Most rappers peak once. An elite few peak twice: Dr. Dre in ’92 and ’99, 2Pac in ’93 and ’96, Biggie in ’94 and ’97, Eminem in ’00 and ’02, Lil’ Wayne in ’06 and ’08, to name five. Jay-Z peaked three times; in ’98, ’01 and ’03. Only Kanye has peaked four times, and it can be argued that each subsequent Kanye exceeded the preceding Kanye. It doesn’t mean that he is the best rapper of all time, or even, that he has superior longevity compared to his peers; Rather, Kanye’s multiple peaks show that he belongs to a few mini-generations that make up the larger post-’90s Golden era of hip-hop. In order to find Apex Kanye, I am breaking down his career in the twelve years since his debut album, into four different models.

Self-Aware Kanye (2004–2006)

Albums: The College Dropout in 2004; Late Registration in 2005.

This was backpack-rapper Kanye. The emotional, humbler, and soulful Kanye that the world was introduced to. After producing Izzo, Takeover, Heart of the City, and Never Change on Jay-Z’s 2001 album, The Blueprint, Kanye gained recognition as a producer who influenced the changing sound of hip-hop with his sped-up soul samples. Three years later, he followed a similar approach on his debut album, The College Dropout. While most producers turned rappers struck out with their first release, Dropout recieved universal acclaim from music critics. Hip-hop heads couldn’t resist the unprecedented themes of self-consciousness, materialism, religion, racism, and higher education, depicted in his lyrics. It was also a massive commercial success, still being his best-selling album to date, with 4 million sales worldwide, while winning the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The genre had never seen a middle-class, introspective take on the downside of the American Dream.

In the summer of 2005, West released the follow-up, Late Registration. Evolving his sound, he substituted the soul-backed beats of his first album, incorporating orchestra ensembles, while focusing on political themes such as: poverty, healthcare, drug trafficking, and the blood diamond trade. While asserting his commercial dominance with another multi-platinum release, he also struck gold with his first chart-topping single, Gold Digger. In hindsight, his second album was the last time we experienced a genuinely self-deprecating Kanye. While he still dabbles in the unpretentious themes of his personal life, post-Registration Kanye became too big of a star for the masses to find his self-effacing jargon believable.

Self-Assured Kanye (2007–2009)

Albums: Graduation in 2007; 808s and Heartbreak in 2008.

Graduation is Kanye’s pop-rap masterpiece. By 2007, he was less introverted, more egotistical, and instead of reaching for the rarefied air of the legends, he was rapping amongst them. At the time, this was Kanye at his most self-assured. Rather than focusing on family and keeping the introspective state of mind of his first two albums, he spoke about the place he was at, now. This place wasn’t a middle-class, backpack-rapper, vying for a spot, rather a rockstar that was rightfully sure of his status amongst the genre and pop culture. This was stadium-music. He once again transcended the current sound of hip-hop by incorporating electronic music, proving unequivocally that for the first time, he was ahead of his time. You have to think back to 2007 to remember that Wayne was still a year from his peak with Tha Carter III, Eminem and Jay-Z were the elder statesmen, and 50 Cent was arguably the biggest rapper in the game. Once he took 50 head on, in a much publicized sales battle, and came out doubling him in numbers, popularity, and bars, it wasn’t a question anymore; Kanye was king.

Written during an emotional haze after his mother’s death and a break-up with his girlfriend, 808s sounded painful. Backed by a minimalist sonic combination of electronic music and 808 drums, Kanye brought Auto-Tune to the forefront of the genre, focusing less on rapping, more on melody. At the time, the public saw it as his weakest album, while critics could foresee the artistic doors it would open for the genre. In retrospect, this could be Kanye’s most influential album. Every rapper that became big during the past decade used it as a template. The early sounds of Kid Cudi, Drake, the Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and Chance the Rapper were all modeled after the 808s blueprint.

Self-Indulgent Kanye (2010–2012)

Albums: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010; Watch the Throne with Jay-Z in 2011; Cruel Summer with Good Music in 2012.

In 2010, if you had to pick one celebrity to use the media’s negative onslaught, following a much dramatized award show moment that showed the public what an asshole said celebrity was, as motivation to prove how exceptional they were at their craft, how would you not choose Kanye? We had already seen him call out the POTUS on live TV four years prior. In 2009, calling out the golden-girl of the music industry, Taylor Swift, should’ve been taken with a grain of salt. Instead, in the early years of Facebook and Twitter’s monopolization of social media as an entertainment medium, the world lost all respect for West. You even had the current POTUS inserting his two cents, calling him a jackass on a talk-show. So of course this would turn into the narcissistic, Kanye, holing up for over a year while recording in Hawaii, keeping track of all of the slights, wishing death on the haters, and turning all of the negative energy stemming from his crushed ego, into his magnum opus. And that’s exactly what happened. MBDTF incorporated all of the elements that made his previous four albums classics, combining multiple genres of music and personalities, into an album about celebrity and idealism of the American Dream. The leadup to the album coninciding with his GOOD Friday releases, absence from the media, and rumors of recording camps in Hawaii, made the album release an event.

The following summer, Kanye and Jay-Z gave us Watch the Throne, maybe the most excessive, braggadocios, opulent, rap-album ever. The earlier dreams of being on mount olympus became reality. The so-called “Big Brother” was now his peer. Coming off MBDTF, this was Kanye making moves three steps ahead. You just release your magnum opus, obviously you turn around and make sure the follow-up is a collaboration with the most popular rapper of all time.

A year later, Kanye once again doubled down on his popularity, releasing the Good Music collaboration, Cruel Summer. The wave that began with his most dire moment at the VMAS, peaked with a mediocre offering. Yet, everything West touched was Gold; Every verse was deciphered, with his personal life at the forefront of pop culture. Cruel Summer may have been a complacent release in his discography, but it’s what is expected during an artist’s peak. He had the world by the throat, lonely at the top of hip-hop’s throne, for the first time lacking the motivation to prove anyone wrong.

Self-Righteous Kanye (2013–2016)

Albums: Yeezus in 2013; The Life of Pablo in 2016.

As if Kanye hadn’t broken down enough barriers with his previous releases, he shook the genre to its core with his 2013 release, Yeezus. Not only was this arguably West’s strongest political statement, it evolved the sound of hip-hop to never before seen outreaches. The album came across as complicated, confusing, and extremely sanctimonious. As if chasing the moniker of Yeezus wasn’t enough, he gave us his latest self-important, egotistical, track, I Am a God. He traded his earlier sounds of smooth soul, and pop hooks, for acid house and industrial grind. It wasn’t an easy record to listen to. It seemed like a montage of ideas, sounds, and lyrics, while coming across as sound bites that were left on the cutting room floor.

Post-Yeezus, Kanye seemed even more scatter-brained. As early as 2014, West released the title of his upcoming album, So Help Me God. At the beginning of 2015, it seemed that we could finally expect a new West offering, as he released singles Only One and FourFiveSeconds, only to go MIA until he announced the new album title, SWISH, while clarifying that it too, could be subject to change. With an unorthodox album rollout that saw West change the name multiple more times in the weeks leading up to its release, he proved once again that to expect Kanye to be predictable, is blasphemous. With the release of The Life of Pablo, Kanye once again shifted lanes into a gospel-induced sound. And as is his best ability, he packaged hundreds of stray threads into a whole that somehow felt cohesive. If Yeezus felt unfinished, TLOP felt completely thrown together, yet in a contradicting way. We finally saw a joyful Kanye for the first time since arguably Graduation. He wasn’t out to prove anything, except that he still makes an album better than anyone else.

So which Kanye is Apex Kanye? The self-aware young rapper trying to prove himself as more of an artist than producer; the self-assured full-fledged pop-star who gave the world what it wanted with Graduation; the self-indulgent maniac who proved yet again, that he can adapt and evolve with the times; Or the self-righteous family-man who knows his spot in the pecking order and still isn’t scared of taking risks? I have to go with the possessed Kanye of 2010–2012, and not just because of the back-to-back-to-back classic releases, but also because it was Kanye at his most Kanye, before Kim, and before North and Saint, when the only one he had to answer to was himself, deep in his insecurities, yet so confident in his ways. This was the most polished Kanye, at the peak of his rapping, producing, and artistic powers, that he holed up in Hawaii at a self-orchestrated rap sweat-shop, in order to make sure the first time we heard him post-Taylor Swift, would be the last time we ever doubted him. And the first time we heard back from him was on the first single, Power, as he rapped in the most commanding way, over a triumphantly tribal chant…

“I’m in that 21st century doin’ something mean to it/Do it better than anybody you ever seen do it/Screams from the haters got a nice ring to it/I guess every superhero need his theme music.”

It was the most refreshing and affirmative way you wanted hip-hops most iconic star to announce his comeback. And in the most Kanye way possible, of course he didn’t disappoint.