Most artists could be said to fall into one of three categories: representing the time they are in, being highly influential to it, and standing outside of it. Kanye West has managed, over the course of the 2010s, to be all three. His rise and fall from grace embody much of the collective highs and lows, anxieties and fears, and fixations and obsessions in a way few individuals ever have.

For Kanye, the 2010s started at a low point. His 808s and Heartbreaks album had divided his fanbase during the autotune wars, and started the concept of the “old Kanye.” His MTV stage crashing brought widespread condemnation, including from President Obama, and his appearance at fashion week with his entourage of dandies was widely mocked. Kanye responded to this by returning to the studio in Hawaii to work on what many would consider to be his magnum opus.

In 2010, beyond the burgeoning trap scene in Atlanta, the state of rap was at an all time low point as the ascendent stars of tomorrow had yet to fully rise. In the fall of that year, after a string of excitement building G.O.O.D. Fridays, he released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, an album of maximalist sentiment, packed with features, samples, overt emotions, and dense soundscapes. It will likely be Kanye’s most critically lauded album, receiving rave reviews at the time, recently being selected as the second best album of the decade by Pitchfork, and album of the decade by Billboard.

The next year Kanye followed this success with the Jay-Z collaboration, Watch the Throne, which took the decadence of MBDTF and turned it to 11. The album was recorded in the suites of some of the world’s most expensive hotels. The lead single “Otis’” music video featured the destruction of Maybach. Whereas MBDTF was about the bittersweetness of excess, Watch the Throne was mostly about how much fun it was at the top, numbing the pain with the finest champagne and softest furs.

While there are certainly some poignant ruminations on what it means to be black in America, Watch the Throne serves mostly as a canticle for the successful merger of hip-hop and the mythology of capitalism. Still, its tour will forever be legendary, at least for everyone who wasn’t too broke to see it.

In 2012, he continued his reign with Cruel Summer, a G.O.O.D. music album, that, like most label compilations, was a mixed bag, but is notable for inclusion of Travis Scott (nee Travi$), as a regular collaborator and future family member. That same year, Kanye started dating Kim Kardashian, creating a nucleolus of public attention for the rest of the decade. Around this time he also became a mainstay of Twitter, which, in all seriousness, he was very good at, especially when tweeting about water bottles.

During this time, Kanye signalled a transition towards fashion. His infamous leather jogging pants line aside, he spoke continually about the industry gatekeeping he and his partner Virgil Abloh faced, turning his discontent to outright hostility on the aggressive, industrial inspired Yeezus. With production from formerly DIY electro producers Evian Christ and Arca, Yeezus feels like a $3000 Rick Owens leather jacket paired with army surplus combat boots. Another critical darling, Yeezus was also somewhat divisive amongst his fans. Yet, along with 808s, it tracks as his most ambitious album to date.

In 2015, Kanye launched his fashion line, Yeezy. The clothes, mostly plain basics with workwear and athletic origins, were less successful than the Yeezy sneaker, which quickly reached internet resellers at upwards of $1000 a pair, but it didn’t matter. Kanye had climbed to the top of the streetwear pile, and brought Adidas with him. With Kanye however, this merchandise transcended his fanbase, and instead because representative of an era.

Suddenly the chain was complete. The ever rising importance of celebrity had reached a new level: Kanye could tweet when he felt like it, or disappear; Kim and Kylie could provide 24-hour access to their lives; and the Yeezys created their own global mania of have and have nots. Kanye and Kim essentially became brands personified.

The next year, Kanye released The Life of Pablo, coinciding with his second Yeezy collection’s fashion show. Pablo became notable as one of the first releases to get edited after it was released, like a piece of software, with different mixes, verses, and even songs. It features Kanye at his best with touch points from his whole career, from the sample-heavy early days of College Dropout on songs like “No More Parties in L.A.,” the decadent brashness of MBDTF and WTT on “Famous,” the introspection of 808s on “FML,” and the caustic, electronic antagonism of Yeezus on “Freestyle 4.” It was also one of Kanye’s most self-aware works, featuring the hilariously ironic “I Love Kanye,” and the inward-looking “30 Hours.”

Depending on your mileage, Kanye had now put four essential rap albums in the decade, all while branching out in street wear to huge success. That fall he started the Life of Pablo Tour, which fairly quickly derailed itself with particularly long onstage rants and cancellations, resulting in Kanye’s hospitalization for exhaustion-related psychosis in November of 2016. Shortly after this, he appeared at Trump Tower, meeting with the new president-elect. After this, he mostly disappeared from public life for the next year.

In the spring of 2018, Kanye reappeared on Twitter and announced he would be releasing several albums from his Wyoming sessions, where he had been recording during his hiatus from public life. He also started publicly supporting Donald Trump, donning a MAGA hat, and  supporting alt-right personalities like Candice Owens. An appearance at TMZ confirmed many Kanye fans’ worst fears, as he made strange and ill-advised comments about the role of slavery in contemporary black mentality.

The response to the Wyoming albums was mixed. While his collaboration with Kid Cudi was mostly praised, Ye, was largely panned. Kanye had quite quickly gone from the most beloved of rap’s stars, to a target of the woke generation’s ire.

Kanye had always been a provocateur, though seemingly he had picked the wrong side at this point. Old friends distanced themselves, and the public felt some mix of outrage, misanthropy, and ambivalence about him. In some ways, it seemed just another casualty of the Trump presidency, and its taint upon western culture.

This fall, Kanye started a new project called Sunday Sermons, where he performed classic songs with a gospel choir. Seemingly the vitriol had inspired him to find God, through music, producing sometimes truly beautiful renditions of his classic songs. It wasn’t long until Kanye officially found Jesus, released a middlingly gospel record, and moved to Wyoming, as if completing the latest step of rockstar passage.

While many are skeptical and see this as his latest scam, it’s in some ways easy to identify with his motivations. The last decade has been amongst the most plugged in, noisiest, and politically volatile. Kanye is not alone in feeling a bit spiritually bankrupt. Yet, despite his many recent missteps, his intuition is correct. Maybe what we all need is some time in nature, and to let the music save us.