Kanye West: Mental Health & Media Attention
Let’s talk about Kanye West.
As most are aware, legendary rapper, producer, designer and mogul, Kanye West, is clinically diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Bipolar is a mental illness that manifests itself in the form of severe mood swings, depression, anxiety, irritability, and false senses of superiority, among countless other symptoms.
Although I am a firm believer of mental illness and its devastating effects, I meet Kanye’s episodes with a hint of skepticism. I’ve noticed a trend over the past few years, that Charlamagne tha God addressed on his The Brilliant Idiots podcast, in which Kanye’s public breakdowns and attention-grabbing headlines tend to occur around the time he is set to release an album or other major news.
On July 20th, Kanye made front page news due to his Twitter activity featuring a string of rants that called out names like Kris Jenner, Drake, Pusha T and Shia Lebouf. Even his wife, Kim Kardashian, and their children were not exempt. He explicitly claimed that his “white supremacist” wife and mother-in-law have been attempting to “lock me up.”
Kanye went as far as to state that “everybody knows the movie get out is about me.” He bizarrely included screenshots of Google search results for “Jennifer Lawrence” and “Halle Berry.”
He also seemingly accused Kim of sleeping with Meek Mill during a “prison reform” meeting between the two. The social media monologue ultimately ended with an announcement of his next album, releasing the tracklist and the name of the project, Donda.
Similarly, in 2018, Kanye took to Twitter with a string of tweets over the span of a few days, which culminated in the announcement of his Kids See Ghosts project with Kid Cudi.
It is no secret that Kanye West thrives off of media attention. Let’s take a look at Kanye’s recent history:
On June 26th, Ye announced Yeezy brand’s partnership with Gap, which did not draw mass attention.
On June 30th, Kanye released a single with Travis Scott, Wash Us in the Blood, which also flew relatively under-the-radar.
On July 4th, Kanye shocked the world by announcing that he is running for president. Regardless of whether or not you consider him a legitimate candidate, there is no doubt that such a monumental claim would make headlines.
Two weeks later, as publicity from his presidential announcement was dying out, Kanye held his first campaign rally in South Carolina, which gave us a buffet of internet clips.
During the rally, he broke into tears revealing how he had initially wanted to abort his daughter, North, while offering his stance on abortion laws. From the same speech, a particular soundbite surfaced in which Kanye claimed that “Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves, she just had the slaves go work for other white people.”
Now, if you watched the rally, the greater point he was making is that black people have never actually been free in a white-supremacist America, which reigns true.
But since the singular soundbite went viral on social media, the vast majority of people likely did not receive the full context of the quote, which would leave them to believe that Kanye is out of his mind. Nonetheless, his radical statements were bound to cause public unrest.
Afterwards, Kanye failed to even submit the signatures required to have his name on the ballot in South Carolina, which leads me to question the legitimacy of his quest to run for president in the first place.
And then, on July 20th, we see Kanye break the internet by sounding off on Twitter. This came just a few days prior to a Yeezy sneaker release, as well as his impending album release.
I want to be clear, I don’t bring this up to belittle, invalidate or disregard any type of mental illness in any fashion. I have no doubts that his disorder is genuine. Kim said it best when she took to Instagram to ask for compassion:
“Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand.” - Kim Kardashian
However, when considering Kanye’s unwavering desire for media attention, I must maintain a level of skepticism when Ye goes public with his antics. Prior to these recent events, Ye had been fairly quiet in 2020.
I find it hard to believe there is no correlation between Kanye’s public episodes and releases from his brand and label. There is no doubt that when Kanye has a public breakdown, the whole world watches, which Kanye is very aware of.
I’m not implying that his illness is nothing more than a promotional ploy, but I do think he maintains a level of consciousness about when to keep it private and when to go public with it.
On another note, it seems we have a Kanye and Lil Baby song to look forward to.
Written by Sam Kalchbrenner, Edited by Emma Barsky