Ever since Ye broke out on his scene, his romances have been in the public eye \u2013 mainly because he’s used them as inspiration for some of his biggest songs. From rapping about his high school sweetheart on his landmark debut to having Amber Rose <\/strong><\/a>star in an unreleased music video to riding a motorcycle with Kim in “Bound 2,” Ye’s artistic vision has been motivated by his heart. So, who has this rapper called girlfriend?<\/p>\n How different the world would be had Kanye actually married Sumeke Rainey. <\/strong>When Ye was first starting out, he was still dating his high school girlfriend. Ye’s debut album, 2004’s The College Dropout<\/em>, sampled Marvin Gaye<\/strong>,\u00a0Curtis Mayfield<\/strong>,\u00a0Aretha Franklin<\/strong>, all records Sumeke’s father gave Ye.<\/p>\n “Kanye wasn’t a big old record collector like that,” Roc-A-Fella A&R Kyambo “Hip Hop” Joshua <\/strong>told Complex<\/a> <\/em>in 2014. “He didn’t have lots of old records. His girl’s father gave him a crate of records that a lot of [samples on the album] came from.” Sumeke’s voice is actually on the song “Get Em High,” and he makes reference to her on “Never Let Me Down” (“Nothing sad as that day my girl’s father passed away\/So I promised to Mr. Rainey I’m gonna marry your daughter.\u201d) It’s unclear when the relationship ended, but Late Registration’s<\/em>\u00a0“Touch The Sky<\/a>” hints that it fell apart due to infidelity.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Sumeke continues to be a very private person, as little is known publicly about her life post Kanye. Even her Instagram<\/a> is marked private.<\/p>\n In the early 2000s, Ye was involved with fashion designer Alexis Phifer<\/strong>, who enjoys showing off her latest projects on her Instagram<\/a>. The couple dated, on-and-off, from 2002 to 2008. Ye and Alexis even got engaged over a lobster and pasta dinner during an August 2006 vacation on Capri. However, after nearly two years together, the couple called off the engagement and went their separate ways. “It’s always sad when things like this end, and we remain friends,” Alexis told PEOPLE<\/a> <\/em>in April 2008. “I wish him the best in his future and all of his endeavors. He’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever met.” The breakup is said to be the primary inspiration for his November 2008 album, 808s & Heartbreak<\/em>.<\/p>\n Kanye and Alexis briefly broke up in 2004, and during that period apart, he struck up a romance with actress Brooke Crittendon<\/strong>. It was a brief love affair, and they split while he was working on Late Registration<\/em>. Brooke \u2013 who has starred in BET’s Harlem Heights <\/em>\u2013 discussed the effect of the relationship with Essence<\/a> <\/em>in 2020. “I was with a celebrity and had to live under his shadow, and the attention was on him. As a result, people put labels on me,” she said. “[I] had to live in the shadow of that’s ‘Kanye’s ex-girl. I’m so much bigger than that, and when I did try to use a platform, it was a total disaster.”<\/p>\n That “disaster” may have been when she slammed haters of her and Ye’s relationship on MySpace in 2006 (per Oh No They Didn’t!<\/a><\/em>). “I admit that I was young, hotheaded, and it might not have been the smartest thing to do at that time, but I’ve grown,” she told Essence.<\/em> “I know now to never discuss who I’m seeing with the public.” Now Brooke mostly keeps to her Instagram<\/a> posts.<\/p>\n For the longest time, Amber Rose was Kanye’s highest-profile ex-girlfriend. The two only dated for two years, from 2008 to 2010. Supposedly, Kanye saw Amber in Ludacris’ <\/strong>“What Them Girls Like” music video and reached out to her. “I was home in The Bronx, and he called me on my cellphone,” she told the New York Post<\/a> <\/em>in 2012. “I’d never met him before. He was like, ‘Hey, it’s Kanye.'” Amber thought it was a joke, but Ye convinced her he was legit and talked her into flying out to Los Angeles to star in his “Robocop” music video. The video was never released, but two struck up a friendship, and he invited her to the Grammys.<\/p>\n “We weren’t dating yet,” Amber told The Post. <\/em>“We were still just friends, and we had never kissed or anything. I was in the back with his family. I didn’t sit in the audience. We didn’t do the red carpet or anything like that. I’d never had anyone go out and buy me a really expensive outfit. When I told him I was an [exotic] dancer, he was like, ‘I don’t care if you’re a crackhead. I don’t care if you’re a prostitute. I just want to be with you.’ That’s what made me love him.”<\/p>\n Amber blamed the breakup on Kanye being a “typical rapper in the industry” and not being “faithful.” The split was far from amicable, with Kanye delivering his now-infamous line in a 2015 interview with The Breakfast Club<\/em>. “If Kim had dated me when I first wanted to be with her, there wouldn’t be an Amber Rose,” he said, per Complex<\/a>. <\/em>“It’s very hard for a woman to wanna be with someone that’s with Amber Rose. I had to take 30 showers before I got with Kim.”<\/p>\n The couple clashed afterward, including a high-profile 2016 Twitter feud that involved Wiz Khalifa<\/strong>. In 2020, Amber spoke out against Ye’s comments on the No Jumper <\/em>podcast. “I don’t want my life to be like that. I’m not that type of person. And I don’t know if he says things to make his wife [Kim Kardashian] more comfortable,” she said, per Cosmopolitan<\/a>,<\/em> “but to s***-shame me and say you needed 30 showers, like, bro, you took me around the world. Since when do you need 30 showers?… He has picked on me for ten years. He has bullied me for ten years.”<\/p>\n Amber has since gone on to welcome a son with Def Jam<\/a> record label executive A.E. Edwards<\/strong><\/a>, who has been linked with Cher<\/strong> more recently. Amber obviously loves her child, as she constantly gushes over him on her Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kim and Ye went public with their romance in 2012, welcomed their daughter North West <\/strong><\/a>in 2013, and got married in 2014. The couple, who welcomed three more children together<\/a>, weathered numerous storms throughout their time together<\/a>, including Ye’s failed presidential run, his multiple tweetstorms, and “bi-polar” episodes<\/a>. His last, where he appeared to burn all the bridges with his antisemitic rants, may have been the last straw for Kim. As seen on her Instagram<\/a>, she is living her best life, and has put herself out there in the dating world again<\/a>. So, as it turns out, had Kanye.<\/p>\n Ye was the first to start dating after Kim pulled the trigger on the divorce papers. He and Irina Shayk<\/a><\/strong> began a short romance in June 2021 at Kanye’s 44th birthday party in Paris. However, it was a literal summer fling, with the two of them splitting<\/a> in August 2021.<\/p>\n The two had known each other for a decade before. She appeared in his “Power” video in 2010, and modeled in his \u00a02012 Yeezy Paris Fashion Week show.<\/p>\n 2022 started off with a bang for Ye. He and actress Julia Fox met at a New Year’s Eve party<\/a> in Miami and struck up a brief romance after that. It was a whirlwind romance that lasted just six weeks, full of high-profile appearances<\/a> as Paris Fashion Week, the christening of the “Juliye<\/a>” couple’s name, and an Interview <\/em>magazine piece where Julia said she was “really surrendering<\/a>” to Ye. “For someone like me who’s such a control freak and always so used to taking care of myself, to just let go and be taken care of is foreign at this point in life.”<\/p>\n Spoiler alert: it didn’t last. Around the time that Ye started attacking<\/a> Kim’s new boyfriend, Pete Davidson<\/a><\/strong>, on social<\/a> media<\/a> (while turning his back<\/a> on his longtime collaborator, Kid Cudi<\/a>)<\/strong>, Julia decided to take back control. A rep for Julia told HollywoodLife <\/strong>on Feb. 14, 2022, that the two have ended things. “Julia and Kanye remain good friends and collaborators,” Julia’s rep said in a statement.<\/p>\n Just off the heels of his split with Julia, Ye sent rumors into overdrive when he started dating Kim lookalike, model Chaney Jones<\/strong>. The stunning resemblance<\/a> to the rapper’s ex-wife definitely made their four-month romance a striking, if familiar, experience for fans. The two began stepping out after Ye’s February breakup from Julia. And although they packed a lot into a few months, including a trip to Japan<\/a>, a rare metallic Burkin bag worth $275k,<\/a> and perhaps most notably, an understated “Ye” tattoo for Chaney<\/a> in May 2022.<\/p>\n But like Julia, the Chaney fling was destined to only last a short while, and the couple was reportedly already on the outs<\/a> by June 7.<\/p>\n Bianca is the “Famous” singer’s new lady in his life. She has worked at his company Yeezy as an architectural designer for several years. As mentioned, the pair exchanged vows in a secret wedding ceremony in December 2022.<\/p>\nSumeke Rainey<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kanye-West-Romantic-History-SS-embed-1.jpg?resize=620%2C902\")
Alexis Phifer<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kanye-West-Romantic-History-SS-ebed-2.jpg?resize=620%2C910\")
Brooke Crittendon<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kanye-West-Romantic-History-SS-embed-3.jpg?resize=620%2C924\")
Amber Rose<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kanye-West-Romantic-History-SS-embed-4.jpg?resize=620%2C710\")
Kim Kardashian<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kanye-West-Romantic-History-SS-embed-5.jpg?resize=620%2C740\")
Irina Shayk<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kanye-West-Romantic-History-BACKGRID-embed-6.jpg?resize=620%2C620\")
Julia Fox<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kanye-West-Romantic-History-SS-embed-7.jpg?resize=620%2C929\")
Chaney Jones<\/h2>\n
![\"Kanye](\"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/kanye-west-chaney-jones-post16901.jpg?resize=620%2C870\")
Bianca Censori<\/h2>\n