Kanye West has been living the American dream.
He sang about touching the sky, and he did - fame, fortune and Grammys were his. And then there were the girls, two in particular - his mother and his fiancé.
But in the past 13 months his mum died after plastic surgery he was paying for, and after giving up her life in Chicago to be part of his superstar life in California.
Then he and his fiancé separated.
His new album, 808s and Heartbreak, is a dark, raw album of loss. The Washington Post called it a "brilliant left turn", and it is.
It is an album on which a man who had cheerfully, indeed preposterously, proclaimed himself the best stops, takes stock, and asks the question: Where did I go wrong?