Blab Entertainment
Coodie Simmons Announces 3,000-Hour Hip-Hop Archive, Including Rare Ye Footage
On September 10, 2026, Coodie Simmons—best known as the director of Netflix’s 2022 documentary Jeen‑Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy—tapped into the collective memory of hip‑hop fans by announcing a sprawling archive that will soon be accessible through a relaunch of his website, Creativecontrol.tv. The collection, Simmons says, contains 546 hours of footage tied to Kanye West—often referred to as Ye—plus more than 3,000 hours of material covering Chicago’s music scene, fashion, lifestyle, and cultural moments from the 1990s to the present.
Simmons revealed the plan on AllHipHop, laughing that the archive would not be dropped all at once. "We’re not dropping all the footage at once," he noted. "We’re relaunching Creativecontrol.tv. But we do have 3,000 hour or more of footage," the filmmaker added. The staggered release model, he said, will allow viewers to digest the material over time and give the archive a dedicated home on the newly refreshed site.
The director’s relationship with Chicago’s music scene stretches back decades. He began filming for the local television program Channel Zero before moving on to music videos for Kanye West, including the 2004 video for "Through the Wire" and the 2005 video for "Jesus Walks." His collaboration with Chike Ozah produced the Jeen‑Yuhs series, which Netflix described as a five‑hour documentary assembled from hundreds of hours of raw footage. The new archive expands that legacy by offering an unprecedented breadth of content that spans more than a century of audio‑visual history.
Among the highlights are previously unseen clips of Ye and Kid Cudi working on the 2018 track "Ghost Town," a sequence that surfaced after the two artists performed together at Soldier Field. The archive also contains footage that captures a pre‑smartphone era—when most people did not carry cameras—providing a raw, authentic look at the evolution of hip‑hop culture in Chicago.
Industry observers see the archive as a potential goldmine for documentary filmmakers, researchers, and streaming platforms seeking genuine cultural material. With over 3,000 hours of footage—roughly 125 consecutive days of film—Simmons has amassed a resource that could inform future projects, academic studies, and content licensing deals. The sheer volume suggests that many moments that never made it into Jeen‑Yuhs or other releases are now available for exploration.
Simmons, who has earned Emmy and NAACP Image Award nominations for his work, has directed and produced music videos for artists such as Pitbull, Mos Def, and Lupe Fiasco. His website, Creativecontrol.tv, has served as a platform for his projects since the early 2010s, and the upcoming relaunch will consolidate his archive and future releases under one roof.
While Simmons has not yet set a definitive release schedule, he emphasized that the archive will be released incrementally. The relaunch of Creativecontrol.tv is expected to provide a dedicated space for the archive and for Simmons’ ongoing projects.
The announcement comes amid a renewed interest in Ye’s early career, sparked by the 2022 documentary and recent public performances. Fans and scholars alike are keen to see the additional footage that Simmons has collected over the years.
In short, Coodie Simmons is preparing to make a substantial archive of hip‑hop and Chicago culture—containing rare Ye footage—available through a relaunch of Creativecontrol.tv. With more than 3,000 hours of material set to be released gradually, the archive could become a valuable resource for future media projects and cultural research.
Simmons revealed the plan on AllHipHop, laughing that the archive would not be dropped all at once. "We’re not dropping all the footage at once," he noted. "We’re relaunching Creativecontrol.tv. But we do have 3,000 hour or more of footage," the filmmaker added. The staggered release model, he said, will allow viewers to digest the material over time and give the archive a dedicated home on the newly refreshed site.
The director’s relationship with Chicago’s music scene stretches back decades. He began filming for the local television program Channel Zero before moving on to music videos for Kanye West, including the 2004 video for "Through the Wire" and the 2005 video for "Jesus Walks." His collaboration with Chike Ozah produced the Jeen‑Yuhs series, which Netflix described as a five‑hour documentary assembled from hundreds of hours of raw footage. The new archive expands that legacy by offering an unprecedented breadth of content that spans more than a century of audio‑visual history.
Among the highlights are previously unseen clips of Ye and Kid Cudi working on the 2018 track "Ghost Town," a sequence that surfaced after the two artists performed together at Soldier Field. The archive also contains footage that captures a pre‑smartphone era—when most people did not carry cameras—providing a raw, authentic look at the evolution of hip‑hop culture in Chicago.
Industry observers see the archive as a potential goldmine for documentary filmmakers, researchers, and streaming platforms seeking genuine cultural material. With over 3,000 hours of footage—roughly 125 consecutive days of film—Simmons has amassed a resource that could inform future projects, academic studies, and content licensing deals. The sheer volume suggests that many moments that never made it into Jeen‑Yuhs or other releases are now available for exploration.
Simmons, who has earned Emmy and NAACP Image Award nominations for his work, has directed and produced music videos for artists such as Pitbull, Mos Def, and Lupe Fiasco. His website, Creativecontrol.tv, has served as a platform for his projects since the early 2010s, and the upcoming relaunch will consolidate his archive and future releases under one roof.
While Simmons has not yet set a definitive release schedule, he emphasized that the archive will be released incrementally. The relaunch of Creativecontrol.tv is expected to provide a dedicated space for the archive and for Simmons’ ongoing projects.
The announcement comes amid a renewed interest in Ye’s early career, sparked by the 2022 documentary and recent public performances. Fans and scholars alike are keen to see the additional footage that Simmons has collected over the years.
In short, Coodie Simmons is preparing to make a substantial archive of hip‑hop and Chicago culture—containing rare Ye footage—available through a relaunch of Creativecontrol.tv. With more than 3,000 hours of material set to be released gradually, the archive could become a valuable resource for future media projects and cultural research.
