The 2011 TIME 100 Poll

Cast your votes for the leaders, artists, innovators, icons and heroes that you think are the most influential people in the world. Though official voting for inclusion on the TIME 100 list has now closed (with Rain as the 2011 readers' choice), users can continue to vote for their favorites until the final list, selected by our editors, is revealed on Thursday, April 21st

TIME 100 Candidates

Kanye West

By TIME StaffMonday, Apr. 04, 2011
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Ben Hider / Getty Images

Age: 33
Occupation: Twitter personality, hip-hop artist, record producer
Previous TIME 100 appearances: 1

The fact that Kanye West's long-awaited fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was one of the best-reviewed releases of 2010 is almost beside the point: over the past year, West went from being the bête noire of music-video awards shows to the most popular and confounding person in social media. More than 2.8 million Twitter followers receive his rambling, oddly compelling rants on fame, fortune and fur pillows. Sure, Lady Gaga may have more Twitter followers than anybody on the planet, and I'mma let you finish — but West might be the biggest celebrity of all time.

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