Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Entertainment
Entertainment

Charlamagne Tha God Withdraws from NYT Mental Health Event with Kanye West and Calls It a ‘Distraction’

Posted byBy Tia Berger | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

“The Breakfast Club” radio host Charlamagne Tha God pulled out of the New York Times sponsored event featuring rapper Kanye West that was scheduled to take place on Oct. 17.

The Times Talk event was centered around mental health in the Black community, but Charlamagne announced on Monday via Instagram the affair was canceled because “it would have been “a total distraction.”

The “Breakfast Club” personality and West have both been extremely vocal about their struggles with mental health. However, Charlamagne felt that with everything going on with the rapper, the conversation with Yeezy would have taken away the significance of mental health issues.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo9btk5gKKi/?utm_source=ig_embed

“Normalizing being mentally healthy is a conversation that I really wanted to have with Kanye because he’s been so vocal about his own mental health struggles,” Charlamagne wrote. “Unfortunately I think to have that conversation with him right now would not be productive and a total distraction from the point of the convo which is to eradicate the stigma of mental health especially in the Black community.”

The cancellation of the event follows after West’s meeting with President Trump last week. During the rapper’s visit, he spoke about being wrongly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and claimed he was really sleep deprived.

“I wasn’t actually bipolar. I had sleep deprivation which can cause dementia 10 to 20 years from now when I wouldn’t even remember my son’s name,” West noted.

Charlamagne has been an advocate for mental awareness in the Black community and urged Black men to “invest in a therapist.”

“I think Black men especially should go to therapy and seek out mental help because we need it,” the radio personality wrote.

Charlamagne conducted an interview in April with West about the rapper’s hospitalization. The two bonded over their mental health struggles, but both stars have expressed different political views.

“Kanye West does not represent all Black people,” Charlamagne told MSNBC. “I’m Black and I don’t support Donald Trump in any way, shape or form.”

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top