I can't say I was a Kanye West fan from the very beginning. I listened to one of his albums until 2013 when "Yeezus" dropped and I happened to come across a full-length video of the album on YouTube. I had missed what many considered the Golden Era of Kanye West music: "The College Dropout," "Graduation," "Late Registration," "808s & Heartbreak" and, what many consider his magnum opus, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." That gave me a weird perspective on his music.

I had no nostalgia or difference between "Old Kanye" and the "New Kanye," which 808s had begun to explore and Yeezus fully revealed. When "The Life of Pablo" was teased, I got to fully experience the full wave of emotions associated with a Kanye release.

The announcements, the rumors, the delays, the controversies, the preview tracks and finally, the payoff. But many felt the build-up and anticipation were not matched by the final product, including myself. While we received some instant classics on the album, controversy continued to follow Kanye after the release, which eventually culminated in the now-infamous The Life of Pablo Tour rants and Kanye's sudden admission into the hospital.

Then Kanye fell off the face of the planet.

He deleted his Twitter, cancelled the rest of the tour and disappeared from the public eye in a very un-Kanye like fashion. Nearly two years go by and he suddenly makes his grand return to the Internet, announcing four new albums from Pusha T, himself, a collaboration with Kid Cudi and Nas, all within a four-week period starting late May.

Compared to the long and arduous TLOP release, the sudden announcement, nearly a month before the albums would release, was surprising to say the least. Now that it's here, I can confidently say that "ye" is one of Kanye's most coherent, well-produced and insightful albums to date.

Let's talk for a moment about just how unusual "Ye" is in almost every way when compared to other releases. Coming in at just over 23 minutes, it's his shortest release by a long shot. For comparison sakes, his second-shortest album "Yeezus" was 40 minutes long. The seven-song trend has been a theme in this slue of releases, which I think works in Kanye's favor in this instance.

Limiting himself to seven songs forces Kanye to be concise and dig deep into his psyche at that point in time instead of stretching the process over a multiple month process. It's evident a lot of the songs were made within a short period of time based on their timely references. Reports even came out eventually that Kanye recorded and finished the song "Ghost Town" the day the album released.

"Ye" is what happens when Kanye sheds his ego.

He himself even spoke on this development in a series of tweets, namely stating he killed his ego. Kanye's authenticity shines through in this project, setting the tone with "I Thought About Killing You" where he professes the duality of beautiful and dark thoughts and implores his audience to speak their mind and express their feelings "just to see how if feels." While in a very literal sense, I do think Kanye's admitting to previous struggles with suicidal thoughts, I can't help but think the "you" he's talking about in the song is the parts of himself that have caused and continue to cause him so much trouble.

@kanyewest on Twitter

I think it's important to look at what occurred during the period of time from "808s & Heartbreak" to "The Life of Pablo," which includes healing from the death of his mother, a very public, messy breakup, severed ties with Nike and a strained relationship with his mentor and frequent collaborator Jay-Z. That storm of events, plus much more, I can imagine would put anyone in a very defensive and distrustful state-of-mind ,which was expressed in his music during that time.

There's also something to say about the success of that hard-headed attitude, despite it's shortcomings. As Kanye mentions on "Wouldn't Leave," "I use the same attitude that done got us here." In a very insightful interview with Charlamagne Tha God, Kanye explains the distrust and paranoia he felt as he experienced manipulation and ulterior motives at a higher frequency as he rose in the music and fashion industries.

The album itself is beautifully mastered, mixed and sampled, which was a complaint I had about "The Life of Pablo." Despite the reported speed in which the album was produced, it's another instance in which brevity worked in Kanye's favor as he could focus intensely on seven songs as opposed to twenty. There are, however, instances in which Kanye falls a bit short in terms of lyricism. That's been a complaint of many since "Yeezus," but I think at this point in his career, Kanye has sacrificed lyricism in lieu of ideas and concepts.

All in all, it's a beautiful album in which the main concept, mental health, is bolstered by Kanye's brave attitude.

Mental health is one of the hardest topics for many of us to discuss and Kanye certainly doesn't shy away from being brutally honest about his. While "ye" isn't the album many of us expected it to be, it provided a clearer image of West as a person and his state of mind at this point in his career.

It is, however, nearly impossible to talk about this project without at least addressing the controversy surrounding it. That controversy is Kanye's endorsement of the MAGA movement and his comments on slavery. There was about a two week period after Kanye posted his signed MAGA hat and the subsequent tweets in which I really had no idea how deep his allegiance ran.

I am in no way insinuating that celebrities, musicians and artists are not allowed to have political preferences or cannot express their opinions on political matters. I did, however, want to know what exactly it was about Trump that appealed to Kanye so much, which turned out to be the nature of the MAGA movement itself.

As Kanye explained both in tweets and interviews, he and Trump were both outsiders in their fields (Kanye for fashion and, at one point music, and Trump with politics) who disrupted the legacy holders to eventually cement a position at the top. He's not wrong about that comparison, especially because it's accurate, but there are still some criticisms to be made.

I'm equal parts confused and disappointed that Kanye endorsed the MAGA movement and then tried to take a "love and positivity" twist on it. For one, it's nearly impossible to do a complete takeover nearly three years after the ball started rolling with MAGA. If Kanye truly wanted to take that movement and steered it in a positive direction, he should have hopped on board in its infancy, not when a legacy has already been established.

What's especially troubling is Kanye cosigning a movement that has been associated with hate, ignorance and attacks on the free press.

Again, that's not to say all Trump supporters engage in these acts or support them, but one cannot ignore that acts of violence have been committed by some of his followers. of his followers. The President himself encouraged violence during his campaign rallies, even going so far as to say any supporter who attacks a protestor would have any legal fees covered by Trump.

The bottom line? The more interviews, tweets and news articles I sift through, the more confident I am in assuming Kanye's support of Trump is pretty solidly rooted in his rise to fame and personality as opposed to his political agenda. I think Kanye's support was also somewhat meant to create buzz for his new album, which I personally think he's well above having to do now at this point in his career.

Beyonce and Jay-Z dropped a surprise album that sold 123,000 copies in the first week. Those two have no media presence and I would definitely put Kanye on their level, but I also think Kanye brings up a few interesting questions that are worth mulling over. Do minorities have to vote Democrat? How does the public react if a celebrity publicly expresses support for Trump? What expectations do we have for celebrities with regards to their political preferences and participation?

Do I think Kanye actually has a political preference? No. I think he was intentionally ambiguous to stir up controversy and buzz, which I personally think was in poor taste. I also think he underestimated just how seriously people take politics nowadays. He appears to have gone back on what he said, especially on "Wouldn't Leave," where he laments the fallout some of his recent remarks caused within his family. Regardless, I hope this album signifies a return to form for Kanye and we begin to see a man who has come to terms with his demons and actually commits himself to change. I'd hate to see Kanye revert to his old ways.