Why we should see Kanye West as more than the Trump-supporting, bi-polar genius, headline machine

Keeping up with Kanye should be its own show. God knows it’s a full-time job. West is one of the most prolific, wacky, attention-courting artists out there. This is in part thanks to him embracing his creative powers and mental health issues at the same time. Despite doing his best to dissuade fans with his Trump politics, brash statements and trolling audiences with songs like Lift Yourself, Kanye could be our most important mental health icon of his time.

Why we should see Kanye West as more than the Trump-supporting, bi-polar genius, headline machine

Controversies

There was a time when Kanye West was a little easier to pin down. His story was simpler. The personality traits that have made him such a divisive figure weren’t quite so obvious. Sure, his ego was always apparent, the Taylor incident was the one that launched a thousand memes and lost him many more fans (at least for a time). Rebuilding from there, Kanye went about his art the right way, combining the work ethic of his earlier work with a more experimental approach. The resulting album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is his most critically successful album (94/100 on Metacritic). It captures Kanye at his most ambitious and self-aware, musing on the downsides of having a Kanye sized ego while employing equally huge studio productions to produce his most unique work to date.

Birth of Yeezus

Then the balance shifts wildly. If Yeezus was another rebirth, it was not born of the same self-awareness and vulnerabilities of its predecessor. Instead, as the name Yeezus indicates, the ego was back at its most bloated and unstable. However, the album was the most minimalist music West had ever released, a “protest to music”. The tour for the album used visuals featuring explosions, fire, mountains, masked beings, creatures and an appearance from Jesus.

Kanye and his wife Kim Kardashian

Always an attention courting celebrity West’s public persona went into overdrive around this time. Kanye has been a constant in most media publication’s weekly work for nearly two decades now. Sometimes it’s for villainous celebrity stories like the Swift spectacle or his support for Trump. Other times its for more celebrated stories like premiering clotheslines at the Paris fashion show. Sometimes it’s a mix: at the launch of his creative content company DONDA West declared he was going to “pick up where Steve Jobs left off”.

Kanye West performing last year

Creative output

DONDA has been responsible for a lot of the visual elements to West and his musical friends since. The company was founded to bring creative types together to produce new experiences and products. Like Kanye in recent years, DONDA has produced works in multiple media including Film, Art, Cosmetics, Stage Design and Marketing.

Similarly, the man himself began operating on more and more planes. Ambition has never been a problem for Kanye. As well as his growing fashion company, he became a co-owner in the music streaming company Tidal, wrote and directed short films, and launched an architecture firm called Yeezy Home.

As far back as May 2013 West had declared “I want to do product, I am a product person, not just clothing but water bottle design, architecture ... I make music but I shouldn't be limited to once place of creativity". This captures Kanye in the last decade better than any celebrity scandal, questionable quote, his ever-changing musical directions or his links with Donald Trump.

Mental Health struggles

In this period of extensive creativity and the start of his new happy, domestic life, West has opened up about the mental health issues he has dealt with. In true Kanye fashion these statements and episodes have been well publicised and not always with the levity brought to the issue by other celebrities.

Despite West telling David Letterman he has Bipolar Disorder earlier on the show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman”, a lot remains unknown about Kanye’s mental health issues. In 2016 at his creative peak he was hospitalized mid-tour with temporary psychosis due to sleep deprivation and dehydration. His Lyrics post this incident have reflected these changes, but the old Kanye remains. On Yikes he tells his audience: “See, that's my third per-, That's my bipolar shit, n-, what? That's my superpower, n-, ain't no disability, I'm a superhero! I'm a superhero!”

Finding the Balance

So, is Kanye a good example for balancing good mental health and creativity? Maybe…maybe not. What matters really is his openness about it. To speak of it as a something he candela with and use. His ability to harness his creativity while also seeking help and talking openly about his issues must be commended. If his openness on the issue inspires his fans to get the help they need then maybe that alone is worth celebrating.

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