The Recent Life of Kanye West

A Terrible Loss
West's mom Donda suffered a heart attack and died during cosmetic surgery on Nov. 10, 2007. She had been undergoing a liposuction and breast reduction. A retired professor and English Department chair at Chicago State University, Donda was a single mother who had raised her only son alone. After her death, the rapper was grief-stricken. "It was like losing an arm and a leg and trying to walk through that," he said in an interview.

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