Kanye West has finally opened up about his infamous 2016 mental breakdown.
The 40-year-old rapper posted a nearly two hour interview with Charlamagne Tha God on the site wegotlove.com as he detailed the factors that led him to the hospital.
Among the contributing factors the Famous hitmaker named were the ‘moment’ with Taylor Swift leading to less radio play, Kim Kardashian’s robbery, the fashion world turning their backs on him, and the grind of being on tour.
Kanye sees his November 2016 hospitalization and psychiatric hold as kind of an awakening.
Opening up: Kanye West has finally opened up about his infamous 2016 mental breakdown in a nearly two hour interview with Charlamagne Tha God on the site wegotlove.com
I’mma let you finish: The 40-year-old rapper said that ‘moment’ with Taylor Swift (at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards) led to less radio play which contributed in his breakdown
He explained: ‘I think I am in a stronger place than I ever was after the breakdown, or as I like to say the breakthrough.’
The 39-year-old Breakfast Club host then queried the rapper on what caused the breakdown.
Kanye answered: ‘Fear, stress, control, being controlled, manipulation like being a pawn in the chess piece of life. Stressing things that like create validation that I didn’t need to worry about as much and just the concept of competition and being in competition with so many elements at one time.
‘I think I am in a stronger place’: He detailed his November 2016 breakdown as he says that he would like to think of it more like a ‘breakthrough’
Beef squashed? Six years later Kanye and Taylor seemed to put their past behind them but regarding his radio play after the incident the rapper said: ‘ever since the Taylor Swift moment it has never been the same’
‘On a race against time, your age, you’re getting old. A race against popularity on the radio: [DJ] Khaled got this song, Drake got this song on the radio, it’s playing to death but Saint Pablo ain’t playing. I could take the whole interview talking about [this].’
He said he was searching for validation through other means and it was frustrating that his songs weren’t getting as much play but he points to the moment where he interrupted Taylor Swift as when things shifted.
Kanye explained: ‘Ever since the Taylor Swift moment it has never been the same, the connection with radio. Like whatever powers that be, it was much harder after that.’
Tough times: He said that radio play was just one of the factors along with Kim Kardashian’s infamous robbery in Paris which left him ‘helpless,’ as they are pictured together a day before the incident
The All Of The Lights hitmaker famously stormed on stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2009.
He said that radio play was just one of the factors along with Kim Kardashian’s infamous robbery in Paris which left him ‘helpless.’
Kanye explained: ‘I went to Paris on that trip to protect her but not protect her physically but to just help her with with her looks.
‘I was like “let me put my eye on it personally while she’s in Paris to make sure she bust these n***as a**, you know, get fly” and one of the things she said that she heard is that they were coming to rob her and they had to wait til I had left.
‘And that people were strategizing and scheming that for a long time so when she probably got to Paris by herself they were like “okay this is our chance.”‘
He went on to explain that one of his friends let him know that Kim was robbed but was still fuzzy on the details at the time.
Disaster artist: Kanye also said another contributing factor to his breakdown was a week before the events in Paris when he had a Yeezy fashion show in September 2016 at New York City’s Roosevelt Island
Kanye also said another contributing factor to his breakdown was a week before the events in Paris when he had a Yeezy fashion show in September 2016 at New York City’s Roosevelt Island.
He infamously showed up two hours (he says 45 minutes late) late for the outdoor show which saw models stumbling and fainting as he said the public ‘LeBron’d him’ comparing his situation to when fans were upset when NBA superstar jumped ship to the Miami Heat in 2010.
Kanye had strong feelings about how he felt like the fashion world turned on him as he said: ‘As soon as I was 45 minutes late, I felt it was the fashion community getting the right to say n***** without saying it.
‘To be like “yo we know you come through stepping on necks and all that when it comes to your approach to things but if you get out of line boy we going to roast you” and it affected me because I’m an artist and it affected me emotionally.
‘It’s like all these things were almost set up to put me on meds, to break me down like the robbery, I don’t know where that came from. Was that a bigger plan? A bigger set-up.’
He also says that being stage four times a week also contributed to his overall exhaustion.
Even when he was in the hospital for eight days, Kanye said the paranoia was palpable as he said he begged friends not to leave his side because he was scared the doctors would kill him.
Kanye explained: ‘They put you inside of an elevator and take all your friends away from you, that was the scariest moment of my life. I thought I was going to get killed.’
Since Kim was not in town he said that he had told two of his friends to not leave his side until she got there.
He said: ‘And then they have this moment where they’re forced to leave your side, that’s something that has to change.
‘That was the scariest moment of my life’: Even when he was in the hospital for eight days, Kanye said the paranoia was palpable as he said he begged friends not to leave his side because he was scared the doctors would kill him
Process: He also told Charlamagne that he’s on several different medications but does not name any of them
‘You know if like a pregnant woman is delivering a baby you can guarantee that whoever, the sisters, the dad, they get to stay next to them in that situation.’
He then describes what it is like to be what he refers to as H.S.P., a hightly-sensitive person in that uncomfortable situation.
Kanye explains: You are paranoid of everything, you don’t believe nothing, you just see through all of the simulation. Everybody is phony, everybody is an actor, all this s***.
‘Then they make your friends, the only people who believe in you, leave your side. I can’t express to you how traumatizing that moment is.’
He also told Charlamagne that he’s on several different medications but does not name any of them.
Kanye also addressed his contentious relationship with Jay-Z specifically the lyric from the 48-year-old rapper’s latest album 4:44 in which he said he gave Kanye ’20 million without blinkin’.’
The husband of Kim Kardashian said: ‘That concept that you gave me, that he gave me the money, that’s what frustrated me because, actually, the money was, he got from Live Nation. ‘
He goes on to say that Jay’s company Roc Nation had been managing him at the time and that it was simply a normal touring deal.
Kanye explained: ‘But the fact that it was worded that it came from him, I’m a very loyal, emotional, like, artist person. You know, that made me feel like I owed more than just the money itself, the fact that it came from him.
‘You know, it just put me under a bit more of a kind of controlled situation. It’s like—and I don’t—I’m only acting out of love. I don’t need to be controlled. I just need to be inspired and informed. And I can be the best Ye in that way.’
He does go on to say that he does realize that his former mentor did do soemthing good for him but the way he got the message was not right.
Kanye said: ‘So Jay did something that was positive, but the fact that I didn’t receive the information in the right way.’
The My Beautiful Dark Twisted rapper also talked about his relationship with former US President Barack Obama who famously called him a ‘jacka**’ after the Taylor Swift incident.
Kanye said: ‘You know, he never called me to apologize. The same person that sat down with me and my mom, I think should’ve communicated to me directly and been like, “Yo, Ye, you, you know what it is. I’m in the room and it was just a joke.”‘
He goes on to say that he understands that Obama had a lot on his plate to be able to deal with a ‘wild card’ like him.
‘I think that’s too unpredictable. Someone that wasn’t being controlled by strategy and thoughts, but someone who’s acting on feelings,’ the rapper said.
He also seemed to be rather jealous of the former president’s relationship with other rap artists like Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar.
Kanye said: ‘I’m your favorite artist. You play Touch the Sky at your inauguration, and now, all a sudden, Kendrick and JAY and all the people you invite to the White House, like, now these your favorite rappers.
‘I ain’t got no problem with these rappers, but you know I’m your favorite but I’m not safe. But that’s why you love me! So just tell me you love me. And tell the world you love me!’
‘Don’t tell the world I’m a jacka**. I’m fightin’ hard enough. Something about me going on stage was similar to what you was doing. ‘Cause I’m fighting to break the simulation, break the setup. That didn’t make no sense.’
Kanye also described his admiration for current US President Donald Trump as he said: ‘I don’t have all the answers that a celebrity’s supposed to have but I can tell you that when he was running I felt something. It’s like the fact that he won, it proves something.
‘It proved that anything is possible in America. That Donald Trump could be president of America. I’m not talking about what he’s done since he’s been in office. But the fact that he was able to do it.’
He then likened it to when he declared that he was going to run for president at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards and he had several of his friends making fun of him over it.
Kanye said: ‘I had people that was close to me, friends of mine, making jokes, making memes, talking shit. Now it’s like, “Oh its proven that that could have happened.” I felt the nonconventional.
‘Even from what we’re doing in fashion to me being the kid with the pink polos to me being outspoken to me being ostracized because of the Taylor Swift thing or the George Bush thing or who I’m dating who I’m marrying , what I’m talking about. All of this is an outsider thing, so when I see an outsider infiltrate, I connect with that.’
Kanye has two albums on the way including a solo project out on June 1 followed by one teaming up with Kid Cudi titled Kids See Ghost a week later on June 8.