Here we go. After a bunch of teases and a heavy helping of existentially maddening (and seemingly calculated) controversy, the full Kanye West x Charlamagne tha God interview has been released.
Across nearly two hours, West and Charlamagne discussed what West describes as his breakthrough. "I think I'm in a stronger place than I ever was, after the breakdown or as I like to say, the breakthrough," West said at the top of the interview when asked how he was doing these days. His 2016 hospitalization, West added, was inspired by a variety of factors including "fear, stress, control, being controlled, [and] manipulation."
Later, around the nine-minute mark, West elaborated further. "I just wanted to say like there was elements about going to the hospital and having a breakdown or a breakthrough that was fire," he said. "It was incredible, the feeling." Now, West said, he wants to destigmatize the vocabulary surrounding mental health. "Something inspired in the wrong context will come off as, I don't wanna say crazy because I also wanna change the stigma of crazy and I wanna change the stigma of mental health, period . . . Best believe I'm gonna take the stigma off the word crazy. People will take something that's enlightened, put it in a different context, and then call it crazy to try to diminish the impact and the value of what I'm actually saying."
West also addressed the current status of his relationship with Jay Z. According to West, a sit-down is in the future. "I haven't seen him, but I can feel him," he said, adding that he was "hurt" by Jay and Beyoncé skipping his wedding with Kim Kardashian.
Charlamagne also got West to open up about his return to Twitter, the Harriet Tubman $20 bill, Scooter Braun, the increasingly damaging Trump shit, and more. Catch the full Eli Russell Linnetz-directed experience here.
Charlamagne also spoke about the experience on The Breakfast Club:
