The artist formerly known as Kanye West says he wants to “take accountability” for his past hateful remarks directed at the Jewish community.
In a video shared to the verified Instagram account of Rabbi Yoshiayao Yosef Pinto, who has just under 78 thousand followers on the platform, Ye is seen offering remorse before ultimately entering into an embrace.
As longtime readers will recall, Ye’s long-held status in the pop culture zeitgeist was widely questioned in the wake of a slew of hateful statements in recent years, including his decision to express admiration for the late piece-of-shit Adolf Hitler in a 2022 Alex Jones interview.
“I feel really blessed to be able to sit here with you today and just take accountability,” Ye is seen saying in the newly shared video, which is said to have stemmed from a conversation that took place on Nov. 4. “I was dealing with some various issues, dealing with bipolar also. So it would take the ideas I had and have me take them to the extreme where I would forget about the protection of the people around me and/or myself.”
From there, Ye elaborated further on his struggles with bipolar disorder, which were recently made the subject of a well-received documentary helmed by burgeoning filmmaker Nico Ballesteros.
“People aren’t that knowledgeable about the bipolar and the cause or what causes it and the way you act when you have this disease,” Ye said. “So it’s like if you left the house and you left your kid at the house and your kid went and messed up the kitchen and messed up the garage and messed up the living room. Then when you get back, it’s your responsibility because that’s your job. That’s the way I look at it. It’s like I gotta go clean up the kitchen, I gotta clean up the living room, I gotta clean up the garage.”
Ye continued: “It’s a big deal for me as a man to come and take accountability for all the things that I’ve said and I really just appreciate you embracing me with open arms and allowing me to make amends. This is the beginning and the first steps and the first brick-by-brick to build back the strong walls.”
Following two volumes of his and Ty Dolla Sign’s presumably defunct Vultures series, Ye is expected to be releasing his first full-fledged solo album since 2021’s Donda before year's end. Titled Bully, the project is currently slated for a December release, though Ye himself has not directly confirmed this.
As for Nico’s In Whose Name? documentary, released theatrically in September, it’s expected to be getting the director’s cut treatment shortly. As of this writing, the Apple pre-order page for the film listed a VOD release date of Nov. 13. However, it wasn't immediately clear whether the VOD release would include additional footage and/or a new cut of the film.