Radio host cancels live TimesTalk with Kanye West
RADIO host Charlamagne Tha God announced the cancellation of his upcoming TimesTalk with Kanye West about mental health, saying the conversation could be damaging, seemingly in reference to West’s mental state.
The Wednesday conversation had been set to revolve around West’s self-reported battles with anxiety and bipolar disorder.
“Normalising being mentally healthy is a conversation that I really wanted to have with Kanye because he’s been so vocal about his own mental health struggles,” Charlamagne, host of Power 105.1’s nationally syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club,” said on Monday in an Instagram post. “Unfortunately I think to have that conversation with him right now would not be productive and a total distraction from the point of the convo which is to eradicate the stigma of mental health especially in the black community.”
“TimesTalks” is a live conversation series run by the New York Times, which did not address why the discussion was cancelled but told The Washington Post in a statement that “full refunds are being issued.”
West has not responded to the cancellation.
West has recently been outspoken about his struggles with bipolar disorder, particularly in the recent news cycle surrounding his latest record “ye,” released in June. The cover art for that record was a photograph of Wyoming mountains with the words “I hate being Bi-Polar its awesome [sic]” scrawled across it in green handwriting. And, on the song “Yikes,” he raps of being bipolar: “That’s my superpower . . . ain’t no disability. I’m a superhero! I’m a superhero!”
He then spent the ensuing months discussing his mental health in interviews. For example, he appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and said it was important to be open about his mental health, “especially with me being black.”
“We never had therapists in the black community. We never approached taking a medication,” he said.
Some fans, though, thought West’s presentation of his disease, especially his lyrics calling it a “superpower,” was potentially harmful.
Anja Burcak, a blogger who says she has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Type 1, wrote on health website the Mighty that ?stating that bipolar disorder is a superpower without acknowledging its dark side is not only misleading, but has the potential to make fans less likely to seek treatment.”
West’s behaviour remained a hot topic of conversation in the ensuing months as he advocated for President Donald Trump despite great criticism from fans and peers. He got into arguments with the cast of “”Saturday Night Live”” because he insisted on wearing a red Make America Great Again baseball cap and implied that slavery was a choice on the part of slaves.
The breaking point for many people - including, it seems, Charlamagne - was his meeting Thursday with Trump in the Oval Office. Wearing his now-signature MAGA hat, West ranted fairly incoherently about several different topics, including crime lord Larry Hoover, his own IQ and hydrogen-powered airplanes.
He also said that though he was “diagnosed with bipolar disorder,” a doctor “looked at my brain” and “he said that I actually wasn’t bipolar, I had sleep deprivation, which would cause dementia 10 to 20 years from now.” — WP-Bloomberg