Kanye West is one of the most decorated rappers of all time. On Sunday, the multi-hyphenate musician earned his 22nd Grammy award for his album Jesus Is King under the Best Contemporary Christian Album category—another feather in his cap along with numerous MTV Video Music Awards, Brits and BET Awards. In celebration of his win, here’s a look back at West’s discography and the Grammy wins that have followed.
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Album title: The College Dropout
Year: 2004
Nominated: Album of the Year
Won: Best Rap Album
Critics say: “Not only does he create a unique role model, that role model is dangerous—his arguments against education are as market-targeted as other rappers’ arguments for thug life.” – Robert Christgau, The Village Voice
Album title: Late Registration
Year: 2006
Nominated: Album of the Year
Won: Best Rap Album
Critics say: “Late Registration is an undeniable triumph, packed front to back, so expansive it makes the debut sound like a rough draft.” – Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone
Album title: Graduation
Year: 2007
Nominated: Album of the Year
Won: Best Rap Album
Critics say: “..one of the most unabashedly graceful things I’ve heard on a commercial hip-hop record in years.” – Jayson Greene, Stylus Magazine
Album title: 808s & Heartbreak
Year: 2008
Nominated: Best Rap Performance By Duo Or Group
Critics say: “With every listen, the poignancy of these personal tales of loss grows deeper, perfectly matched by the cold, lonely, robotic but nevertheless winning grooves that accompany them. Upon further reflection, it is a brave and daring 4-star effort that deserves to be heard by any fan of adventurous pop music.” – Jim DeRogatis, Chicago Sun-Times
Album title: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Year: 2010
Nominated: Song of the Year
Won: Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, Best Rap/Song Collaboration
Critics say: “Picasso-like, fulfilling the Cubist mandate of rearranging form, texture, color and space to suggest new ways of viewing things” – Ann Powers, Los Angeles Times
Album title: Yeezus
Year: 2013
Nominated: Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song
Critics say: “One of the most fascinating aspects of Yeezus’ arrival is the discursive crisis it’s caused, produced by a fast-react culture colliding with a work of art so confounding”, Jack Hamilton, The Atlantic
Album title: Life of Pablo
Year: 2016
Nominated: Best Rap Album, Best Rap/Sung Performance, Best Rap Song
Critics say: “West is testing the shifting state of the “album cycle” to see if he can break it entirely, making his album like another piece of software on your phone that sends you push updates.” – Jayson Greene, Pitchfork
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Album title: Jesus Is King
Year: 2019
Won: Best Contemporary Christian Music Album
Critics say: “A more engaged and vivid album than Ye from last year, though nowhere as robust as The Life of Pablo from 2016, it is bare-bones and curiously effective” – Jon Caramanica, The New York Times