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Following several collaborations, Tim released his abrasive sixth album, Yeezus, in 2013.