Ye, the artist and producer formerly known as Kanye West, took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, saying that he regretted his recent antisemitic behavior and that he hoped to be forgiven by “those I’ve hurt.”
“I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,” he wrote. “I love Jewish people.”
In the ad, Ye attributed his behavior, which included professing a love for Adolf Hitler, to untreated bipolar I disorder, during a period when he had stopped taking medication. Bipolar disorder is a severe condition in which periods of exhilarating mania alternate with deep depression. It is generally treated with mood stabilizers, like lithium, or with antipsychotics, in combination with therapy.
Ye wrote that the disorder had been caused by a brain injury that he suffered in a car crash in 2002. He has periodically talked about the crash in interviews, saying that he recorded his debut single, “Through the Wire” (2003), while his mouth was wired shut.
Bipolar disorder is believed to be caused by a combination of factors, including genetic vulnerability, stressful life events and substance use. There is little evidence that brain injuries can cause the disorder, though head injuries are known to contribute to symptoms of psychosis, like delusions or hallucinations.
The ad on Monday echoed an apology that Ye made on social media to the Jewish community in 2023. In early 2025, during a four-month period that Ye described in the new ad as “a manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior,” he took back that apology, declared himself a Nazi and pledged his love for Hitler. In the following months, he ramped up his antisemitic behavior, selling T-shirts adorned with swastikas and releasing a song that glorified Hitler.
A spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement on Monday that Ye’s apology to the Jewish people was long overdue but did not undo his extensive history of antisemitism. “The truest apology would be for him to not engage in antisemitic behavior in the future,” the spokesman said.
In the ad, Ye wrote that the scariest part of his mental illness was that it had persuaded him that he was not sick. “It makes you blind, but convinced you have insight,” he wrote, adding, “I lost touch with reality.”
“One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar-type 1,” he went on, “are the disconnected moments — many of which I still cannot recall — that lead to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body experience.”
Ye also apologized to the Black community, adding, “I am so sorry to have let you down.”
The rapper said a new regimen involving medication and therapy had proved “effective.”
“I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness,” he said. “I write today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home.”
Derrick Bryson Taylor is a Times reporter covering breaking news in culture and the arts.
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