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4<title>The Kanye Story</title><meta name="description" content="From lying in bed with zero ideas to negotiating with the biggest superstar on planet earth."><link rel="canonical" href="https://thekanyestory.com"><meta property="og:description" content="From lying in bed with zero ideas to negotiating with the biggest superstar on planet earth."><meta property="og:image" content="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/splash.jpg"><meta property="og:image:height" content="543"><meta property="og:image:width" content="1000"><meta property="og:site_name" content="The Kanye Story"><meta property="og:title" content="The Kanye Story"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:url" content="https://thekanyestory.com"><meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"><meta name="twitter:description" content="From lying in bed with zero ideas to negotiating with the biggest superstar on planet earth."><meta name="twitter:image" content="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/splash.jpg"><meta name="twitter:site" content="@harrydry"><meta name="twitter:title" content="The Kanye Story"><body><div class="leftmenu"><div class="leftmenu__item lm001"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">01</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Idea</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm002"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">02</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Viral</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm003"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">03</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Coding</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm004"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">04</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Launch</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm005"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">05</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Reborn</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm006"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">06</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Billboards</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm007"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">07</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Yeezy</span></div></div><div class="mobileMenuOuter"><div class="mobileMenuOpen"><div class="mobileMenuOpen__svgadd"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 5<svg width="11px" height="11px" viewBox="0 0 12 12" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> 6 <!-- Generator: Sketch 52.4 (67378) - http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch --> 7 <title>Path</title> 8 <desc>Created with Sketch.</desc> 9 <g id="Page-1" stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> 10 <g id="icon-add" fill="#FFFFFF"> 11 <path d="M11,5 C11.5522847,5 12,5.44771525 12,6 C12,6.55228475 11.5522847,7 11,7 L7,7 L7,11 C7,11.5522847 6.55228475,12 6,12 C5.44771525,12 5,11.5522847 5,11 L5,7 L1,7 C0.44771525,7 0,6.55228475 0,6 C0,5.44771525 0.44771525,5 1,5 L5,5 L5,1 C5,0.44771525 5.44771525,0 6,0 C6.55228475,0 7,0.44771525 7,1 L7,5 L11,5 Z" id="Path"></path> 12 </g> 13 </g> 14</svg></div><div class="mobileMenuOpen__svgsubtract"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 15<svg width="11px" height="2px" viewBox="0 0 11 2" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> 16 <!-- Generator: Sketch 52.4 (67378) - http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch --> 17 <title>Path</title> 18 <desc>Created with Sketch.</desc> 19 <g id="kanyestory" stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> 20 <g id="Mobile" transform="translate(-359.000000, -10.000000)" fill="#FFFFFF"> 21 <path d="M369.083333,10 C369.589594,10 370,10.4104056 370,10.9166667 C370,11.4229277 369.589594,11.8333333 369.083333,11.8333333 L365.416667,11.8333333 C365.143063,11.8333333 364.837507,11.8333333 364.5,11.8333333 C364.162493,11.8333333 363.856937,11.8333333 363.583333,11.8333333 L359.916667,11.8333333 C359.410406,11.8333333 359,11.4229277 359,10.9166667 C359,10.4104056 359.410406,10 359.916667,10 L363.583333,10 L364.5,10 L365.416667,10 L369.083333,10 Z" id="Path"></path> 22 </g> 23 </g> 24</svg></div></div></div><div class="mobilemenu"><div class="mobilemenu__inner"><div class="leftmenu__item lm001"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">01</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Idea</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm002"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">02</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Viral</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm003"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">03</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Coding</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm004"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">04</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Launch</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm005"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">05</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Reborn</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm006"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">06</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Billboards</span></div><div class="leftmenu__item lm007"><span class="leftmenu__item-num">07</span><span class="leftmenu__item-text">Yeezy</span></div></div><div class="mobilemenu__bottom"><a class="mobilemenu__bottom-right" href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=harrydry" target="_blank"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 25<svg width="25px" viewBox="0 0 49 41" class="twitterSVG" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> 26 <defs></defs> 27 <g id="Page-1" stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> 28 <g id="social_twitter_fill" fill="#fff"> 29 <path d="M15.40952,40.6279381 C33.90016,40.6279381 44.01376,24.9959381 44.01376,11.4399381 C44.01376,10.9959381 44.01376,10.5539381 43.98436,10.1139381 C45.9518695,8.66175977 47.6502567,6.86369685 49,4.80393806 C47.165203,5.63354161 45.2188254,6.17759536 43.22584,6.41793806 C45.3244982,5.13590218 46.8952021,3.11948203 47.64564,0.743938063 C45.6722287,1.93884869 43.5132664,2.7809621 41.26192,3.23393806 C38.1456822,-0.14727338 33.1940099,-0.974836769 29.1835166,1.21529792 C25.1730232,3.40543261 23.101099,8.06858952 24.12956,12.5899381 C16.0463156,12.1764371 8.51517253,8.28058461 3.4104,1.87193806 C0.742100602,6.55922752 2.10501625,12.555657 6.52288,15.5659381 C4.92301275,15.5175532 3.35802757,15.0771644 1.96,14.2819381 L1.96,14.4119381 C1.96130954,19.295124 5.33463292,23.5010084 10.0254,24.4679381 C8.54534441,24.8798182 6.99245795,24.9400267 5.48604,24.6439381 C6.80305794,28.8227837 10.5772861,31.6855058 14.8783
296,31.7679381 C11.3184807,34.6228019 6.92087664,36.1725935 2.39316,36.1679381 C1.59329099,36.1663712 0.794199968,36.116953 0,36.0199381 C4.59744646,39.0304912 9.94683027,40.6273719 15.40952,40.6199381" id="Shape"></path> 30 </g> 31 </g></a></div></div><div class="fresh"><img class="fresh__img1" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/ye.jpg" alt="The Kanye Story: By Harry Dry"><img class="fresh__img2" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/harry1.png" alt="Harry 1"><img class="fresh__img1Mob" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/harryMob1.png" alt="Harry 3"><img class="fresh__img2Mob" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/harryMob2.png" alt="Harry 3"><img class="fresh__img3Mob" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/harryMob3.png" alt="Harry 3"></div><div class="divider divider__01 roDivider"><div class="divider__textIntro">From lying in bed with zero ideas to negotiating with the biggest superstar on planet earth.</div><video class="divider__gif divider__gif-01" src="" playsinline="playsinline" loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay" poster="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/introPoster.jpg"></video></div><div class="outer"><p>Itâs Friday night, 1 am. Iâm lying in bed scrolling twitter. Reading the usual shit. Getting my dopamine fix. âThe Backstreet boys are back with a brand new soundâ. Yeah, whatever. I read another headline. Then another. âThereâs a dating site for straight Trump supportersâ. The mobâs getting angry. As youâd imagine the media are loving it. Itâs the perfect fodder to pump to the masses.</p><img class="normalWidth " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/trumpDating.jpg" alt="Trump Flaking"/><p>But forget Donald Trump. There's something here. Free audience. Free attention. Embrace the controversy. <a href="https://marketingexamples.com/referral/tesla-marketing-strategy" target="_blank">Elon Musk</a> sold flamethrowers and made a million. Supreme sold bricks and made a million. Youâve got to think like the little kid who hasnât had his imagination beaten out of him. Companies splash thousands on âgrowth hackingâ goon squads but having one mind like Bart Simpson on your team is more valuable.</p><img class="normalWidth specImg75" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/bart1.png" alt="Tesla Flamethrower"/><p>I jump out of bed and start writing down ideas. Dating is a good starting spot. Itâs funny and simple. Now I just need something controversial. Brexit Dating, Harry Potter Dating, Kanye West Dating. Yes Kanye West, Iâm a fan. I know the audience. How about â KanyeWestDating.com. Doesn't pop. Maybe Yeezy.Dating. Bingo! Add to Basket.</p></div><div class="divider divider__02 regDivider"><div class="divider__container"><div class="divider__container-num">02</div><div class="divider__container-text">Viral</div></div><video class="divider__gif divider__gif-02" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/steve/steve__02.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay"></video></div><div class="outer"><p>I wake up late the next morning and cook some eggs. I want to start building the dating site, but letâs be realistic. The chances are no-one will use it and Iâll end up spending 3 months locked in my bedroom, deprived of sunlight, going insane.</p><p>So, instead, I open up Instagram, change my username from @harrydry to @yeezydating, delete my old posts and upload a picture with the caption âYeezy.Dating â Coming this Marchâ. Bamn. Weâre cooking.</p><img class="normalWidth specImg70" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/ram.png" alt="Yeezy Dating Instagram"/><p>Then I make a simple âComing Soonâ landing page with an email box. I add the line âTaylor Swift fans are banned from this website ðâ. Itâs purely a platonic gesture but it gives the media a headline to have some fun with.</p><p>Next I post on the Kanye West subreddit. To my surprise the post gets 200 upvotes within the first hour. This gives me ammo to fire at bloggers with. Iâm no longer just âsome guyâ trying to shill his dating app. Reddit is my proof that this is a movement. Iâve got the backing of the people.</p><img class="normalWidth specImg90" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/test7Mob.png" alt="Landing Page"/><p>Time to build my blogger hit list. I donât really know what Iâm doing so I start googling. 10 minutes later I come across this website called Buzzstream Discovery.</p><p>Turns out Iâve hit the jackpot. Buzzstream is amazing. You enter a search term and it spits back the names of all the bloggers who have written stories about that search term. So I enter âKanye Westâ, filter âwithin the last 30 daysâ and Buzzstream gives me a list of all 440 bloggers who have written stories about Kanye West over the last month. These bloggers are my perfect audience. Itâs their job to pump out, simple, funny, digestible stories about Kanye West and Iâm about to spoon feed them a classic.</p><img class="normalWidth disIMG " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/dis.png" alt="Buzzstream Discovery"/><p>Getting the names is only half the battle though. Iâve also got to get email addresses. I find this website called Hunter.io where you type the name of any company and it tells you the correct email format which that company uses. Four hours later 220 emails are locked away in an excel doc.</p><img class="normalWidth hunterIMG " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/hunter.png" alt="Hunter"/><p>I type up the following message:</p><div class="inwardSpeech">Hey, I just made a dating site for Kanye fans called<a class="link" href="https://yeezy.dating" target="_blank" className="link"> Yeezy.Dating</a>. Going crazy on<a class="link" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Kanye/comments/82ycld/yeezydating_dating_site_for_kanye_west_fans/" target="_blank" className="link"> Reddit </a>atm. Any questions please let me know :)</div><p>wack on my headphones, and play through Kanyeâs whole discography, whilst I send email after email after email after email after email. Go to sleep, wake up, and then I'm back commuting into London for a day's work.</p><img class="normalWidth specImg80" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/excel.png" alt="Excel"/><p>My phone rings during a meeting. I turn it to silent. It rings again. I turn it off. As s
31oon as I get out of the meeting I check the database. 9,100 email addressâ. Surely this can't be real. I click refresh. Now 9,109. My mind freezes. I type Kanye's name into google and Yeezy Dating is everywhere. I check analytics. 250 people online. 65 unread emails. Then lunch break is over and Iâm being called back in for another meeting.</p><video class="normalWidth normalWidth__video" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/drake.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" preload="auto" poster="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/poster4.jpg" controls="controls"></video><p>Itâs 10pm when I arrive back from work. The press momentum is still rolling on. It feels good to know that my big plan worked. 25 news anchors coast to coast are discussing my imaginery dating site and Iâm just in my bedroom, in my pyjamas with an old Macbook pro making the whole thing up as I go along. I start a big Yeezy Dating group chat, and invite everyone from my email list.</p><video class="normalWidth normalWidth__video" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/abcVideo.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" preload="auto" poster="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/poster2.jpg" controls="controls"></video><p>7:40 am the next day and I get a text from my pal saying, âTune into BBC Radio 1. Theyâre talking about Yeezy Dating right now and they want to speak to youâ. Guess where I am? On a two hour train from Portsmouth to London for another day of meetings. I try and dial into Radio 1 but thereâs no signal. Iâm cooped up on this train carriage and Iâm stressing out. The database has over 13,000 emails now. Iâve told the media the dating site is âComing This Marchâ, its now 17th March and I havenât written a line of code. And to top it all off, Iâve got no idea how to make a dating site.</p><div class="half"><img class="half__img" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/whatsapp.png" alt="Whats App"/><video class="half__video" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/radio1.mp4" poster="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/poster1.jpg" controls="true" preload="auto" playsinline="playsinline"></video></div><p>I get back that evening, call my boss and tell him that Iâm going to be out of action for a few months. He asks why. So I tell him I'll be making a dating site for Kanye West fans. He bursts out laughing, wishes me luck and thatâs that. I'm a free man.</p></div><div class="divider divider__03 regDivider"><div class="divider__container"><div class="divider__container-num">03</div><div class="divider__container-text">Coding</div></div><div class="divider__dual"><video class="divider__dual-gif divider__gif-03" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/steve/steve__03.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay"></video><video class="divider__dual-gif" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/steve/steve__03.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay"></video></div></div><div class="outer"><p>Itâs time to build a dating site. First things first I scout other dating sites looking for something I can copy. The whole Tinder / Bumble swiping thing is too complex. I find a Jewish Dating site called J Date which looks promising. All user profiles are displaying on one long infinite scroll page. A few months earlier I did Wes Bosâ âLearn Nodeâ course where he does a similar thing with restaurants. I start merging J Date with some lessons from Wesâ course and I'm up and running.</p><img class="normalWidth " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/jdate.jpg" alt="Connecting Things"/><p>At this point, there isnât much to tell you. Thereâs no secret ingredient. Just long days laying bricks. 10 months ago I hadnât written a line of code before and it was too hard. One week into Yeezy Dating itâs still too hard. Webpack is a mess and I donât know how to save geoJSON data. Boo-hoo. Nobody cares. I don't care. Figure it out. Everyone else figured it out.</p><img class="normalWidth specImg75" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/todos.jpg" alt="Connecting Things"/><p>I write I AM HARRY DRY on a sheet of paper, buy some Blu Tack and pin it to my wall. Every time I get stuck I look up at the words and snarl. Itâs Street Fighter II. Iâm coding like Diego Costa plays football. No technique. No Barcelona academy. Rampaging from obstacle to obstacle.</p><video class="normalWidth normalWidth__video" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/81degrees.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" preload="auto" poster="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/degoPoster.jpg" controls="controls"></video><p>Problem after Problem. Forum after forum. I'm becoming the most hated man on Stack Overflow. And I'm lov
31ing every second of it.</p></div><div class="divider divider__04 regDivider"><div class="divider__container"><div class="divider__container-num">04</div><div class="divider__container-text">Launch</div></div><video class="divider__gif divider__gif-04" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/steve/steve__04.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay"></video></div><div class="outer"><p>I wake up one fine spring morning and itâs all done. Iâm a couple of weeks late, but thatâs ok. I fix the final bug from the lab at 3 pm and post on Instagram to build some hype.</p><p>Then I cycle to town and walk into Vodafone. I tell the store manager Iâm âjust browsingâ whilst I test the site on all their different devices. iPhoneâs are zooming in on my input fields and itâs looking wierd. Damn. I pitch up in Starbucks next door, grab a croissant, and start googling. Turns out my font size needs to be 16px on iOS to the stop auto zoom. I head back into Vodafone, âmore browsingâ I tell the store manager, and the problems solved. Happy Days.</p><p>The Yeezy Dating group chat still has a buzz about it. Several hundred messages a day. Theyâre like my army of ultra fans. My plan is to launch with them first to test the site works. Iâm back at home, dotting i's crossing tâs. Suddenly I have 10 mentions in Telegram. The ultras have found the site and have started making profiles.</p><img class="normalWidth " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/launch1.png" alt="Launch"/><p>10 profiles are up. Now 20. Now 30. Shit. Itâs happening. Beautiful profile photos appearing up on my screen. Real people are on the site. Real people are matching each other. Real people are messaging. Itâs working. And I made all of this! Hahaha. Look at me go. I post on Instagram saying that Yeezy.Dating is open for business. Suddenly 200 people flood to the site.</p><p>Now, legend says that the fisherman on shore only sees a tsunami a couple of seconds before it hits.</p><p>Capow! Left, right, center, profile images start disappearing. 5 pictures vanishing every second. I refresh the page, images disappearing everywhere. Time slows down. I canât think straight. 3 minutes later the site is stripped bare. 350 profiles. No images. I load up Heroku. 6,700 critical errors. Dad potters in from the kitchen to see how the big launch is going. Not great I tell him.</p><video class="normalWidth normalWidth__video" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/federer.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" preload="auto" poster="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/federerPoster.png" controls="controls"></video><p>I woke up Steve Jobs. I'm ending the day Steve Harvey. The site's properly crashed now. Iâm trying to put out fires everywhere but nothingâs working. I canât do this anymore. I apologise to my followers on Instagram, I apologise to the ultras on Telegram, and I fall into bed.</p></div><div class="plug"><div class="plug__inner"><p>Sorry to break the flow but if youâre enjoying the story Iâd really appreciate it if you subscribed to my <span class="ss">email newsletter</span>. I write about startups, marketing, the simulation and my man Tyson Fury. Just enter your email and tick the checkbox below:</p><div class="plug__inner-notvalid pinv1">Email not valid. Try again!</div><div class="plug__inner-form"><input class="plug__inner-input pii1" placeholder="[email protected]" name="email" type="email"><div class="plug__inner-submitted pis1">Thank You! ð</div><div class="mailCheck mc1"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 32<svg class="mailCheckSVG" viewBox="0 0 28 28" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> 33 <g id="Page-1" stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> 34 <g id="Desktop" transform="translate(-706.000000, -313.000000)" fill="" fill-rule="nonzero"> 35 <path d="M710.274275,337.070081 C706.634974,333.555082 705.175426,328.349899 706.45661,323.455149 C707.737794,318.560398 711.560328,314.737816 716.455018,313.456616 C721.349707,312.175416 726.554825,313.634982 730.06978,317.274328 C735.375258,322.767564 735.299382,331.499337 729.899244,336.899543 C724.499106,342.299749 715.767442,342.375625 710.274275,337.070081 Z M728.095829,335.096106 C732.472024,330.719856 732.472024,323.624553 728.095829,319.248304 C723.719634,314.872054 716.624421,314.872054 712.248226,319.248304 C707.872031,323.624553 707.872031,330.719856 712.248226,335.096106 C716.624421,339.472355 723.719634,339.472355 728.095829,335.096106 Z M715.552143,326.178217 L718.772062,329.412177 L724.791912,323.392252 L726.751863,325.380227 L718.772062,333.332128 L713.592192,328.152192 L715.552
35143,326.164217 L715.552143,326.178217 Z" id="Shape"></path> 36 </g> 37 </g> 38</svg></div></div><p>Anyway, distraction over! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.</p></div></div><div class="divider divider__05 regDivider"><div class="divider__container"><div class="divider__container-num">05</div><div class="divider__container-text">Reborn</div></div><video class="divider__gif divider__gif-05" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/steve/steve__05.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay"></video></div><div class="outer"><p>Next day I wake up and do nothing. Eat some cereal. Watch some Peep Show. Iâm still at a low ebb. I manage to write a post on the Indie Hackers forum explaining the site crashing and what went wrong with the images.</p><p>Quite remarkably developers start giving me their email address, offering me help. Iâm blown away by their generosity. Within 24 hours there are five pro developers from<a class="link" href="https://www.crowdform.co.uk" target="_blank" className="link"> Crowdform Digital Agency</a> digging through my code. Several changes later they give it the all clear. âGood luckâ, their lead dev texts me from Singapore.</p><p>A few days later Yeezy.Dating launches again. The feeling is different this time. The first time it felt like the biggest thing in my universe. This time around Iâve got perspective. There a bigger things in life. If it crashes, it crashes.</p><img class="normalWidth " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/live.png" alt="Emails"/><p>Testing with the ultras goes well so I start emailing my big list. 1,500 users join within 10 hours. 2,500 within 24 hours. Then 4,200. But growth is slowing. My intuition is telling me that the parties going to end soon. Whereâs the next 4,000 coming from?</p><p>Thereâs no marketing budget, no development team, itâs just me. Replying to all the emails, fixing all the bugs, trying to keep the momentum up and Iâm tired. We need an app. Iâm not an app developer. We need ten thousand users for dating to work. I don't know how to get ten thousand more users. The novelty is starting to wear off. Iâm thinking 5 moves ahead and I can see cheque mate on the horizon.</p><p>Thereâs only one way out the water tank. I've got to get Kanye West involved.</p></div><div class="divider divider__06 regDivider"><div class="divider__container"><div class="divider__container-num">06</div><div class="divider__container-text">Billboards</div></div><div class="divider__dual"><video class="divider__dual-gif divider__gif-06" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/steve/steve__06.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay"></video><video class="divider__dual-gif" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/steve/steve__06.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay"></video></div></div><div class="outer"><p>So Iâm back in the lab. Emailing away. Managers, ex-managers, stylists, PR relations, anyone who has ever worked for YEEZY on Linkedin. But nothing. No replies. I canât get through.</p><p>I ask my Dad for advice. âYouâve got to think on a bigger scale sonâ, he tells me. So now Iâm thinking what if I make a video, or a mixtape, or a magazine or a painting, or I rent a plane and fly a banner. Then it hits me. Iâm going to rent Billboards. YEEZY is opening offices in Calabasas, New York, London, Wyoming. Four locations. Four billboards.</p><p>Ten minutes later Iâm on the phone with Billboard companies. Quizzing them. Whatâs your pricing like? What type of Billboard would you recommend? How quickly can we do this? Whatâs the shortest time each Billboard can stay up for? And in my head, the billboards are already in the sky.</p><img class="normalWidth " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/table.png" alt="Billboard Table"/><p>But, the next day, I wake up with cold feet. Two halves of my mind in deep discussion:</p><div class="speech speech__one">"Two months wages. On three billboards. Youâre crazy."</div><div class="speech">âDonât use money as an excuse. You know thatâs not the reason.â</div><div class="speech">âWhy donât I want to do it then?â</div><div class="speech">âCause youâre scared. Your afraid of what people might think.â</div><div class="speech">âBut â¦â</div><div class="speech speech__two">âNo, don't give me no buts. Relax your mind. You're not going to let the mob control you. Let's do it.â</div><p>So I draft my Dad onto the campaign team and it starts to come together. Heâs in his element. We take over my brother's bedroom and set up basecamp. Dad buys three alarm clocks, sets one to New York time, one to LA time and one to Wyoming time. âYouâve got to know y
38our timezone, son,â he tells me.</p><p>The sun goes down once more and now it's the day of the Billboards. I'm working like an Octopus, organising photographers, drafting emails, teeing up interviews and everything starts coming together. London. New York. Wyoming. All confirmed. Thereâs less than an hour to go, and suddenly WACK. 8:11 pm an email drops into my inbox from Lamar, the Billboard provider, and my head spins like Iâve walked onto Tyson Fury's right hand.</p><img class="normalWidth " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/lamar.png" alt="Lamar Cancel"/><p>Lamar's supposed to be covering both New York and Wyoming. Without them, Iâm left with just one Billboard in London and thatâs not enough. Iâm calling this whole thing off. The gameâs up. Itâs over. Iâm safe again. Lifeâs comfortable. No billboards. No problems.</p><p>I walk downstairs to show Dad the email. He looks up at me, smiles like itâs nothing, and says âDonât worry. Weâll find a wayâ. And maybe thatâs why you need a team because in that moment I wanted an excuse to give up but the old man wasnât blinking so we fought on.</p><p>Phone calls start flying everywhere. On one phone Iâm hammering the account manager. On the other Dadâs posing as a BBC journalist, throwing jab after jab at their legal department, âThe kid spent two days clearing this with intellectual property lawyersâ, âWeâve got a camera crew waiting outside Times Square as we speakâ.</p><p>Itâs 9 pm now. A wonderful soul called<a class="link" href="https://www.instagram.com/inkless.photography/" target="_blank" className="link"> Candice</a> is waiting in the New York rain eyes glued to the Billboard ready to take the photo, but she isnât going to wait all day.</p><p>Suddenly Dadâs beckoning me over. If we change, âKanye Westâ for âMr. Westâ the legal department will approve it. My gut tells me itâs good enough. I export the new text and send to the account manager in Times Square. 5 minutes later the Billboards are live. Candice takes the photo. It appears in my inbox. And I take a deep breath.</p><img class="normalWidth bamn1 " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/bamn1.jpg" alt="Times Square"/><p>Soon after, the Wyoming and London Billboardâs go up. I start attaching the photos to the drafts we prepped, sending out our emails, hoping to get lucky again.</p><img class="normalWidth bamn3 " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/bamn3.jpg" alt="Wyoming"/><p>A couple of stories start breaking, journalists start requesting interviews and back down into the depths of the Maelström we descend. The phone rings and rings and it could be anyone on the line. Iâm wished luck, sold insurance, thrown onto live radio, taunted by youths, offered jobs, reunited with old school friends.</p><video class="normalWidth normalWidth__video" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/drewandmike.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" preload="auto" poster="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/damPoster.jpg" controls="controls"></video><p>I check twitter. Kanye's name is trending. My heart jumps. Surely not. Have I made it? I click. My heart sinks. âKanye West has just said 400 years of slavery sounds like a choiceâ. And from there on in Iâm dead in the water. A tadpole in a shark tank. The media is at Kanye saturation. Journalists have bigger fish to fry and my little story is left on the shelf.</p><p>Ok, one last try. I track down Yeezy Headquarters on Google Maps, find the phone number of some office
38s nearby and start dialing. I start telling this receptionist about the dating site, about the Billboards, and I canât believe it but sheâs actually listening to me.</p><div class="speech speech__one">âFunnily enough my best friend A***** works at Yeezyâ</div><div class="speech">âIf I send you an email could you forward it on?â</div><div class="speech speech__two">âSureâ</div><p>And that's that. Now I can go to bed, wake up the next day and get on with my life.</p><p class="weeksLater">* * *</p><p>A few weeks pass and, lo and behold, an email from A****** drops into my inbox.</p><img class="normalWidth closerIMG " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/closer.png" alt="Email"/><p>And a few hours I get sent a screenshot from Kanye's office chat.</p><img class="normalWidth specImg60 " src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/iMessage2.png" alt="iMessage"/><p>I can't help but smile. After all my efforts emailing journalists, practicing for radio interviews, writing press releases, retouching images, all it took was a simple phone call to the company whose office was next door.</p></div><div class="divider divider__07 regDivider"><div class="divider__container"><div class="divider__container-num">07</div><div class="divider__container-text">Yeezy</div></div><video class="divider__gif divider__gif-07" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/steve/steve__07.mp4" playsinline="playsinline" loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay"></video></div><div class="outer"><p>And thatâs how we got to now. Itâs 9:52 pm, Thursday 24th May. In ten minutes time, Iâll be on the phone with the CFO of Kanye Westâs Billion Dollar company.</p><p>I remember sitting round with my uni housemates last year talking about what the future would hold for all of us. They were all saying, âIâm applying for a finance jobâ or âIâll do a masters â, stuff like that. And it came to me and I said, âIâm going to travel to Nazareth, learn to code, come back to England, finish my book, learn about business and start my own stuff.â</p><p>They were used to my spiel now and started groaning, âNone of this shit's going to happen Dry. The real worldâs going to chop you up and spit you out. You're going to be stuck in the rat race, clocking in, clocking off, packed onto the tube, just like all of us.â</p><p>I smiled. âTell me that againâ. So they did. âReality is going to grind you down. Youâre going to be clock watching, Monday to Friday. Thereâs nothing you can do about it. And you know it.â</p><p>âTell me that that one more timeâ, I said. So they did. And I smiled even more.</p><p>Iâm not saying Iâve done anything yet cause I havenât. But at least I've stuck to my word. I've tried and given it a go.</p></div><div class="plug endPlug"><div class="plug__inner"><p>Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. If you enjoyed it, it would really mean a lot if you retweeted the tweet below. I spent a while putting this together, so it would be nice if a few people read it:</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ð¥ Finally finished The Kanye Story!<br/><br/>It's a story about how I went from lying in bed with no ideas to negotiating with the biggest superstar on planet earth. Take a look ðð»<a href="https://t.co/7v6vPX55eM">https://t.co/7v6vPX55eM</a></p>â Harry Dry (@harrydry)<a href="https://twitter.com/harrydry/status/1111654068961849346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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38<p>I have an email newsletter where I write about startups, marketing, the simulation and my man Tyson Fury.</p><div class="plug__inner-notvalid pinv2">Email not valid. Try again.</div><div class="plug__inner-form"><input class="plug__inner-input pii2" placeholder="[email protected]" name="email" type="email"/><div class="plug__inner-submitted pis2">Thank You! ð</div><div class="mailCheck mc2"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 39<svg class="mailCheckSVG" viewBox="0 0 28 28" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> 40 <g id="Page-1" stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> 41 <g id="Desktop" transform="translate(-706.000000, -313.000000)" fill="" fill-rule="nonzero"> 42 <path d="M710.274275,337.070081 C706.634974,333.555082 705.175426,328.349899 706.45661,323.455149 C707.737794,318.560398 711.560328,314.737816 716.455018,313.456616 C721.349707,312.175416 726.554825,313.634982 730.06978,317.274328 C735.375258,322.767564 735.299382,331.499337 729.899244,336.899543 C724.499106,342.299749 715.767442,342.375625 710.274275,337.070081 Z M728.095829,335.096106 C732.472024,330.719856 732.472024,323.624553 728.095829,319.248304 C723.719634,314.872054 716.624421,314.872054 712.248226,319.248304 C707.872031,323.624553 707.872031,330.719856 712.248226,335.096106 C716.624421,339.472355 723.719634,339.472355 728.095829,335.096106 Z M715.552143,326.178217 L718.772062,329.412177 L724.791912,323.392252 L726.751863,325.380227 L718.772062,333.332128 L713.592192,328.152192 L715.552143,326.164217 L715.552143,326.178217 Z" id="Shape"></path> 43 </g> 44 </g> 45</svg></div></div><p>And finally, if you're into marketing I currently run two sites called <a class="ss" href="https://marketingexamples.com" target="_blank">Marketing Examples</a> and <a class="ss" href="https://marketingexamples.com/inspiration" target="_blank">Copywriting Examples</a> which you might enjoy.</p><p>Thanks again and peace out.</p></div></div>
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