It has been a rough week for beloved rapper Kanye West.

During his San Jose concert on Nov. 17, he lectured his fans. His fans Thursday were incredibly patient, putting up with a music performance that contained very little actual music. They came in knowing that West can be quite the wild card onstage. They probably had also heard the cries on social media that West did too much talking during his concert last month at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. Then he told the crowd at the San Jose concert he would have voted for President-elect Donald Trump if he had voted in the election.

“I told ya’ll I didn’t vote, right? But I didn’t tell you … I guess I told you that if I would have voted, I would’ve voted for Trump.”

An eruption of boos came from the crowd for his candid admission.

Days later, West delivered another public rant at Sacramento on Saturday, Nov. 19. West arrived at his venue 90 minutes late, and after performing only four songs, he stopped. Instead of continuing to perform, he launched a lengthy wide-ranging rant, claiming he was “on his Trump shit.” He slammed Hillary Clinton, Mark Zuckerberg, the radio, MTV, Jay Z and Beyoncé.

He also touched on the issue of racism, telling African Americans to “stop focusing” on it so much.

“This world is racist, okay? Let’s stop being distracted to focus on that as much. It’s just a f*****g fact. We are in a racist country, period. Do not allow people to make us talk about that so f*****g long.”

His comments go in a completely opposite direction than those of a man who has called out racism. West once famously said, “George Bush does not care about black people” and claimed there was racism against him in fashion industry.  

The new comments on racism did not go over well on social media.

Shortly after his Saturday concert, the hashtag #KanyeisOverParty began to trend on Twitter with people criticizing West’s political views and his hypocrisy over racism.

Sunday, Nov. 20, just hours before he was set to take the stage, he cancelled the Los Angeles show. Then on Monday, West canceled the 21 remaining dates of Saint Pablo Tour.

At 1:20 a.m. on Monday, LAPD was called for a “disturbance” at West’s house and discovered it was a “medical emergency.” He was then transferred to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center by paramedics out of concern for his own health and safety. He is being treated for severe sleep deprivation.

Throughout Monday, West deleted all pictures off his Instagram. Within the span of a few hours, he posted 100 low-quality pictures of clothes and models with no captions.

The Saint Pablo Tour has been packed with drama and confusion. Since the rapper admitted his views on Trump, responses have been strong. He faced not only backlash from his fans, but Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli both personally responded to his rant.

West has also struggled with his mother’s passing, and the anniversary of her death was last week. Aside from West’s own personal struggles, his wife, Kim Kardashian, was robbed earlier this fall and she has been out of the spotlight since.

Though it is very important not to jump to conclusions, West has referenced his mental health issues in his music, saying that doctors once diagnosed him as bipolar and having mentioned taking the antidepressant Lexapro on a couple of occasions. In his music video “I Feel Like That,” West is seen sitting exhausted on the floor and repeating depression and anxiety diagnoses.

Thousands of fans have been sending the rapper their support and positive energy, with many fearing that his mental health issues have been flaring up recently.

There has been no official comment from West’s reps or the Kardashians on the situation.

Featured Photo Credit: Feature photo courtesy of Super 45 | Música Independiente on Flickr.

Maleeha Coleburn is a freshman journalism and government and politics double major and can be reached at cmaleeha16@yahoo.com.


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