Kanye West’s shock tour continued Tuesday with an extremely candid interview at TMZ.
The rapper revealed to the newsroom that he was addicted to opioids and underwent liposuction in 2016 just before his mental breakdown.
“Two days before going to the hospital, I was on opioids. I was addicted to opioids,” he said in a video clip provided of the interview.
“I had plastic surgery because I was trying to look good for y’all,” West said, speaking to the TMZ staffers.
“I got liposuction because I didn’t want y’all to call me fat like y’all called Rob [Kardashian] at the wedding and made him fly home before me and Kim got married. I didn’t want y’all to call me fat so I got liposuction, right?” the rapper said.
West’s liposuction admission is somewhat startling because his mother, Donda West, died shortly after undergoing a tummy tuck, breast reduction and liposuction in 2007.
After getting his procedure done, West said, he began taking opioids ― two of them a day ― and started driving to work while on them. He also said he used them on tour.
“And then my boy … and I’d always ask my boy, you know, ‘We on tour give me some weed blah, blah, blah,’ so he had to go get me the opioids,” the rapper said. “And there was talks amongst my camp like Ye’s popping pills, so when he handed them to me he said, ’You know this is used to kill genius,’ so I didn’t take it. Two days later, I’m in the hospital.”
West continued talking to the staffers, saying, “I was taking two pills a day at the time. When I left the hospital, how many pills do you think I was given? Seven!” the rapper said, raising his voice. “I went from taking two pills to taking seven. So the reason that I dropped those tweets and everything is because I was drugged the fuck out.”
In the same interview, West also told TMZ about his love for President Donald Trump and said that slavery was a “choice,” before sportswriter and podcast host Van Lathan shut the rapper down.
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years ... for 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” West said.
“Like, you was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all? It’s like we’re mentally in prison. I like the word ‘prison’ because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. It’s like slavery, Holocaust. Holocaust, Jews. Slavery is blacks. So, prison is something that unites us as one race. Blacks and whites being one race. We’re the human race,” he added.
West later tweeted about his TMZ interview Tuesday evening and appeared to clarify some of his comments. Below are just a few of the tweets:
Need help with substance abuse or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.
