Given that I don’t own any of the clothing he designed, I am wary of characterising myself as a true devotee, but one of Abloh’s more durable ideas is the purist-tourist paradigm. He dictates a spoken word verse where he headfirst jumps into thoughts of both violent misdeeds - "premeditated murder," he repeats - and brutal self-harm - "And I think about killing myself, and I love myself way more than I love you, so …" he says.After my wife sent me a text asking if I’d seen the news about Virgil Abloh’s passing this week (I had not), I sat waiting for the fair-weather well-wishers to pile on overcompensatory praise. That transparency, in fact, can sometimes be a bit jarring - on opening track "I Thought About Killing You," we're immediately immersed in Kanye's head, talking to himself in different tones. Kanye's direct and transparent addressing of an often underplayed diagnosis is a big deal. While some others in the hip-hop community have already used their platforms to raise awareness around mental health - including Kanye's buddy Kid Cudi, with whom he'll be releasing a collaborative album next week under the name Kids See Ghost - none carry the same "everyone-drops-everything" quality that the release of a new Kanye West album does. Perhaps Kanye's visibility could be used as a starting point to jumpstart discussions around stigma surrounding psychiatric diseases and disparities in mental health care. African Americans are more likely to suffer from serious mental illnesses, but only use mental health services at half the rate of white Americans.
One in every five adults suffers from mental illness, and 2.6 percent of adults are bipolar, according to the nonprofit National Alliance on Mental Illness. It's also important to note the background regarding mental health and its perception in the communities in which Kanye exists. This is most evident in the closing moments of the song: The already frenzied "Yikes" kicks into an even higher gear at certain points of the song, as the rapping and singing that Kanye bounces between quickly progresses into a pointed, intense fit of shouting that still manages to fit alongside his pristine production. For instance, "Yikes," the album's second track, feels unstable and manic - and that's the point. He also gave a nod to the medication in the Vic Mensa assisted "U Mad": "That Lexapro got me drowsy, then a heart attack." However, ye is the first time he's publicly revealed his diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and the depth, brevity, and openness with which he discusses his experience charts new ground in a genre that has been slow to encourage sharing about mental illness.Īs any Kanye album does, ye transports us, Being John Malkovich-style, into his mind. Ye is far from the first time that Kanye has addressed his mental health - on his last release, 2016's The Life Of Pablo, he included a direct reference to his medication on "FML": "See, before I let you go / One last thing I need to let you know / You ain't never seen nothing crazier than / This ni-a when he off his Lexapro," referring to the commonly prescribed antidepressant.
Within the confines of that album's succinct seven-track, 23-minute running time, Kanye directly addresses his own mental state, even including album art depicting a common novelty shop shop phrase: "I hate being bipolar it's awesome."
Kanye West has never been shy about letting everyone know exactly how he's feeling.Īfter an erratic and tiring six weeks of faux-introspective philosophical tweets, loudly declared support for the 45th president of the United States, and off-the-rails appearances on gossip TV shows, the lead-up to the Chicago-born artist's eighth studio album has finally come to a close with Friday's release of ye.