The mother of rap star Kanye West has died at the age of 58 after cosmetic surgery developed complications.

Multiple reports indicate that Kanye's mum may have died as a result of complications from some sort of plastic surgery.

We all knew Kanye was close with Ma Dukes a.k.a. Dr. Donda West. The 30-year-old Kanye often spoke of his close relationship with his mother, who raised him alone after her husband left when Kanye was 3.

In the song "Hey Mama" on Late Registration, Kanye sang: "Hey Mama, I wanna scream so loud for you, cuz I'm so proud of you. I appreciate what you allowed for me, I just want you to be proud of me."

Donda not only raised Kanye as a single parent but was serving as CEO of West Brands LLC, the parent company of Kanye's business enterprises, and as chairwoman of the Kanye West Foundation, an educational nonprofit that works to decrease dropout rates and improve literacy.

Kanye told the Associated Press in August that he and his mother worked together to devise the foundation's first program, "Loop Dreams," which helps public school students get involved in music.

In May, Kanye's mum published the book Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Star.

She also had a life of her own as the former chairwoman of Chicago State University's English department. In fact, Donda West worked in higher education for 31 years, before leaving academia in 2004 to help manage her son's career.

OK, so here is where I play Devil's Advocate or perhaps Devil's Asshole...

I like Kanye. I like that he loves his mum and she parties with him and stuff. But for 54 years when she was doing her thing, Kanye's mum was was OK. She gets involved with her son's career, she's in the limelight with him, on stage, at parties, etc. Kanye's writing partner, Rhymefest, confirmed Donda's death on Chicago radio station 107.5 WGCI, and called her a "mother for the community and a mother for one of Chicago's greatest heroes. She was everyones mom."

So let me ask you this: Does Donda get plastic surgery if Kanye doesn't become famous?

Does Donda give a fuck about a face-lift if she's still teaching at Chicago State?

Does Donda care about vanity if she's not turning up in Page Six now and then with her son?

Yikes, this is starting to sound like a Jack Chick tract that you find on the subway. I think its a tragic story but I feel like its somehow an awful side effect of new found celebrity. In fact, it's the first thing I thought of when I heard the news.

Who do we blame? Personally, I blame the Devil.





*Update 4PM: The beastly TMZ has learned Donda West, Kanye's mom, may have died as a result of a "combined procedure."

I guess a few weeks before Donda West died, a plastic surgeon refused to perform procedures on her because of a health condition that could have led to a heart attack. Apparently a Beverly Hills physician, Dr. Andre Aboolian, was set to perform a tummy tuck and breast reduction on Kanye's mom, but told her she needed to get clearance from an internist whom Dr. Aboolian recommended. We're told West never went to that doctor, and subsequently had the procedures performed by a different doctor or something.

Sources have confirmed that Donda West may have died either on the operating table or shortly after the procedure while in a recovery room. West was scheduled for cosmetic surgery and she had been booked at Le Palais Chantique in Century City, a posh, hotel-like recovery center. We're told West postponed the surgery and therefore never showed up at Chantique. There are two high-end recovery centers in L.A.; Chantique and Serenity in Santa Monica. TMZ has confirmed West was not taken to either facility this weekend. If the fatal mishap was the result of a cosmetic surgery procedure, the likelihood is that the complication arose either on the operating table or in the recovery room. The critical time things typically go wrong is the first two hours after the surgery.