Who Was “the Old Kanye,” Anyway?

It’s been 20 years, 12 albums, 24 Grammys, two marriages, and 10 seasons of Yeezy apparel since Kanye West released his debut album, The College Dropout, a very good and very important collection of songs from a rapper who has since released increasingly polarizing music while also provoking some extremely uncomfortable discussions about bipolar disorder and antisemitism. On Friday he’s scheduled to release Vultures, Volume 1, a collaboration album with Ty Dolla $ign and a sign of how distressingly far we’ve all come since the glory days of “Through the Wire.”