Kanye West’s long-awaited eighth studio album Ye has arrived and the project’s transparency left behind more questions than answers in the end.
More specifically, on the second cut “Yikes,” Kanye alluded to a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, calling the disorder a “superpower” rather than a “disability.” It left it up in the air on whether this was a clear admittance of the mental health condition that the public assumed Ye was dealing with or simply a way to twist that speculation into his own narrative.
Well, in a newly-released interview with Big Boy, recorded on the night of the Wyoming listening party, Kanye confirmed that he was indeed diagnosed with a mental condition at the age of 39.
“I’m so blessed and so privileged because think about people that have mental issues that are not Kanye West, that can't go and make that [album] and make it feel like it's all good,” he addresses around the 7:22 mark. “Think about somebody that does exactly what I did at TMZ and they just do that at work, right? But Tuesday morning, they come in and they lost their job and they can’t go back and make that. That's why God put that on me at age 40. I never been diagnosed until I was 39 years old […] diagnosed with a mental condition. [...] But like I said on the album, it's not a disability, it's a superpower.”
The full interview lasts just over 10 minutes as Big Boy and Kanye peel back the layers involving the whole process of creating Ye, the decision he made to toss the album out just a month before it came out, the album’s title inspiration, and why the seven-song track list is the sweet spot. Catch it below.