Kanye West attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 09, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California.

Rich Fury/VF20/Getty Images for Vanity Fair

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Rich Fury/VF20/Getty Images for Vanity Fair

Even if you’re not a fan of celebrity gossip, you’ve probably heard that there’s something going on with the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. He’s exhibited increasingly erratic behavior, including relentless online harassment of his ex-wife, reality TV queen Kim Kardashian and her current boyfriend, comedian Pete Davidson. Now he’s been banned from performing at the Grammys, and was recently suspended from Instagram for a day.

For years Ye’s behavior has been puzzling to observe – ranging from announcing plans to run for President, to moving into a windowless basement room inside of a stadium to complete his last album, to high profile feuds with everyone from Jay Z to Jimmy Kimmel. He has admitted that he struggles with bipolar disorder and that instead of medical treatment he uses his art as therapy

.Fans, critics and those who write and talk seriously about the arts are just not sure how to talk about the situation.

Aisha Harris of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour joins us to unpack some of the complexities. And we speak with mental health advocate Bassey Ikpi who offers a personal perspective on Ye’s behavior.

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Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Kira Wakeam. It was edited by Jeanette Woods with additional editing from Ciera Crawford. Our executive producer is Natalie Winston.