According to Amazon and Target, Kanye West’s fourth album, 808’s and Heartbreak, will be released on December 16, 2008. Considering his previous album titles, we thought it was going to be called “Paying Off My College Loans.”

And if you didn’t catch the last bit of the VMAs last Sunday, you missed out on West’s epic performance for his first single off the album, “Love Lockdown.” Check it out here:

We speculate that after the untimely death of his mother, West has deserted the streak of collegiate album titles and is prepping a rawer, deeper, and—possibly humbler—set of tracks. We look forward to it.

Tags: 808's and heartbreak, kanye west, love lockdown, vmas