NEED TO KNOW
Kanye West says he felt “emasculated” by Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner in the new In Whose Name? documentary.
The disgraced rapper — who was dropped by his talent agent in February following a series of antisemitic rants — can be seen in the documentary sharing a tense phone call with his then-wife, now 44, following his 2018 visit to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump.
Before meeting his then-mother-in-law Jenner, West, now 48, can be heard telling someone else on the phone how people try to “control” him and “scare” him.
“I felt emasculated in this home. Kris Jenner and my wife. I felt emasculated,” he tells the person on the phone in the documentary, which features footage filmed over six years by director Nico Ballesteros.
The 3,000 hours of man-on-the-street style footage which Ballesteros — then only 18 — filmed with West’s permission provides an unvarnished look into the rapper’s mental state at the time.
While sporting a gray sweatshirt and “Make America Great Again” cap, West confronts Jenner, now 69, with the same frustrations.
“Y’all emasculated me and made me feel like a piece of s—, and the only way you got away with it is because I was medicated,” he says to the businesswoman.
He then claims that “no one from the family has taken any responsibility for my hospital visit.”
When West says it’s being talked about online a lot and asks if he’s “lying,” Jenner tells him, “it doesn’t matter.”
“It do matter! It does matter! It does matter,” he screams, as Jenner’s boyfriend Corey Gamble tries to mediate.
Jenner then tries to tell West that “it doesn’t matter what the internet says” and that “it matters what we think.”
“What do you think? Did you have an effect on my mental health?” West asks her.
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Jenner then says she did and tells West she loves him.
“I don’t want you to be not perfect. I love you, and I want my daughter to love you the way you want her to love you,” she says.
Kardashian and Jenner did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
In 2018, West appeared to confirm his bipolar disorder diagnosis alongside the release of his album Ye — which featured “I Hate Being Bipolar. It’s Awesome” on the cover.
The following year, Kardashian also confirmed West’s bipolar disorder diagnosis in an interview with Vogue.
At the time, she told the outlet that the couple had reached a “pretty good place” with his mental health, though “it is an emotional process, for sure.”
However, issues rose again in October 2022, when West shared antisemitic posts online, including a comment that he was going to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” The rapper was temporararily suspended from X and restricted on Instagram, and lost his brand deals with Adidas, Balenciaga and Gap. This past February, the rapper called antisemitism “just some bulls— Jewish people made up” and then wrote in a since-deleted post that he’s “never apologizing” for his hateful comments.
