Charlamagne Tha God & Kanye West TimesTalks Event Cancelled
A New York Times-sponsored public conversation between radio host Charlamagne tha God and Kanye West about mental health in the black community has been cancelled, with Charlamagne explaining on Instagram today that the Oct. 17 event would have been “a total distraction.”
“Normalizing being mentally healthy is a conversation that I really wanted to have with Kanye because he’s been so vocal about his own mental health struggles,” wrote Charlamagne (see the post below). “Unfortunately I think to have that conversation with him right now would not be productive and a total distraction from the point of the convo which is to eradicate the stigma of mental health especially in the black community.”
The Times confirmed the cancellation of the TimesTalks event, with a note on its website reading, “This event is CANCELLED. Charlamagne tha God and Kanye West have cancelled their appearance for a TimesTalks scheduled for October 17.”
The event, which was to have taken place at Manhattan’s Town Hall, would no doubt have drawn considerably more attention than the popular TimesTalks series might typically generate. Last week, West’s rant in the Oval Office prior to a lunch meeting with President Donald Trump dominated headlines and cable news coverage, and raised speculation over the rapper’s mental health.
More recently, West tweeted a video on Saturday decrying “mind control,” or “when people try to influence you through social media and try to tell you what to do…”
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