In the three years since Kanye West released Yeezus and changed how hip-hop sounded, a lot has happened.

To put it in perspective, "Blurred Lines" was just starting to hit its stride as the biggest song in the wold when Yeezus came out. It really doesn't matter how you look at it, the wold has changed in all sorts of ways as Kanye fans (semi-)patiently waited for the rapper's latest release.

Rather than focusing on mankind's tragedies, triumphs and bizarre moments since summer 2013, Myspace decided to simply focus in and give you the five key moments (and stages) of the multi-year buildup to Kanye's new album, SWISH, Waves, or whatever it might be called when it (hopefully) releases later this week.

Summer 2014—Kanye Mentions (and Allegedly Debuts) New Music

Roughly a year after releasing Yeezus, Kanye started mentioning that he wanted "to have something up and running" soon. He mentioned September 2014 as a possible release date, but that obviously didn't happen...Or did it? Around that time, rumors started lighting up the Internet that Kanye played an entire new album at a party during the Paris Fashion Week. How much of that is true? Who knows. How much of that material could possibly exist in any form on the record (hopefully) coming out this week? One can only guess. Whether it happened or not, it was a pretty cool time for all the Kanye Stans who could dream of one day being at a private listening party for unreleased music.

Early 2015 - New Songs, Artwork and Information Release

For the first of two consecutive New Year's Eves, Kanye decided to drop a track on December 31 2014. This one featured Sir Paul McCartney ("Only One") and preceded "FourFiveSeconds," which got a lot more attention for having both McCartney and Rihanna on it. In February, Kanye then unofficially dropped "Wolves" (featuring Sia and Vic Mensa) for the first time at a fashion show (and later on SNL), leading people to believe that his album must be almost done. In a radio interview, Kanye said the record was "80 percent done" and released the alleged album artwork and working title of So Help Me God the next month on Twitter. March brought about yet another new track (this one seeming like more of a Kanye song and less of a collaboration), "All Day." With finished tracks, artwork, and an album title, 2015 seemed like it would surely be the year the world saw a new Kanye album.

Summer 2015—More Rumors, Songs and Indecision

With everyone all but certain we'd see the new Kanye record in 2015, the first seeds of doubt were planted during the summer months. May saw the rapper change the name of the album to SWISH, while rumors about the new album debuting with the brand new Apple Music service nearly broke the Internet (particularly due to Jay Z's involvement in the still-floundering music service, Tidal). With all of the release rumors, yet another allegation of Kanye's new record being streamed at a party led fans to believe the album was near, but there was still no firm release date. As the leaves changed colors, Kanye debuted yet another track ("Fade") at yet another fashion show and ruined all of his fans' hopes and dreams when saying the album might still be as much as a year away.

Winter 2015—Friends and Family Listen to 'SWISH,' Everyone Else Waits

In a somewhat uncharacteristic move for an artist often considered egocentric, Kanye went dark on the world for a few months in late 2015. The rapper only partook in a couple interviews and shed virtually no light on when anyone would see his new work. However, the Kardashian clan (Klan?) obviously had their hands on the music already, as various K's were documented listening to it, most famously when Kim let Lamar Odom have a listen when Odom was in the hospital after his little brothel incident. A few tweets referenced the album, but many began to think it could be the next installment of the Chinese Democracy/Detox category. Then, as the best sign in quite some time, Kanye dropped a fiery almost-freestyle called "Facts," in which he reminds everyone that he can actually still rap, despite the amount of time it'd been since the world heard from him.

Early 2016—Twitter Wars, G.O.O.D. Fridays, 'Waves,' 'T.L.O.P.' and a Release Date

In January 2016, Kanye began to up the ante. Whether it was all a clever marketing ploy or he really just started to open up a whole lot more, the rapper took to Twitter to share his inner thoughts, updates on the record and start the best social media feud/rant of the young year with Wiz Khalifa. Kanye also announced that a new track from the album would release every Friday until the record itself dropped on February 11, although that only lasted a week. In addition, he's shown a pair of track lists and changed the album title from SWISH to Waves and then maybe back to SWISH and now to a mysterious title with the initials T.L.O.P. Will we get a new Kanye record in a couple days? Hopefully. But at this point, no one even knows the name.

@studio /final verses /new album title  T.L.O.P. pic.twitter.com/yXKbFl9w6W

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 9, 2016