WATCH
S5 E45 | Ye (Part 2)
01:17:34
Kanye West opened up about his mental health in part two of his “Drink Champs” interview. In the episode that aired on Thursday (Nov. 11), the 44-year-old reflected on his infamous 2013 paparazzi brawl, for which he was charged with a misdemeanor count of battery and had to complete 24 anger management sessions. It was those sessions, Ye said Thursday, that ultimately led him down the path to being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
“I’m sitting there with Amber Rose at the anger management situation and the anger management coach just keeps on hitting on Amber and then giving me some medication,” he told “Drink Champs” co-hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN. “That was the beginning of my medication.”
“That was the snowball that ended up [with me] being eventually diagnosed with bipolar,” he continued, adding, “There’s a lot of people who will say, ‘I don’t believe that you are actually bipolar.’”
Speaking about mental health in general, Kanye believes “we all are on the spectrum somewhere, just only a couple of us went to the hospital or have been diagnosed with medication.” He also said people can be quick to use someone’s mental illness to dismiss them, which he added has happened to him.
“Anytime somebody wants to, you know, say that I’m wrong about something, hide the truth, lie; they say, ‘Ye’s crazy.’ It’s just the ultimate final cutoff to not have to listen,” he said. “… Y’all not gonna diminish what I’m doing and what God is doing with me in the future by trying to cut my legs off or cut my influence off by calling me crazy.”
He continued, “We were raised into this life racist, sexist, homophobic, but now [there’s] also a phobia of things in mental health to where we feel like that could be the end of any conversation. Stop talking, stop thinking, stop feeling, you’re crazy.”
“They be like, ‘You need your meds, you’re not on your best mental state right now.’ No, I know what’s going on, and I’m not having it,” he added.
See Kanye’s full “Drink Champs” part two interview above.