Kanye West has officially been back on Twitter since April but in recent weeks, he’s been tweeting more regularly than usual. While his tweets have covered a wide range of topics, from tweeting out clips of celebrities like Will Smith and Elon Musk praising his influence to tweeting out cryptic, deep thoughts like “Chasing validation is like putting your soul in a plank position,” West's tweets took a turn towards candid on Friday, July 27 as he opened up about his own mental health.
Seemingly compelled to open up after watching McQueen, the new documentary on Alexander McQueen’s life and legacy, West wrote a series of tweets indicating how deeply he related to and was affected by McQueen’s mental health struggles during his lifetime. “I saw the Alexander McQueen documentary and I connected with his journey. I know how it feels to want to take your life back into your own hands even if it means taking your own life”, West wrote in the first tweet.
He continued, “To make this clear and not weird I’ve had these kinds of thoughts and I’m going to tell you things I’ve done to stay in a content place”, before going on to offer some advice gleaned from his own experiences: “How to NOT kill yourself pt 1: Avoid being around people who make you want to kill yourself”. At the time of reporting, West has stopped talking about his mental health or giving more thoughts on staying in a content place, instead switching gears and tweeting about his Yeezy shoe line. It’s unclear if he plans to return to the topic of mental health or McQueen.
This is one of the few times that West has gone on the record to talk honestly about his mental health. Shortly after ye was released in June, West opened up about being “diagnosed with a mental health condition” at age 40 and, as implied by lyrics on ye as well as the album’s cover art, that mental health condition being bipolar disorder.