Ye Says He Had a Mental Health Episode While Making Bully

Ye said his latest run of music landed differently because he was working through a mental health episode at the same time. Speaking on Tuesday, July 28, at the Urban One Summit by phone with Gamma CEO Larry Jackson, he framed the period around Bully as both creatively productive and personally chaotic.

“A year into making the project [Bully], I went into an episode,” Ye said. “So, this right here is a celebration and a victory, and a success story of people who have dealt with mental health crises.”

He added that the response to his work has taken on more weight in light of everything else happening around him. “To be able to come out of it and have No. 1 records, with all the things that were done, with all the things that were said, for you guys to be so forgiving and so supportive just means the world to me,” he said.

That “episode” appears to line up with the months of volatile posts he made on X last year, when he launched into a long public tirade that included more anti-Semitic remarks, support for Hitler, praise of Nazism, KKK garb, and offensive comments about his peers, among other posts. Ye has since apologized and attempted to atone, but the fallout has continued to follow him.

Several European concerts have been canceled in the wake of his comments, even as some other markets have remained open to him, including the United States. Earlier this year, he also set a new mark for the highest-grossing concert by a rapper with back-to-back shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.