To be clinically diagnosed as mentally ill can be overwhelming to many. There’s a lot of added pressure as to what is expected, versus what is considered not normal; as a person who has struggled with mental illness, I can attest to said pressure. Similar to Mr. West himself, I was diagnosed with Bipolar I and have experienced the volatility that it brings to your life for the past 4 years. With the volatility comes this unspoken inability to be mindful and in tune with your emotions. What I mean by this is as follows… When you’re happy you’re afraid of being too happy because said happiness could be the mania and euphoria associated with it. In the wake of the vice versa of being sad same applies except you’re afraid of being too sad that you’re in a manic depression. Inevitably as a person who suffers from this mental illness, you are not afforded the “normal” experience of being happy and sad; you constantly have to assess and be overly insightful of your mental state to ensure that the ever-looming dark cloud doesn’t consume you into the abyss. To circle back to the mania there’s an element of paranoia that is associated with the elevated state. The list of symptoms that come with Bipolar is quite long and varies from person to person, but for the sake of this post, I am going to try and simplify the most common symptoms given my anecdote of speaking to people and having experienced the illness first hand. On the manic end, the most common symptoms are grandiose, and paranoia. The two are intersectional, amidst assuming that you are a god in every respective field, you also assume that being favoured by god you are also favoured by the devil. This alleged devil of paranoia manifests in your close friends, family, and co-workers. In regards to the grandiose, you assume you can come out victorious in any feat. This means that sometimes you think you are the world’s greatest gambler with a stratospheric IQ who can’t lose. The newfound sense of confidence manifest in every facet of life, this can be problematic because high levels of impulsivity occur because the given individual thinks they cannot be stopped. Meanwhile, the polar opposite of the lows/depression that is associated with Bipolar is quite the wide spectrum. For the sake of simplicity visualize the left side of the spectrum as your typical depression (self-deprecating thoughts, lack thereof confidence, loss of passion, and potential weight gain or loss). On the right side, it can be reduced to the feelings of the left amplified by 10 with suicidal ideation. Now that I have outlined what the illness entails it is time to psychoanalyze Mr. West’s recent media presence to determine if he exhibits Bipolar Manic tendencies.

Ye West is one of the, if not the most polarizing figure in Hip Hop as of late. This polarization is debated among the Hip Hop community and Ye fans alike. This debate can be broken down into two camps… “I don’t like Kanye because he’s too unhinged” versus “I love Kanye so much because of how unhinged and organic he is”. I fall into the camp of loving his unhinged antics because I think it makes him more human, though slightly egotistic. With that being said, although I try to be intellectually fair I do have a Pro-Kanye inherent bias that should be noted. I think that Kanye throughout his career has created an echo chamber amidst the culture. His polarization can be compared to the likes of Donald Trump, although both exist in different realms they tap into their polarization to garner support or hatred. Nonetheless, both have an element of brilliance when it comes to sparking a controversy that works in their favour. To help contextualize his most recent controversy which has been deemed by many as an anti-Semitic tirade I will provide a chronological account of the major events and statements that have been made on his behalf.

The 2022 Kanye controversy conveniently began with his Yeezy Season 9 fashion show that happened on Oct 3, 2022, which also happened to coincide next to Paris Fashion Week. That being said Ye and his models were caught wearing a shirt with branding on the back that said “White Lives Matter”. This a rather bold statement considering that the saying “White Lives Matter” is a contrarian statement often coined by the conservative far-right movement that deems “Black Lives Matter” as a tyrannical hate group to whites. The culture was outraged, but in typical Ye fashion, there was a division amidst different communities. Amidst the black community, there was a near-unanimous consensus that Ye had been acting in a fashion that was detrimental to the legitimacies of “Black Lives Matter” and the black experience in America. The most notable actors are Jaden Smith, Boosie Badazz, Diddy, and John Legend. Whereas, on the contrary, the conservative community was frothing at the mouth to get in touch with Kanye West as his pro-white antics fair well in a climate where a lot of white people feel as though they are constantly blamed for the hardships of every other race that of which includes the plight of black people in America. With that being said the most notable of people to want to get in contact with Ye was Fox New’s finest Tucker Carlson. The “White Lives Matter” tee was merely the beginning of the unprecedented controversy Ye would find himself in.

I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when i wake up i’m going death con 3 on jewish people the funny thing is i actually can’t be antisemetic because black people are actually jew also you guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball whoever opposes your agenda

Ye west, Oct 8, 2022. Via twitter

This statement by Mr. West is arguably the precedent/catalyst that opened the pandora’s box of public scrutiny which inevitably lead to one of the greatest cancellations we have seen of a billionaire to date. There is a lot to be unpacked with this comment that he made, so to chalk it up to antisemitic and the most heinous of statements I think is being intellectually unfair. Mainstream media had a field day with this comment and insinuated on multiple occasions that Mr. West was an antisemite, which is up for debate depending on how you interpret the semantics of the quote. First and foremost, I am going to explain the sentiment amidst mainstream media about this quote, thereafter, I will follow up with the “hot take” interpretation of the quote. The core of mainstream media’s anti-Ye sentiment was premised on the fact he said “Death con” instead of “DEFCON” which many thought to be a calculated play on words that Mr. West used to insinuate that he was going to bring about hellfire to the Jewish community with an offensive attack. If this were a calculated play on words It would meet the criteria of having antisemitic tropes, as to insinuate death to any community is quite a heinous statement with hateful rhetoric. With that being said though something we often forget to afford a public figure nuance that is afforded to the average man, even more so to the black public figure. So hot take alert I am going to premise my arguments with the nuance that Ye misspelled DEFCON due to autocorrect or ignorance of how the term is spelt. If such were the case how does it change the quote and underlying tropes associated with it? TRIGGER WARNING… If he misspelled DEFCON and meant to use the term the correct way it is spelt then there is nothing problematic about what he said. Mind you I want to give a disclaimer that I am not an antisemite, nor is my goal to promote hateful rhetoric. The strange case of Ye will be assessed on a case-by-case basis of what he has said. Now with that being said why is this not antisemitic? I’d argue that this isn’t antisemitic for a multitude of reasons, the first being that there is a fundamental lack of understanding as to what DEFCON means in mainstream media. I’d add that mainstream media presumes that to go DEFCON means that one is taking an offensive stance which is wrong. DEFCON is a defensive readiness position that is defined as follows…

“DeFCON: any one of five levels of U.S. military defense readiness that are ranked from 5 to 1 according to the perceived threat to national security, with 1 indicating the highest level of perceived threat”

Meriam-webster dictionary

Under the typo presumption, Mr. West was not insinuating he was going on the offensive towards the Jewish community, whereas, he was insinuating he was going on the defensive to potential slights he had faced from said community. Nothing in my opinion is wrong in responding to the slights of a perceived “aggressor”; this is true on the micro and macro scale, from domestic to global politics. To add to this, Ye said he was going to go to DEFCON 3 which is the lighter of the 5 with 5 being the least aggressive. If he said one I could see how it could be perceived as more problematic, however, 3 is relatively tame. To further assess the tweet, the part where Ye says “I actually can’t be antisemitic because black people are Jew also” is rather ambiguous but semi-problematic. The notion that black people are Jewish is an idea promoted by Black Hebrew Israelites, with that being said I cannot give a proper account of what type of group they are, because to some they are regarded as radicals who are anti-semitic, whereas, to others, they’re regarded as the true people of Israel. Their philosophy is that all black people are true Israelites and anyone else is considered illegitimate. This notion happens to have antisemitic tropes with little semblances of truth. In the west, there is an unspoken notion that all Jewish people are white, though this is not the truth. There are white and black legitimate Jews, although the black Jews are descendants of the Maghreb of North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia, as well as Egypt and Sudan. Mind you this is not all black people! In the same way, all white people are not Jewish. If Ye is a descendant of the people mentioned above then his claim is valid if not then his claim is illegitimate and falls victim to the Black Hebrew Israelite rhetoric. The larger theme of black people being Jews as well is half true, half false. Ye said this in an absolutist all-encompassing fashion when the reality is some black people are Jews. Though he did not illegitimatize the white people who are Jewish so there is nothing problematic there. Lastly, the final part of the tweet “You guys have toyed with me and tried to blackball whoever opposes your agenda” can be interpreted as an anti-establishment statement and not one that pertains to the Jewish community. Kanye has been an anti-establishment artist most notably on his 2013 track New Slaves.

As mentioned before this tweet was the catalyst for cancellation. After having posted this tweet Ye’s account was deleted on Twitter, along with his Instagram. On top of this, the now-branded antisemite Ye was beginning to get blackballed by the establishment as he had foreshadowed. Almost virtually all his endorsements began to get cut amidst his doubling down on his antisemitism/personal anecdote in doing his media rounds. This single handily shattered every big deal that he had, from Adidas, Gap, Balenciaga, Footlocker and many more. This rendered his net worth from plus a billion dollars down to 400 million dollars. Now as a Kanye fan, it is nearly impossible to keep up with the antisemitic tirade he has been on from October until December. Nor am I going to attempt to give a timeline to his antisemitism past the initial post of his I mentioned earlier in this article. But here is a link to a very credible timeline if interested. Although we all know Ye is no saint there are some things that I cannot endorse even as a big Ye fan. Dec 1, 2022, Ye found himself on the Alex Jones podcast where he championed Hitler without outwardly condemning him. It’s not a crime in the intellectual community to champion Hitler for his positive accolades whatever they may be, however, before championing any accolades the empathetic thing to do is to preface by saying Hitler was one of the most heinous people to exist. Ye blatantly did not do such which is downright irresponsible past the point of typical unhinged Ye behaviour. With that I cannot support him irrespective of whether it is mental illness or not, one should have basic empathy for the atrocities brought about by that man.

MENTALLY ILL OR CALCULATED?

Understanding if Ye is mentally ill under a bipolar framework is very difficult. The reason is that his personality is very grandiose, and has been so since he was repping the pink polo and backpack. This makes it very hard to discern when Ye is mentally ill or if he has been mentally ill his entire career. This is up for endless debate, however, one thing that isn’t up for debate is Ye’s contrarian attitude to polarizing issues. Whatever is societally regarded as uncool or controversial he attempts to reclaim. This can be said at the beginning of his career with the pink polo and backpack, midway through his career and arguably one of his most notable controversies attempting to reclaim the confederate flag on his Yeezus tour. The attempt to reclaim the confederate flag can best be used as a case study to support the claim Ye enjoys being contrarian and “edgy”. As a black man in America who would want to reclaim the confederate flag: an icon of the racist south that was pro-slavery during the civil war. However, irrespective he continued to use the confederate branding on his merchandise. In the wake of being asked about his motivation, he followed up with…

“React how you want,… Any energy is good energy the confederate flag represented slavery in a way. thats my abstract take on what i know about it, right?”

Ye west, 97.1 amp

Ye was being contrarian to the typical notion of the confederate flag and trying to re-brand it. With that being said he did not face a societal cancellation, he didn’t face being called mentally ill, nor did he lose brand deals or endorsements. His 2013 confederate flag campaign was afforded a sense of nuance societally as many chalked it up to be another form of his creative genius. His “antiblack” tropes continued in 2018; a year regarded as the beginning of the downfall of Ye’s mental health. With that being said since Ye has a history of pushing these “edgy” topics the likes of slavery, it begs the question of, whether is his antisemitism merely the 2.0 version of his confederate campaign with a more loaded topic.

Being bipolar I see parallels between Ye’s career and my thought process when manic. My unofficial diagnosis would be that Ye is experiencing hypomania which is often associated with Bipolar II. This is a lesser of the completely diluted mania of Bipolar I, although, it still has the element of grandeur and large worldly plans. The unhinged volatility of his career can be attributed to this potentially. However, to chalk up all his statements to mere mental illness and being deranged is a straw man argument in my opinion. I am not here to condone Ye’s behaviour by any means but I see fundamental inconsistencies with his past behaviour compared to now. We afforded him nuance and a lack thereof cancellation amidst him taking symbols that are regarded as hateful and trying to brandish them. Why is this same nuance and lack thereof cancellation afforded to his antisemitism? Mind you I am not ignorant and understand that there are levels to racism and bigotry. Kanye is very much so public enemy number 1 by dancing with neo nazi ideologies. However, the catalyst for this cancellation mob began with a tweet, why didn’t said mob begin with the rebranding of the confederate flag? On a societal level, I’d argue that theirs two tiers to racism… Tier 1 is a neo nazi (the most racist of racists) and tier 2 is your conventional racist (hates blacks and other people of colour). With that being said cancel culture often favours the cancellation of the tier 1 racist over tier 2. Mind you both are heinous and should be treated equally regarding punishment. Since Ye is moving like a tier 1 racist he is being subject to straw man arguments about his mental health. Though he is exhibiting traits of hypomania on a small scale in my opinion does not mean that everything he says can be chalked up to a diluted mental tirade. Simply because one suffers from bipolar does not mean they should be publicly ostracized as crazy given their views. Whether a tier 1 or 2 racist both are the same alike and if we afford tier 2 nuance, the same should be afforded to tier 1. Ye can be calculated and knows what he’s doing and to say he’s incapable given his illness is rather dismissive of the reality of living with a mental illness. As mentioned before there’s a divide in the Hip Hop and Ye community, However, given this climate the “I love ye” fans are almost in near unanimous consensus it’s time for the man to get a publicist. I am a firm believer that Ye irrespective of mental illness knows exactly what he is doing and his ultimate end goal is to pay less in child support and be an independent artist. This means that he is doing this to force the hand of the corporations and powers that be to drop him to liberate himself in typical Ye fashion. This is nothing new, however, it has a more bigoted spin.