Rhymefest (born July 6, 1977) is an American hip hop artist, philanthropist, and politician from Chicago, Illinois whose first official album, Blue Collar, was released on July 11, 2006. His prominent songwriting credits include co–writing Kanye West's "Jesus Walks", which won the Grammy for Best Rap Song at the 47th Grammy Awards, "New Slaves" taken from West's sixth studio album Yeezus (2013) and "Glory", which received the 2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the 2015 Academy Award for Best Original Song. 　　Rhymefest started off battle rapping at events such as JumpOff and ScribbleJam against acts like Eminem and Chalk. Rhymefest was seen on the MTV show Punk'd when Kanye West was the subject of a practical joke on the set of his second music video for "Jesus Walks." Rhymefest was the first to greet West as he stepped out of a van after it had been revealed to him that he had just been "Punk'd." Rhymefest was on the set of the video to give his input as he was co writing the track. Also appeared on TRL along with Kanye West and other stars introducing new artists to the game such as Pharrell Williams introducing Robin Thicke. 　　Rhymefest was also featured heavily on the episode of the VH1 show Driven that dealt with the life story of Kanye West as told by his family, friends and colleagues. They met as 15-year-olds in Chicago and have been close friends ever since. 　　Rhymefest guest starred in an episode of the second season of Nick Cannon's Wild 'N Out on MTV, originally aired on Thursday, February 23, 2006. During the "Wildstyle" segment of the show, Fest freestyled to Nick Cannon, "The black team, a real hard team to deal with, what the hell is this? A little baby Will Smith? I don't understand, by all accounts, Nick Cannon, get out of here, you need to Roll... Bounce!" After that, in response to a rap about his lisp, he rapped, "Yeah I got a lisp, I understand this, but why you look like a piece of big Suge Knight's shit? I don't understand, wait a minute, don't buzz me, Celie from The Color Purple, 'You sho is ugly!'" He also performed "Brand New" with Kanye West on the episode. 　　"Brand New" was featured on the series premiere of the MTV program 8th & Ocean. It was being played in the Miami club Privé while Britt danced with Adrian. 　　Fest appeared on Chicago PBS station's local affairs program Chicago Tonight as the first rap artist ever on the program. 　　Appears in puppet form and performs the new Crank Yankers theme song. 　　Appeared on an episode of Chancers with Matthew Knowles. 　　Appeared on an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly, where he performed his single "Fever". Instead of reciting the third verse, he broke into a freestyle about Carson and people in the audience. 　　Rhymefest appeared as a guest on WGN and CLTV's television show, Garrard McClendon LIVE. He had 3 appearances on the show, discussing WalMart's hiring of Blacks, his Englewood campaign for alderman, and his rap career. 　　In 2015, Smith co-wrote "Glory" alongside John Legend and Common, for the 2014 motion picture Selma. The song received the 2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the 2015 Academy Award for Best Original Song.