Kanye West has elaborated on his mindset during manic episodes in which he made strongly antisemitic comments.
On separate occasions, the rapper and fashion designer, legally known as Ye, had said “There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi … I love Hitler”, had accused Jewish people of trying “to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda”, and designed clothing featuring swastikas.
The comments were widely condemned, and led to Ye being dropped from a lucrative Adidas partnership, and by his talent agency. He previously also made statements targeting Black Americans, such as claiming “slavery was a choice” and putting the slogan “White Lives Matter” on a T-shirt.
Ye took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal on Monday to apologise for the comments in an open letter addressed “to those I hurt”, saying the comments were caused by bipolar-1 disorder, itself caused by brain injuries incurred from a serious car accident.
“It makes you blind, but convinced you have insight. You feel powerful, certain, unstoppable,” he wrote. “I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret … I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”
Now, in an email interview with Vanity Fair, Ye has added further details. He said he made the apology not for commercial reasons – his new album Bully is expected to be released soon – but because “these remorseful feelings were so heavy on my heart and weighing on my spirit. I owe a huge apology once again for everything that I said that hurt the Jewish and Black communities in particular. All of it went too far. I look at wreckage of my episode and realise that this isn’t who I am. As a public figure, so many people follow and listen to my every word. It’s important that they realise and understand what side of history that I want to stand on. And that is one of love and positivity.”
Asked how he has made amends to people in his personal life, Ye replied: “Every day that I wake up, it’s a checklist of everything that I said – at least what I can recall – while in a bipolar episode. All of the family bonds, deep relationships, and lifelong friendships that I worked so hard to build over so many years were all tarnished by all of the horrible statements that I made so impulsively.”
He said that a manic episode in 2025 lasted four months, and a change in medication made him depressed, leading to “effective and stabilising course correction” at a rehabilitation facility in Switzerland.
“Finding the right dosage is difficult, but it’s important and critical to finding the right balance with the illness,” he said. “Zombifying otherwise becomes a side effect of a high dosage. The side effects as such have been a reality for me at times … I’m just trying to find what works for me so that I can continue down this positive course.”
In February 2025, Ye said that following a consultation with a doctor, he believed he had been misdiagnosed as bipolar, and was instead autistic, telling a podcast host he had stopped taking medication for his bipolar disorder.
In his Wall Street Journal apology, Ye said that his diagnosis as autistic was not accurate. “It’s not just me who ruins their entire life once a year despite taking meds every day and being told by the so-called best doctors in the world that I am not bipolar, but merely experiencing ‘symptoms of autism’,” he wrote.
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