Kanye West's mental health: Inside billionaire rapper's 'sprained brain' and social media rants
Kanye West is currently in the midst of chaos as he has been constantly targeting his estranged wife Kim Kardashian and her new actor boyfriend Pete Davidson on social media. The controversies come amid the upcoming release of the rapper’s new Netflix documentary called ‘Jeen-Yuhs’. The docu-film will shed light on the 44-year-old rapper’s personal and professional highlights of the last 21 years. ‘Jeen-Yuhs’ as a trilogy will hit the leading streaming platform on February 16, 2022.
The buzz surrounding the documentary is real as his fans will get to see the journey Kanye took to reach new heights of stardom. Despite the success, the Grammy-winning rap icon has struggled with mental health issues that always led to new controversies. In 2020, Kim Kardashian had revealed that the hip-hop legend suffered from bipolar disorder- the reason he made shocking claims and went on rants on social media platforms. With his current conflict with his ex-wife, his mental health is repeatedly being called into question. However, Kanye has always been open about his manic episodes calling it a health issue and even dubbing it as a 'sprained brain'.
RELATED ARTICLES
Kanye West BOOED by crowd at Super Bowl following his IG attack on Pete Davidson
Super Bowl LVI: Trolls 'disappointed' with Kanye West for not stealing mic during halftime show
Kanye West’s trouble with mental health
In an interview on Drink Champs, Kanye West addressed his battles with mental health and why he was often dubbed as crazy. “We all are on the spectrum somewhere just only of us went to the hospital or have been diagnosed [with a disorder, or prescribed] medication”, said the ‘Donda’ hitmaker. In 2020, Kim, who then refused to divorce the rapper, had shared the troubles Ye was going through. According to reports, Kanye had announced his 2020 presidential run in the middle of his struggle with the bipolar disorder.
Diving deep into the rapper’s mental health episodes, it seems Kanye went through a lot after her mother Donda West’s death in 2007. In 2009, Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift’s VMA speech which became one of the biggest controversies at the time. In 2016, the acclaimed rap star canceled his tour citing he was exhausted. He was reportedly hospitalized later. One of his song’s lyrics too spoke about his bipolar as he raps with the phrase “I hate being / Bi-Polar / it’s awesome”.
In 2018, he went on a rant about mind control days after removing himself from all social media platforms. He also talked about his 'genius IQ' and how he does not like to be told what to do.“Imagine you, like, cut your skull open and somebody, like, touched your brain with their hand, how that would hurt you,” the rapper said. “That’s how it hurts me when people try to tell me what to do when I’m going from my heart.”
In an interview to David Letterman in 2019, Kanye spoke quite candidly about what was happening in his brain. “It is a health issue,” he continues. “This is like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle. And if someone has a sprained ankle, you’re not going to push on him more. [But] with us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse!," the billionaire rapper said about his mental health and his bipolar condition.
‘Crazy is a word that’s not gonna be used loosely in the future’
In an interview with Forbes in 2019, Kanye addressed his mental health saying, “‘Crazy’ is a word that’s not gonna be used loosely in the future.” The multi-platinum artist added, “Understand that this is actually a condition that people can end up in, be born into, driven into and go in and out. And there’s a lot of people that have been called that ‘C’ word that have ended up on this cover.”
In 2020, Kanye had announced his presidential run and it is believed that it all came amidst his family issues. Kim at the time took to her Instagram shedding light on Ye’s behavior asking his fans and fans to understand. “As many of you know, Kanye has [bipolar] disorder. Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words [sometimes] do not align with his intentions.” She asked for “compassion and empathy . . . so that we can get through this” in her statement as published by Page Six.
All this came after Kanye went on a social media rant that now stands deleted also claiming that Kim had tried to lock him up. Kanye’s outrageous Twitter rants in the past which was the initiation of their divorce rumors back when the rapper announced he'd be running for president in the November 2020 elections. In one of his controversial campaign rallies, Ye had alluded to anti-abortion sentiments, revealing the couple had almost aborted when Kim was pregnant with her first child, daughter North.