It’s COMPLEX’s 20th anniversary, and to commemorate the milestone, @ariahughes and the crew asked me to step out of retirement and pen the cover story for their ‘How Kanye West Changed Everything...’ issue. Specifically they asked me to mull over how Kanye changed COMPLEX, and how Kanye changed me. As you can imagine, it was a daunting task to go through 15 years of memories and try to stitch together a coherent narrative that even scratches the surface of articulating my feelings about the time I spent with Ye and ‘PLEX. But I gave it the old college try. How could I not? @beingmarcecko and @richacomplex gave me a shot at 26 years-old that not many would have, and then helped me grow into the role and achieve success. COMPLEX made my career. And Kanye West’s role in my success is not lost on me, either. Not just because he gave me access to create some enduring stories and images that defined my run at the magazine. But because talking to him about art, brand, commerce, life, ambition, etc, etc, etc..., and seeing how relentlessly he worked made me better. And that equipped me to make COMPLEX better. So yeah, of course I grabbed this opportunity to celebrate them both and express my gratitude. And of course I also made Aria chase me for copy right up until the 11th hour, and then made annoying, mercurial tweaks, until she finally wrestled the story out of my hands and pressed publish. Anyone familiar knows that’s about the most NCB/Kanye West/COMPLEX creative process ever, lol. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the story, and thanks to the alma mater for inviting me back, I’m so grateful to be a part of COMPLEX’s legacy.