Kanye West promises that his opening sets on Usher’s current arena tour will not even remotely resemble the first time he took the stage.

That first performance was in Chicago in September 2002 during a tour that included multi-platinum rapper Jay-Z as a featured performer.

At the time, West had just signed to Jay-Z’s label, Roc-A-Fella Records, and the rapper thought it was a perfect opportunity for West, from Chicago, to make his performing debut.

“I couldn’t even perform (a song like) ‘Through The Wire’ all the way through,” West recalls. “My breath control was that bad.”

West says he doesn’t have this problem anymore, a statement backed up by his extensive touring over the past year.

“Now I do songs for 85 minutes and ‘Through The Wire’ is at the end, so by the time I get there I’m still rapping all the way through,” West says.

West’s vocal endurance isn’t the only thing that has changed for the 27-year-old over the past couple of years.

By the time he took the mike from Jay-Z that ill-fated night in Chicago, he was already well on his way to becoming a force in hip-hop producing. He was a featured producer on Jay-Z’s landmark 2001 CD, “The Blueprint,” getting notice for his work on the hits “H To The Izzo,” “Takeover” and “Bonnie and Clyde.”

He cemented his reputation as one of hip-hop’s hottest producers by working on Jay-Z’s 2003 follow-up, “Blueprint 2,” as well as a host of other tracks, including Alicia Keys’ “You Don’t Know My Name,” Scarface’s “Guess Who’s Back,” Talib Kweli’s “Get By” and Beanie Sigel’s “The Truth,” among others.

Now he’s making a strong statement as an artist in his own right. Earlier this year, West released his debut CD, “The College Dropout.” It features the hits “Through the Wire,” “Jesus Walks” and “Slow Jamz” (a collaboration with Twista) and has drawn strong reviews to go with sales of more than one million.

The title of the CD has a biographical thread for West, who quit college after a semester and a half to pursue a career in rap.

“I went to college because it was the thing to do,” West says, looking back on his stint in higher education.

Soon after he landed his deal with Roc-A-Fella, though, West's burgeoning career almost came apart. In October 2002, he was involved in a serious auto accident that left him with a broken jaw and other facial injuries. The near-fatal wreck inspired West to write “Through the Wire,” which he recorded, amazingly enough, while his jaw was still wired shut.

“You definitely re-evaluate everything,” West says when asked how the accident changed his perspective on life and his career. “It changed my circle, the people I had around me. I made sure there were only good people around me.”

It's been said that if West has a weakness, it's that he's not one of the smoothest rappers around. It's a valid point, considering he does seem to have more to say than his songs can accommodate at times.

But West said he's not driven by the need to be the most polished master of the mike on the scene.
“My lyrics didn’t come from trying to rap, but more from trying to philosophize,” he says. “It’s more like spoken word ...

“People always say, ‘His flow isn’t really that good.’ I’m not really trying to flow that well. It’s like I’m more concerned about saying stuff. Just be happy that it’s falling somewhat on beat.”