Why Talking About Ye - the Artist Formerly Known as Kanye West - Is Complicated
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2022
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
For years Ye's behavior has been puzzling to observe - ranging from announcing plans to run for President, to moving into a windowless basement room inside of a stadium to complete his last album, to high profile feuds with everyone from Jay Z to Jimmy Kimmel. He has admitted that he struggles with bipolar disorder and that instead of medical treatment he uses his art as therapy
.Fans, critics and those who write and talk seriously about the arts are just not sure how to talk about the situation.
Aisha Harris of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour joins us to unpack some of the complexities. And we speak with mental health advocate Bassey Ikpi who offers a personal perspective on Ye's behavior.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You don't have to be obsessed with pop culture to know that something is going on with |
| 0:04.0 | Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West. |
| 0:07.2 | Spongspeople for Kanye West claim the Grammy awards have barred him from performing over |
| 0:14.2 | online post about his ex Kim Kardashian and threats to her current boyfriend, Pete Davidson |
| 0:19.6 | and racial slurs against the Daily Show host Trevinoa who is also hosting the Grammy |
| 0:25.0 | since year. Ye is nominated for five awards, including album of the year, but he was |
| 0:30.3 | banned from performing after weeks of her attic behavior that included relentlessly trolling |
| 0:34.9 | his former wife and her current bow and releasing a music video for the song Easy that |
| 0:40.0 | shows a claimation figure with a remarkable resemblance to Davidson being kidnapped and |
| 0:44.8 | buried alive. Ye was also suspended from Instagram for a day, |
| 0:54.8 | and a change.org petition to remove from the lineup at next month's Coachella music |
| 0:59.0 | festival has tens of thousands of signatures. He's lashed out against pretty much anybody |
| 1:04.3 | who criticizes or even comments on his behavior. Daily Show host Trevinoa drew his |
| 1:09.3 | eye after a monologue where he called out Ye's harassing behavior toward Kim Kardashian, |
| 1:14.8 | even as he expressed concern for Ye himself, noting Ye self-admitted struggle with bipolar |
| 1:20.0 | disorder. |
| 1:21.0 | With Kanye, we don't know how to feel, we don't know how to worry, and I think Kanye doesn't |
| 1:24.9 | seem to understand that he goes, well, leave me to create my art. Yeah, but Kanye, you |
| 1:28.1 | told us you have problems. Now, when we worry about that, you say we shouldn't worry because |
| 1:33.1 | it's not problems or it is problems. Which is it? |
| 1:35.6 | Trevinoa is not alone in wondering just how to react to what started out as celebrity |
| 1:39.9 | drama, but seems to have turned into something else. Gavin Godfrey is a writer and editor |
... |
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