Ye's Brain

Firstly, I must state that I am in no way part of the professional world of psychologists or psychiatrists. I can only attest to my own experiences as a man living with bipolar I. With that being said, I can see the artist formerly known as Kanye West. His behavior, erratic and somehow authentic in a woeful way extends from his words and actions.

Bipolar comes at you not as spark from a lighter but being doused with jet fuel and dared to ignite a match. With Ye it seems like he’s crossed too many lines too many times. I can relate. I’ve made light of a woman’s death, only to argue that it was out of recognition that the detective on the case be contacted for someone to inform on her murder. That case still remains unsolved….

For Ye, his inability to decipher whether it’s appropriate to talk down on the Jewish community or the black Americans, and to seek record deals and to try to curry favor to a public sick of his antics, it’s sad. He’s had every opportunity to show himself to be a changed man but there is no change with bipolar. It’s a permanent diagnosis that can only be treated with therapy and or pharmaceutical drugs. There is something wrong with the system in Ye’s brain.

He neglects the notion that he is a multi-millionaire who continues to rack up billions of streams every year, even given his reduced state. Like a fire twisting in the wind of his mind, he has the creative impulses of a painter but the dire motives of a murderer.

It should never get to a literal level with the latter. He, however, must fix his own system. Maybe it doesn’t involve drugs given by a doctor or visits to a psychiatrist. It helps me. But I’m an individual separate from Ye. We must deal with our bipolar disorder in our own ways. To consider that his every waking hour is like dragging a weight not dead but alive and always chastising is to approach to an understanding of his plight.

So he goes to Jewish leaders and takes out whole ads in the Wall Street Journal with the simplicity and grace of a sledge hammer. Everyone can see through the screen that he lies over his own face. He’s obviously attempting to ingratiate with his audience. Yet should it work? Should he be redeemed and embraced back into the lives of those he once called supporters?

This system is broken because of some actions that the medical profession deemed as irregular and distressing. Ye’s brain is a multifaceted piece of advanced equipment that should be studied. His musical prowess behind the boards and on the microphone should be studied. But what should become of the system that yields residue that is harmful and odious?

What should happen to Ye for the rest of his life? He is reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars still. He won’t have a financial strife most likely for the rest of his life. But what does that say about the system that is Ye's brain? What does that say about the man who achieved so much and threw away his chances for reconciliation from most of the people who cheered him on, even after he disgraced himself so many times.

His history with homosexuality with his cousin and to try to eliminate, to tamp down on those memories and have to be a force in an industry dominated by machismo and mishomosexual behavior, he had to have the courage at one point to stand up and speak out against such strife. As a man of color, he made it apparent that it’s okay to show your true face. While I’ve never had a homosexual experience, it is common for men to have known same-sex situations and have it manifest in their later years, on the brink of adulthood or deep in their senior years.

Ye’s brain is now a thing of curiosity. It portends that something positive, special may happen or shows just how the wreckage of his thoughts may spring forth the death knell to a creative entity. It is up to Ye to make the choice whether to conduct himself properly. If he had any misconceptions or self-delusions before, let them be swept away like so many cobwebs from an otherwise sparkling manor.

The system is still broken because he is focused on uniting sexual imagery with faith-based dogma, incredulously. As an atheist, I only respect the faithful and those who call themselves non-believers. Agnostics remain cowards, so Ye is about right. I don’t know how he thinks he can get away with being a Christian and still be obsessed with pornography and ensuring that his wife, Bianca Censori, wears as little clothing as possible.

It is within these murky moral waters that comes up the notions of piety, ostentationious, and self-abasement, and false pride. That’s the misconception lurking through hip hop and Ye altogether. They say he’s full of himself. They say he’s got an outsized ego. In reality, he possesses a smidgen of any trace of self-esteem. He had a spark earlier in his career but he quickly squashed that fire with the muddiness of his own self-indignation.

With a system so complex and varied, it would seem that you would need decades to unravel the spool of intellectual and emotional yarn that is embedded in Ye’s consciousness.

Take for example his ad in the WSJ. This would be a momentous time for him to declare his sincere apologies to those he may have hurt. But it seems that the system is like a television with a snowy background that can’t quite transmit the message. Either that, or it is switched off completely at the mention of his name.

He’s attempted to restart the engine to his brain and the people who went to his concerts, bought his albums, streamed his singles, and enjoyed witnessing someone that can be trusted with their own systems. Because that’s what it is. People go undiagnosed with mental conditions every day. They don’t become manifest until someone is caught up in an occurrence they didn’t even see coming.

With the power of Ye’s brain, he has suggested, wrongly, that his stunts are really just performance art. Siding with Hitler, saying the Holocaust never happened, and announcing that slavery was a choice with no context is not art. These inflammatory examples are the veils he places over his actions to make them seem like he’s deep or erudite. In reality, he’s just wilding out and acting up to assuage the fiery pit of stunted emotions he’s experienced since the untimely death of his mother.

Now, as he prepares to go into his fifth decade on this earth, he’ll have to assess the system. It may be bitter and a struggle but he should win in the end. He still has talent. That is a currency that excused most of his previous faux pas. At this point, Ye’s brain is on a desolate roadway with dust kicking up and waiting for a mechanic to lift up the hood and see what’s going on with the engine.

If he is able to come to a conclusion about his life and his children and his ex-wife and his current wife, he just might allow the system to correct itself. Maybe he doesn’t need a mechanic to “fix” him. Maybe Ye’s brain can fix itself. He might even surprise himself and become a Mr. Fix it on his own system. There are no ready, easy, microwave answers to Ye’s dilemma. What he craves is attention. What he can get is that in great quantities. All he has to do is show up to an award show and wave around an unloaded AR-15 and claim he’s king of the world. Of course, this would be a criminal act that would most likely result in well-deserved prison time. And that’s if he’s even invited to the next function where presenters dole out prizes like Halloween candy. It would be a nightmare but it would bolster his insatiable thirst for gaining the ears and eyeballs of the world.

The essence of Ye’s brain is a system that functions only when it is convenient. If he doesn’t show himself to be a complete, asinine person, then he should be regarded as someone who wishes to change his ways. But like the late great Michael Jackson, it all begins with that reflection in the mirror.

A system that is so corroded as expensive jewelry that lay at the bottom of the ocean deserves to have someone clean it. Whether that’s his wife or a friend of the family or the cousin that he engaged in sexual congress with, he should be able to save his brain. And what happened to the cousin? He actually did murder a pregnant woman and is still serving time. Ye became a major pop cultural icon and a presence on the global stage. Like an ambassador for the ability to believe in oneself and to achieve one’s dreams, he has initiated a race for himself to be challenged by the buffets that come with the mixture of mental illness and fame and fortune.

This is only Ye’s brain. Not anyone else’s. Not even my own. Every individual with a diagnosis knows they have to chart their own course and find their own harmony within the delicate play of the discordant symphony. Ye’s brain is a system that presents itself as a fine tuned machine that spits out various ideals, positive or negative.

The story of this system is one that should be studied for decades to come. It is so important to realize the truth. In this torrent, humid environment of mental instability, it is easy to write off Ye as someone who cannot be forgiven. Just as the Jews forgive the bad actors that carried out the atrocities of the Holocaust and black Americans have allowed for reconciliation among the descendants of white slave owners, will these communities see Ye as different? It’s hard to tell. On one scale, it tips over and the coins tinkle to the floor when considering his egregious behavior. On the other scale, it recognizes his undeniable talent and abilities. That’s the issue with the system. It’s like a mobile device that transmits great sound and images but then becomes distorted and darkened.

There may never be a solution to the problem of a staticky system. Ye might have to go through his days like a wayward vagrant, never fully realizing––or wanting to completely know his self-worth and the respect for other individuals. He just might be a soul who will be tied to only his wife and close family. He might become estranged from his children. Maybe they might have systems that are out of whack as well. What could come of Ye is a reckoning similar but not that same as Diddy. He just might wake up to find himself in a mental institution and preparing to take another pill before bedtime.

This doesn’t have to be reality, of course. The system might redefine itself and reinstitute a level of balance and a sense of reality and facts. Ye’s brain should carry him aloft. Let him not be beaten for his virtues or relegated for his “meh” performances. Let the same system that spawned My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy be remembered rather than a system of corruption and ugliness.

May the system just continue to be flawed but benign and spring forth the wondrous fruits of virtuosity and truth. In this system, let Ye’s brain be the replacement for all things banal and uninteresting. This system, though troublesome, might be the catalyst to highlight the flaws in others and reverse them into portraits of splendor.

Give Ye’s brain the opportunity to check itself and become the signature feature of an artist. Like a beacon amidst a wasteland, let it shine.