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Kanye West has issued his lengthiest apology but for his previous antisemitic feedback that derailed his profitable partnership with adidas, decimated his billion-dollar internet value and broken his legacy as a socially-outspoken hip-hop icon.
In a full-length advert titled “To Those I’ve Hurt” revealed in The Wall Street Journal on Monday (January 26), Ye penned a candid and heartfelt letter in search of forgiveness from followers and clarifying that he’s not a Nazi.
The 48-year-old blamed his offensive conduct on his 2002 car accident, saying his actions have been a results of mind accidents suffered throughout the crash that developed into bipolar dysfunction, which remained undiagnosed for many years.
“I misplaced contact with actuality,” he wrote. “Things obtained worse the longer ignored the issue. I mentioned and did issues I deeply remorse … Looking again, I grew to become indifferent from my true self.”
Kanye then detailed the realities of being bipolar, saying he can’t keep in mind some “disconnected moments” throughout his “fractured state” and “gravitated in direction of essentially the most damaging image I may discover, the swastika,” which he even printed on T-shirts and sold them by means of his Yeezy web site.
Turning his consideration to the Jewish group, Ye wrote: “I remorse and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and I’m dedicated to accountability, therapy and significant change. It doesn’t excuse what I did, although. I’m not a Nazi or an antisemite. I like Jewish folks.”
The G.O.O.D. Music founder additionally apologized to the Black group, who he known as “the muse of who I’m” and a gaggle that has “held me down by means of the entire highs and lows and the darkest of instances.”
“I’m so sorry to have allow you to down. I like us,” he wrote.
Ye, fka Kanye West, takes out a full-page within the Wall Street Journal to apologize to the Black group, and for antisemitism:
“I misplaced contact with actuality” pic.twitter.com/Po8s4gNz5P
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 26, 2026
Further detailing his psychological well being struggles, Ye went on to disclose that in early 2025 he fell right into a “four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive conduct that destroyed my life,” leaving him feeling suicidal.
After hitting “all-time low,” his spouse, Bianca Censori, inspired him to hunt assist.
“As I discover my new baseline and new heart by means of an efficient regime of medicine, remedy, train, and clear residing, I’ve newfound, much-needed readability,” he mentioned. “I’m pouring my power into optimistic, significant artwork: music, clothes, design, and different new concepts to assist the world.”
However, Kanye dismissed docs’ earlier diagnoses that his reckless conduct have been merely “symptoms of autism.” He additionally credited Reddit boards as a supply of “consolation,” serving to him to comprehend “I used to be not alone.”
Yeezy signed off by writing: “I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free cross, although I aspire to earn your forgiveness. I write in the present day merely to ask in your endurance and understanding as I discover my approach dwelling.”
The letter comes greater than three years after Kanye West started stoking controversy with a flurry of racially offensive feedback and strikes, aimed primarily at Jewish folks.
His antisemitism reached fever pitch throughout a December 2022 look on Alex Jones’ Infowars present the place he praised Adolf Hitler and mentioned he noticed “good issues” concerning the infamous ex-Nazi chief.
Despite the widespread backlash, which resulted in adidas terminating their hugely successful Yeezy sneaker and clothing deal, Ye didn’t let up and controversially launched the track “Heil Hitler” in May 2025.
In a shocking U-turn later that month, the rap legend mentioned on X (previously Twitter) that he was “achieved with antisemitism” and “love[s] all folks.”
The full letter may be learn beneath.
Twenty-five years in the past, I used to be in a automobile accident that broke my jaw and prompted damage to the best frontal lobe of my mind. At the time, the main focus was on the seen harm—the fracture, the swelling, and the fast bodily trauma. The deeper damage, the one inside my cranium, went unnoticed.
Comprehensive scans weren’t achieved, neurological exams have been restricted, and the potential of a frontal-lobe damage was by no means raised. It wasn’t correctly recognized till 2023. That medical oversight prompted critical harm to my psychological well being and led to my bipolar type-1 analysis.
Bipolar dysfunction comes with its personal protection system. Denial. When you’re manic, you don’t suppose you’re sick. You suppose everybody else is overreacting. You really feel such as you’re seeing the world extra clearly than ever, when in actuality you’re shedding your grip fully.
Once folks label you as “loopy,” you are feeling as for those who can’t contribute something significant to the world. It’s straightforward for folks to joke and snigger it off when the truth is this can be a very critical debilitating illness you’ll be able to die from. According to the World Health Organization and Cambridge University, folks with bipolar dysfunction have a life expectancy that’s shortened by ten to fifteen years on common, and a 2x-3x increased all-cause mortality charge than the final inhabitants. This is on par with extreme coronary heart illness, kind 1 diabetes, HIV, and most cancers – all deadly and deadly if left untreated.
The scariest factor about this dysfunction is how persuasive it’s when it tells you: You don’t need assistance. It makes you blind, however satisfied you might have perception. You really feel highly effective, sure, unstoppable.
I misplaced contact with actuality. Things obtained worse the longer I ignored the issue. I mentioned and did issues I deeply remorse. Some of the folks I like essentially the most, I handled the worst. You endured concern, confusion, humiliation, and the exhaustion of attempting to have somebody who was, at instances, unrecognizable. Looking again, I grew to become indifferent from my true self.
In that fractured state, I gravitated towards essentially the most damaging image I may discover, the swastika, and even bought T-shirts bearing it. One of the troublesome points of getting bipolar type-1 are the disconnected moments – a lot of which I nonetheless can’t recall – that led to poor judgment and reckless conduct that oftentimes appears like an out-of-body-experience. I remorse and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am dedicated to accountability, therapy, and significant change. It doesn’t excuse what I did although. I’m not a Nazi or an antisemite. I like Jewish folks.
To the black group – which held me down by means of the entire highs and lows and the darkest of instances. The black group is, unquestionably, the muse of who I’m. I’m so sorry to have allow you to down. I like us.
In early 2025, I fell right into a four-month lengthy manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive conduct that destroyed my life. As the scenario grew to become more and more unsustainable, there have been instances I didn’t wish to be right here anymore.Having bipolar dysfunction is notable state of fixed psychological sickness. When you go right into a manic episode, you’re in poor health at that time. When you aren’t in an episode, you’re fully ‘regular’. And that’s when the wreckage from the sickness hits the toughest. Hitting all-time low a number of months in the past, my spouse inspired me to lastly get assist.
I’ve discovered consolation in Reddit boards of all locations. Different folks communicate of being in manic or depressive episodes of an analogous nature. I learn their tales and realized that I used to be not alone. It’s not simply me who ruins their total life every year regardless of taking meds day by day and being informed by the so-called greatest docs on this planet that I’m not bipolar, however merely experiencing “signs of autism.”
My phrases as a frontrunner in my group have world affect and affect. In my mania, I misplaced full sight of that.
As I discover my new baseline and new heart by means of an efficient regime of medicine, remedy, train, and clear residing, I’ve newfound, much-needed readability. I’m pouring my power into optimistic, significant artwork: music, clothes, design, and different new concepts to assist the world.
I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free cross, although I aspire to earn your forgiveness. I write in the present day merely to ask in your endurance and understanding as I discover my approach dwelling.
With love,
Ye.
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