Kanye West discusses his mental health, Trump support and why he's like Galileo with Jimmy Kimmel
Kanye West has given a typically philosophical interview to US broadcaster Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night show, in which he continued to defend his controversial support of Donald Trump as well as speak openly about his mental health.
West, who is 41, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live just over a week after his wife, Kim Kardashian, appeared on the show and told the host that her husband was almost a billionaire.
West seemed in good spirits during the interview, joking with Kimmel as well as calmly presenting his reasoning for his declarative statements. The segment follows an explosive interview with the rapper in May on TMZ, in which he sparked outrage after saying that 400 years of slavery "sounds like a choice".
It didn't take long for the host to bring up Trump, whom West has vociferously supported in spite of his fans' dislike of the US president.
Asked if he supported Trump, West explained that his previous comments representing having "the confidence to stand up and put on the [Make America Great Again] hat no matter what the consequences were."
"Just as a musician, African American, guy out in Hollywood, everyone around me tried to pick my candidate for me, and told me every time I said I liked Trump that I couldn't say it out loud or my career would be over, or I'd be kicked out of the black community, because blacks, we're supposed to have a monolithic thought, we can only be democrats," West said.
He continued saying that after being admitted to hospital in the wake of voicing his support for Trump, he "didn't have the confidence to take on the world and the possible backlash."
Supporting Trump, therefore, "represented overcoming fear and doing what you felt no matter what anyone said, and saying, "You can't bully me"." West continued: "I actually quite enjoy it when people are mad at me about certain things."
As for his famously contrarian nature, West suggested that his viewpoints were vilified because he was merely ahead of his time: "Just place a thought out there that everyone's not thinking sometimes," West said, citing the famed Renaissance thinker Galileo Galilei. "Gallileo, they wanted to chop his head off. Sometimes you just have to be fearless enough to break the simulation. I know you guys want to clap but everything I'm going to say is going to be amazing."
West also spoke about his experience of bipolar disorder, which he discussed in his recent album, Ye. "I think it's important for us to have open conversations about mental health – especially with me being black," he told Kimmel, "because we never had therapists in the black community. We never approached taking a medication."
West added that his condition had informed his creative practice, however: "I think it's good that when I had my first complete blackout at age 5, my mom didn't fully medicate me. Because I might have never been 'Ye. And there's times where at least I'm happy that I know [I'm bipolar.] Like even like for this interview, I knew I wanted to stay in a calm state."
