Photos: Kanye West’s Career Highs — and Lows

Def Jam A&R Hip Hop starts buying beats from Kanye: first for Beanie Sigel's "The Truth" (from The Truth), then for Jay-Z's "This Can't Be Life" (from Dynasty: Roc La Familia).

Kanye is at Just Blaze's Baseline Studios for a Beanie Sigel recording session. "Jay walked in. I remember he had a Gucci bucket hat on. And Hip Hop said, 'yo, play that one beat for him.' And I played 'Heart of the City.' … and I remember that Gucci bucket, he took it and like put it over his face and made one of them faces like oooooh," Kanye recounts on "Last Call." Kanye would go on to produce four tracks on The Blueprint, including the Nas dis "The Takeover" and lead single "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)"

After a parade of industry meetings, Kanye finally lands an artist deal with Capitol, but it falls through at the last minute. Roc-a-Fella's Damon Dash, who was present at the Baseline sessions, steps in. Says Kanye: "I'm sure Dame figured, 'if he do a whole album, if his raps is wack at least we can throw Cam['ron] on every song and save the album."

Two weeks after his Roc-a-Fella deal is officially announced, Kanye survives a serious car accident in L.A. — while driving home from a recording sessions at 4 a.m. he falls asleep at the wheel of his rental Lexus, crashing into an oncoming car. The other driver breaks both his legs; Kanye's jaw is shattered. Two weeks after the accident, which his mouth still wired shut, he records "Through the Wire," his first single.

The College Dropout is released, and sells 441,000 copes in its first week — good for second on the Billboard charts. The critical acclaim is immediate, but the release of third single "Jesus Walks" catapults the adulation to a new level.

At the 2005 Grammys, Kanye is nominated for 10 awards and wins three, including Rap Album of the Year. College Dropout loses Album of the Year to Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company.

Kanye records his follow-up, Late Registration, with Jon Brion — best known for his work with Fiona Apple — co-producing. It's released in August 2005, and it's another instant critical and commercial smash, so potent that its lead single magically transforms Jamie Foxx into a legitimate radio act.

Kanye poses on cover of Rolling Stone as Jesus.

A proud history of award show interruptions starts small: at the 2006 EMAs, Kanye does what is still at that point known as "pulling an ODB" and jumps the stage when Justice vs. Simian's "We Are Your Friends" beats "Touch the Sky" for Best Music Video Award: "This video cost a million dollars, fam! I had Pam Anderson! I'm jumping across canyons and shit!"

When Kanye's Graduation and 50 Cent's Curtis are both scheduled for release on September 11, the two engage in a friendly (both are being released by subsidiaries of Universal Music Group) public sales battle. 50 promises to retire if he loses.

With 957,000 copies sold in its first week, Graduation beats Curtis handily (50 does not retire). The second single "Stronger" — which co-opts Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" — is a particular critical darling.

After getting shut out in all five categories he's nominated in, Kanye is captured on video backstage at the 2007 VMAs ranting effusively, to wit: "Fuck MTV. Y'all heard what the fuck I said …Give a black man a chance. I'm tryin' hard. I got the fuckin' No. 1 record. I'm tryin' man. I don't even get a fuckin' chance. They don't want a fuckin' black man in that position."

At the 2008 Grammys, Kanye wins four awards, including Rap Album of the Year. He loses Album of the Year, though — to Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters.

Kanye West performs with Lil Wayne at the Hot 97 Summer Jame in East Rutherford, New Jersey, June 1, 2008.

Tha Carter III is released, cementing Lil Wayne's superstar status. Kanye has a small stake in the process: he produced album standouts "Comfortable" and "Let the Beat Build."

Kanye premieres "Love Lockdown" at the VMAs. Soon after, at an LA listening party featuring lots of naked women, Kanye reveals that 808s&Heartbreak will be all auto-tune singing and no rapping.

Amidst much consternation from critics and bloggers, 808s & Heartbreak is released. It has its vocal detractors, but sells well. On a the remix to DJ Class's "I'm the Shit," 'Ye — auto-tuned, of course — says "And I dropped another album / before we finished up the tour / and its still top 10, 'bout 15 weeks later / So that's a middle finger for you 808 haters."

Kanye begins spending a lot of time in public with Amber Rose, a buxom socialite best known for music video appearances and spreads in magazines like Smooth.

At the 2009 VMAs, Kanye jumps the stage while Taylor Swift is receiving the award for Best Female Video: 'Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish — but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!" The backlash is swift and severe, and Kanye apologizes profusely, most notably with a droopy appearance on The Jay Leno Show. With the vitriol still strong he lies low, eventually decamping for Japan for a while. Kanye would later claim to have received death threats during this period, and indicate that the fallout from the incident included the cancellation of his tour with Lady Gaga and his clothing line. The footnote: While Kanye has always expressed remorse for the incident itself, he's still mad about Beyonce getting shut out. "We can't let them say the aliens built the pyramids" is a favorite allusion.

After months of rumblings about a return-to-rap album, the silence is broken: Kanye returns, sans Amber but with sharply fitted suits, first at the offices of various social networking companies rapping a cappela, and then with the massive "Power." A barrage of Tweets, epic music videos and awesome free music follows.

By   Amos Barshad