Hours after cancelling the remainder of his US tour dates on Monday, Kanye West has been hospitalised in Los Angeles.
The news comes following a series of onstage rants directed at former close friends Beyonce and Jay-Z, and an endorsement of President-elect, Donald Trump.
According to NBC and TMZ, The Life of Pablo rapper was admitted to UCLA Medical Centre on Monday afternoon at approximately 1.20pm after “acting erratically” while at the home of his trainer, Harley Pasternak.
Sources close to the 39-year-old are claiming that by the time emergency services arrived, West was calmer, but management and law enforcement were able to convince him to go to the hospital.
The world-famous rapper is also said to have been handcuffed to a gurney while being transported to the hospital, which is a standard procedure.
"A source familiar with the case said Los Angeles police responded to a medical welfare call about 1:20 p.m," NBC reports, adding, "No criminal activity was involved; the decision to hospitalise West was for his own health and safety."
After being held under observation for several hours, West was discharged and no representatives have publicly commented on the incident as yet.
Sources are also claiming that the father-of-two was being checked out for severe sleep deprivation prior to his hospitalisation.
On Saturday, West left his Sacramento fans furious after appearing on stage 90 minutes late for a live performance, rapping just three songs and then launching into a tirade. He then reportedly said, "“Get ready to have a field day, press… because the show’s over."
West is also reported to have suffered a mental breakdown earlier in the year after his New York Fashion Week show was panned by critics and on social media.
“He had his agent fire all 30 of his staff after the fashion show and got rid of his phone so people can only contact him via e-mail,” a source told Page Six at the time. “He had a nervous breakdown after the show, and that’s what triggered it all [the mass firings],” they continued.
The hospitalisation comes weeks after West's wife, Kim Kardashian West was held at gunpoint and robbed of $14 million worth of jewellery in Paris.
More to come.
Top Comments
I think it's damage control.
Its good he is getting the help he obviously needs.
That NBC quote makes it sound suspicious. "The decision to hospitalise West was for his own health and safety." Was it perhaps for a mental breakdown?
How is it 'suspicious' when that's literally what they are saying essentially?
At the time the article was written, all we knew was that Kanye had been taken to hospital. There was no indication as to whether it was for medical or psychiatric reasons.
The excerpt that you quoted ("The decision to hospitalise West was for his own health and safety.") translates to "we were worried that Kayne was so mentally unwell that he might harm himself"...so they are basically saying that he's had some sort of serious mental health deterioration and event (which colloquially we might refer to as a breakdown)
It's a bit like saying "the man was taken to the burns unit with severe burns" and saying that it sounds suspiciously like he was burned.