Artist reveal a lot of things in their music, sometimes its about themselves and sometimes its about other or both. When Kanye dropped his new album Ye, the cover art read “I hate being bi-polar, its awesome.” That statement in itself seemed to be a word play on the effects of bi-polar on a person. In a song called “Yikes,” on his new album, Kanye sparked speculations that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he rhymes, “That’s my third person. That’s my bipolar shit, nigga what? That’s my superpower, nigga ain’t no disability. I’m a superhero! I’m a superhero!”
But speculations aside, Kanye West himself during an interview with BigBoyTV at his album listening event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, admitted that he was diagnosed with a mental condition when he was 39 years old. Here is what he stated during the interview which fueled the mental condition, bi-polar speculations, “Think about people that have mental issues that are not Kanye West, that can’t go and make that album and make it feel like it’s all good,” he said. “Think about somebody that does exactly what I did at TMZ. and they just do that at work, right? But Tuesday morning, they come in and they lost their job.” He continued, “That’s why God put that on me at age 40. I never been diagnosed until I was 39 years old—diagnosed with a mental condition. But like I said on the album, it’s not a disability, it’s a superpower.”
Kanye West is not the first artist to be diagnosed with bi-polar nor will he be the last. In fact as Kanye stated in his own way, bi-polar is a part of many artist and actors success because of its effects on their creative process. There are several very big named stars who we will leave nameless for the purpose of this post that were formally diagnosed with mental illness but they continue to function and they continue to be successful.
Checkout “Yikes” below.
