Last week, Charlamagne tha God was scheduled to go head-to-head with Kanye West in a "Timestalk" conversation centered around mental health, but opted to cancel the speaking engagement because he thought it ran the risk of being "unproductive." On Tuesday night's Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Charlamagne further explained his decision.
Apparently, he had a change of heart upon seeing footage of Kanye's manic conversation with Jim Brown and Donald Trump in the oval office.
"When I saw him in the White House, he said that he wasn’t on his meds, he had gotten misdiagnosed, he didn’t have bipolar it was sleep deprivation, so I was like 'I think he needs to figure that out,'" Charlamagne explained to Colbert. "For what I’m trying to do, which is elevate the conversation of mental health in the black community, and you know try to eradicate the stigma around mental health, I think the conversation would be a distraction."
Charlamagne also inferred that Kanye's African excursion did not prevent the "Timestalk" from going as planned; the Chicago rapper would have dutifully complied and returned to NYC had it not been for Charlamagne's insistence in the matter.
According to Charlamagne, Kanye was actually relieved when the radio to call things off. The Breakfast Club host was simultaneously using the "Timestalk" platform to promote his new book, Shook One.