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5 Things We Learned From Kanye West’s Interview With David Letterman: Mental Health, Family and More

Sitting down with Ye! Kanye West took fans inside his mind during a wide-spanning interview on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman.

During an hourlong conversation with David Letterman, the rapper, 41, opened up about everything from his mental health to his family to his music career. He also invited the former late-night host, 72, to one of his Sunday Services — and even dressed him in Yeezy clothing.

Kanye-West-5-Things-We-Learned-David-Letterman-Interview
Kanye West attends the the Versace fall 2019 fashion show at the American Stock Exchange Building in New York City on December 2, 2018. Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Related: Kanye West’s Most Outrageous Moments

“I was frightened [to interview Kanye], honestly, because I had only met him a couple of times,” Letterman admitted on Sunday Today With Willie Geist earlier this month. “I knew that depending on the day, you weren’t quite sure which path you were going to be on.”

Before season 2 of the Netflix talk show premieres on Friday, May 31, take a look at five things we learned from West’s candid episode.

Related: Kanye West’s Most Intriguing Quotes of All Time

On His Mental Health
West spoke about how his life has been since being diagnosed with bipolar disorder two years earlier. “When you’re bipolar, if you don’t take medication every day to keep you at a certain state, you have potential to ramp up and it can take you to a point where you can even end up in the hospital. You start acting ‘erratic,’ as TMZ would put it,” he said, noting that he has not taken medication in eight months.

“This is like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle,” he continued. “If someone has a sprained ankle, you’re not going to push on him more. With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse.”

On His Parents
The Grammy winner said he is “becoming more like” his dad, Ray West. “That’s my genetic coding,” he said. “My mom talked about moments where my dad had ran on stage and grabbed microphones and did what he felt was right, but he wasn’t as famous as me, so he got into a little less trouble.”

Similarly, Kanye noted that he and wife Kim Kardashian notice similarities between his late mom, Donda West, and the couple’s four children: North, 5, Saint, 3, Chicago, 16 months, and Psalm, 2 weeks. “We see her inside of them so much,” he said. “This would have been the funniest time of her life.”

On His Diet
The “Jesus Walks” MC admitted that he weighs “about 20 [pounds] over what” he would like. He said he eats three meals a day and had fried eggs for breakfast that morning. “I call it live-its, like the Rastas. They don’t use the word ‘diet’ because it has the word ‘die’ in it,” he noted.

Related: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s PDA Moments

On His Music With Jay-Z
Kanye said he thinks Jay-Z is just as “self-centered” in his lyrics as he is. “We’re rappers. You’re self-centered,” he argued. “That’s what we do. We tell our story and then people relate to the story.”

On His Feud With Drake
The fashion designer briefly referenced his drama with Drake when he revealed that the Toronto native’s song “Crew Love” contains one of his favorite lyrics of all time. “An artist I will not mention because I’m not allowed to mention him or any of his family members has a line … well, we had a little beef last year,” Kanye said. “He has this line that I love that says, ‘I told my story and made history.’ Like, ‘made his story’ and ‘made history.’”

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