Kanye West suggests Jewish doctor may have wanted to kill him

The rapper said his mental health issues were ‘misdiagnosed’ by a Jewish doctor, and that he could have ended up like Michael Jackson and Prince

Kanye West attends the Givenchy Spring-Summer 2023 fashion show during the Paris Womenswear Fashion Week, Oct. 2, 2022. Photo by Julien de Rosa/AFP via Getty Images

By Benyamin Cohen October 30, 2022

Kanye West, who has previously said he has bipolar disorder, told paparazzi on Friday night that his mental health issues were “misdiagnosed” by a Jewish doctor who “would have had me on medication.”

West, whose legal name is now Ye, also seemed to suggest that a Jewish doctor might want to kill him.

“If I was on medication right now, then one pill could’ve been swapped out and it would be Michael Jackson and Prince all over again,” West said, referring to two legendary Black singers who both died because of overdoses to prescription medicine. “Because I didn’t take the medication, I am able to speak to you guys clear of thought and transparently.”

The rapper then pulled out his phone to show the photographers what he said was a spreadsheet listing of high-level media executives who are Jewish.

Watch the interaction below:

Kanye West continues his anti-Jewish tirade, discussing how a Jewish doctor intentionally misdiagnosed him & could have killed him.

He then rants again about Jews controlling entertainment and media, insinuating that the number of Jews in this profession is problematic. pic.twitter.com/N2qyoNe8fM
— Ari Ingel (@OGAride) October 30, 2022

The unfounded accusations and conspiratorial talk is the latest development in three weeks of antisemitic tirades by West that have sparked international condemnation. Since he tweeted Oct. 9 that he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people,” number of corporations have severed ties with him, including his record label, Def Jam; the Creative Artists Agency, and the sneaker company Adidas,

West showed up uninvited to Skechers headquarters in Southern California, where executives at the shoe brand escorted him off the campus. The episode became fodder for a parody Skechers commercial on “Saturday Night Live.”

This weekend, a mural of West in his hometown of Chicago was covered in black paint; only a silhouette of him remained visible. It was not immediately clear who changed the mural, but its original artist, Jason Peterson, shared a picture of it on Instagram with the caption, “We need better role models.”

very crazy i’m witnessing this right now.. they’re painting over the kanye mural in chicago pic.twitter.com/xC3xKDkFV7
— ? (@RuTheTailor) October 26, 2022

And several antisemitic messages appeared throughout Jacksonville, Fla., over the weekend, including a sign declaring “End Jewish supremacy in America” on a highway overpass. At TIAA Bank Field where the Georgia-Florida college football game took place, “Kanye is right about the Jews” scrolled a cross a video screen.

Benyamin Cohen is a senior writer at the Forward and host of our morning briefing, Forwarding the News. He is the author of two books, My Jesus Year and The Einstein Effect.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO