Kanye West was admitted to hospital citing exhaustion and mental health issues after ending a set in New York after playing for only 15 minutes. Many sources close to the rapper have told the media that he is on the verge or has already had a mental breakdown due to stress from relationship breakdowns and from the intensity of his extensive touring.
There are of course a multitude of reasons that may have collectively contributed to Kanye’s mental breakdown and here are the main four that have been suggested to have the biggest contribution to the rapper’s breakdown.
The first being the pressures of his Saint Pablo tour. The rapper does not give himself a lot of time to recover from his strenuous shows, playing many back to back nights since the end of August. Many well established artists tend to only perform in and around 16 to 18 songs, including encores; However, Kanye’s average set list for one individual concert boasts more than 30 songs. These exhaustive performances in such quick succession would definitely begin to take their toll on even the most experienced veterans of the music industry.
The next reason is that his wife of two years, Kim Kardashian West, was bound and robbed in her hotel room in Paris by two burglars posing as police officers. Kim was left physically unharmed but was very shaken from the incident and has become much more subdued on her social media accounts since.
Kanye was in the middle of a set in Queens, New York, when he was informed of the news and abruptly ended the concert early telling the fans that there was “a family emergency” and that he was sorry but had to leave.
He has been said to be left understandably uneasy himself ever since the robbery. A source told US weekly that he has always had his wife come on tour with him and has been a massive source of support and inspiration to the rapper. After the robbery Kim decided not to travel on the rest of Kanye’s tour which has left him feeling isolated and alone.
The next reason which has contributed to the rapper’s declining mental health is that November is the month in which Kanye’s mother died in 2007 and he has admitted that he has never really properly dealt with this tragedy in his life.
Donda West died from complications resulting from cosmetic surgery she underwent in 2007 even after she was advised by several doctors not to go through with the procedures due to the combined risk of the surgery and her age.
She raised Kanye from the age of 3 as a single mother and had a very close bond with her son, as she often appeared at his performances and also had accompanied him at some of the award shows he had attended.
Due to this Kanye has since been known to have ‘public incidents’ close to the time of his mother’s anniversary. The most famous of these was when West rushed the stage in 2009 at the VMAs and interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for best female video of the year.
Kanye took the microphone from the country western singer and said “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!” Kanye then immediately fled the stage after saying this, leaving Taylor and the rest of the audience in shock and also left the rest of the world a meme or the two that would go on to become infamous.
The last reason that has affected the personal well-being of Mr. West is that he is now feuding with who was once his closest friend Jay-Z.
During his rant before he left the stage in Queens Kanye described how Jay-Z hadn’t returned any of his phonecalls and he had become distant from the 99 Problems rapper.
West said: “I’ve been sent here to give y’all my truth even at the risk of my own life, my own success, my own career. Jay Z – call me, bruh. You still ain’t called me.”
He also went on to add that he was disappointed in Beyoncé for only agreeing to perform at the 2016 VMA’s this year so long as she won best video of the year ahead of Kanye and ahead of Drake for Hotline Bling.
Jay-Z responded saying that he is sick of Kanye using him and Beyoncé to try and remain famous although he later wished the rapper a speedy recovery and hopes that he gets the help he needs.
Paul Dwyer