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Kanye West should be on top of his game. Named #4 on MTV News' list of Hottest MCs, the 32-year-old rapper has a bald beauty on his arm, stacks galore, and is arguably one of the best producers of all time. What did Jay-Z call him on Bill Maher? Oh yeah, a genius!

But the Taylor Swift fiasco started a downward spiral that even we couldn't have anticipated. After a round of press apologies, backing out of his Fame Kills tour with Lady Gaga, and avoiding this past weekend's BET Hip Hop Awards (in which he lead the pack with 9 nominations), it seems Ye is finally taking a much needed professional break.

According to Hip Hop Wired, Kanye is going on a religious retreat to reassess his life at Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, a small coastal town in South India. Ye attributes his misdirection to the untimely death of his mother, Donda West, in 2007, to whom his latest album, "808s and Heartbreak," is largely attributed.

MTV Tr3s wishes Mr. West the best of luck with his retreat... [HipHopWired]

Photo via Getty Images

Tags 808s and Heartbreak, BET Hip Hop Awards, Fame Kills, Jay Z, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, producer, retreat, south india, Taylor Swift

Kanye West may be a jerk for interrupting 19-year-old Taylor Swift's VMA win, but it seems like even criticism from the President can't hold West down.

On Wednesday night, BET announced the nominees for their third annual Hip Hop Awards and Kanye leads the pack with 9 nods in categories like Best Hip-Hop Collabo, Best Live Performer, Lyricist of the Year, Producer of the Year, CD of the Year, MVP of the Year, Hustler of the Year, the Made-You-Look award (for style) and People's Champ.

Following Kanye with 7 nominations each are Jay-Z and Lil Wayne, and jailed T.I. received 6.

The 2009 BET Hip Hop Awards will be taped Oct. 10th in Atlanta and air Oct. 27, and we can't wait to see what Mr. West will do if he loses in any of the 9 categories he's nominated in. It's about to get interesting!

Did you miss Kanye's 2009 VMA outburst? Well, watch it again with toda tu familia con subtítulos en Español and find out why even el Presidente Obama is talking about Kanye! No te lo pierdas, este Domingo a las 5pm EST.

Tags 2009 Video Music Awards, BET Hip Hop Awards, Jay Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, President Barack Obama, T.I., Taylor Swift, VMAs