In the final shot of Kanye West’s video for his 2008 track Love Lockdown the rapper curls up into a foetal position in the middle of a bright white room, his head clutched desperately in his hands. It is a moment of vulnerability many might see as being at odds with the antagonistic, controversy-courting megastar, who declares himself a god, has snatched awards from the hands of Taylor Swift and makes dramatic outbursts on television chat shows.
Yet this week, as news broke of the singer’s hospitalisation in the psychiatric ward of UCLA, reportedly for stress and exhaustion following a week of erratic behaviour on stage and the subsequent cancellation of his tour, the pressures on hip-hop artists to conceal mental health vulnerabilities have come under almost unprecedented scrutiny.
West’s hospitalisation comes at a pivotal time for hip-hop’s complex relationship with mental health. Rather than distancing themselves from West’s possible mental health issues, fellow musicians such as Chance the Rapper, West’s recent collaborator, told the BBC he wanted to “extend a special prayer to my big brother Kanye West”.
Grammy-winning hip-hop producer 9th Wonder tweeted, “been knowing the brother upwards of 13 years. Mental health is a serious thing, no matter what. Stay strong Kanye West.”
9th Wonder (@9thwonder)Been knowing the brother upwards of 13 years. Mental healing is a serious thing, no matter what. Stay strong Kanye West. ✊
Kanye West"s travails help hip-hop open up on mental health
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