Kanye West has opened up about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Last week, the rapper finally released his latest album Ye, in which he gets real about his mental health.
During his album listening party in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Kanye sat down for an interview with radio personality Big Boy.
Speaking about his “mental issues”, Kanye said, “I’d never been diagnosed [as bipolar] and I was like 39 years old… That’s why I said on the album, ‘It’s not a disability, it’s a super power.'”
The cover of his new album has the phrase “I hate being Bi-Polar it’s awesome” written in his handwriting across a photo he took in Wyoming on his iPhone.
And on his new track ‘Yikes’, the father-of-three raps, “That’s my bipolar sh**. That’s my superpower n****, ain’t no disability.”
In the interview, Kanye admitted that following the backlash he received for suggesting slavery is “a choice” during an interview with TMZ, he “completely redid the album”.
He explained, “It was just too sensitive,” adding that he felt “so blessed and privileged because think about people that have mental issues that are not Kanye West, that can’t go and make [an album] and make it feel like it’s all good.”
“Think about somebody that does exactly what I did at TMZ and they just do that at work, right? But then Tuesday morning, they come in and they lost their job and they can’t go back and make that. That’s why God put that on me at age 40,” he continued.
However, Kanye did reference the controversy on his track ‘Wouldn’t Leave’, in which he revealed how his wife Kim Kardashian West reacted to his comments.
The lyrics read, “I said, ‘Slavery a choice,’ they say, ‘How, Ye?’ / Just imagine if they caught me on a wild day / Now I’m on 50 blogs gettin’ 50 calls / Wife calling screaming saying we’re about to lose it all / I had to calm her down ‘cos she couldn’t breathe / I told her she could leave me now but she wouldn’t leave.”
