Kanye West, now known as Ye, is once again the subject of a documentary.
Directed by Nico Ballesteros, Ye’s in-house videographer for eight years, In Whose Name follows Ye through interactions with celebrities, President Donald Trump, televangelists, and all the bursts of creativity and chaos in-between. The first trailer, released August 28, follows Ye through the fallout of Jesus Is King, the making and spectacle of Donda during the pandemic, and the rollout of Vultures. There are clips of former wife Kim Kardashian breaking down in front of him, confrontations with staff who clash with his vision, and other scenes that make the documentary as much about conflict as it is about music.
In Whose Name positions itself as a continuation of jeen-yuhs, the Netflix documentary series released in 2022 and directed by filmmaking duo Coodie and Chike Ozah. That documentary leaned on decades of footage from Coodie, who began filming Ye in the late ’90s in Chicago. Coodie was there when Ye was just another young producer, eager to break into the spotlight. His camera caught studio sessions, label meetings, and everyday hangouts; it became a rare window into Ye’s transformation from underground beatmaker doing beats for Jay Z, releasing his debut album The College Dropout, and to one of the most influential figures in music.
Witnessing ‘Ye’
Ballesteros picks up where Coodie left off. He told Variety that Ye personally chose him in 2016 to record everything. The result is more than 3,000 hours of footage spanning nearly half a decade, offering an unflinching look into Ye’s inner world. Ballesteros admits he was young and inexperienced when Ye brought him on. “Spike Jonze and Werner Herzog were people that he had in consideration for it,” Ballesteros said. “But I don’t think this format could have existed without it being someone who was a kid. It required a level of naïveté and also availableness.”
That perspective shaped the project. Ballesteros followed Ye everywhere, often without checking the news coverage on him. His footage shows Ye unfiltered, not as a subject refracted through controversy, but as someone immersed in both music and personal turmoil. This means the camera was present at pivotal moments: Ye’s decision to wear a “White Lives Matter” shirt during Milan Fashion Week in 2022, Saturday Night Live star Michael Che wanting to punch him, and his divorce from Kardashian. Unlike jeen-yuhs, which felt like a long-form biography, In Whose Name operates like a raw diary, framed by someone who was both inside Ye’s circle and outside the media conversation.
The documentary presents a portrait of Ye that is not designed to resolve the contradictions around him, but to highlight them. Its arrival extends Ye’s complicated legacy of cultural dominance and controversy, while raising new questions about what it means to chronicle an artist who constantly blurs the line between performance and reality.
In Whose Name is now screening in North American theaters, though a streaming release has yet to be announced. Ye will be slated to perform in São Paulo on November 29.
