Kanye Shouts at Kris Jenner, Asks 'Did You Have an Effect on My Mental Health?' in New Documentary

Six years in the life of the artist formerly known as Kanye West are chronicled in a new documentary from director Nico Ballesteros, in theaters Friday.

The doc, titled In Whose Name?, is, at times, an uncomfortable but illuminating watch, providing unprecedented access to multiple key moments from across several eras of Ye’s push-and-pull relationship with the music industry and the public at large. At one point in the film, Ye says he would “rather be dead than to be on medication,” a reference to his previously reported bipolar diagnosis.

Mental health, in fact, acts a throughline for the doc, echoing the topic’s consistent presence across much of Ye’s catalog. In one scene, Ye is seen arguing about speculation over his own health with Kris Jenner, mother to his former wife, Kim Kardashian.

“No one from the family has taken any responsibility for my hospital visit,” Ye tells Kris. “But if you were to go online, that’s 50 percent of what people say, at least. Am I lying?”

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At first, Kris responds, simply, “It doesn’t matter,” with Ye reacting by shouting back at her.

“It do matter!” he screams. “It does matter! It does matter!”

After Kris notes that she hasn’t yet finished her sentence, she continues.

“It matters to us and you,” she says. “It doesn’t matter what the internet says. It matters what we think, Ye.”

Ye, starting to walk away, returns with a question.

“So what do you think, did you have an effect on my mental health?” he asks.

Out of frame, a voice, presumably Kris’s, is heard responding while seemingly fighting back tears.

“Yes, yes, yes. I’m saying yes, and I love you,” she says, her voice cracking. “I love you. 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.”

In Whose Name? also captures two confrontations, including one from Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che stemming from Ye’s MAGA hat-wearing appearance on the show back in 2018.

“We look up to you,” Che says backstage at Consequence looks on and later tries to intervene. “We love you. What you got against us?”

Che goes on to argue that “airing it out like that without letting us be able to reply” is “kind of foul,” with a behind-the-scenes worker, seemingly connected to the SNL team, cutting in to tell Nico to stop recording.

This encounter, plus another one featuring Swizz Beatz pressing Ye about the larger negative impact of him wearing a MAGA hat, marks somewhat of a rarity in the doc, as few in the long-acclaimed artist’s inner circle are observed stepping up to him. In one of several emotional scenes with Kim, the reality TV superstar and SKIMS co-founder makes efforts to urge her then-partner to not continue ostracizing those closest to him and risking his own ostracization from the music industry at large. Like the aforementioned moment with Kris, this too leads to shouted defiance from Ye.

The most recent footage arrives at the end, with Ye asking aloud, then answering with a “yes,” whether it was worth it to blow up multiple deals, i.e. his previous ties with Adidas and Gap. At the time, Ye would have been roughly two years removed from his Hitler-praising Alex Jones interview. While an Instagrammed apology later followed those widely criticized statements, Ye had returned to Nazism as his go-to attention economy currency by February of this year.

Among those also seen popping up during In Whose Name? are Pharrell, LeBron James, Lady Gaga, Elon Musk, Marilyn Manson, Chris Rock, Jay-Z, and numerous other familiar faces. Per previously released press notes, Nico pulled from over 3,000 hours of footage when editing the film, which ends in a self-referential manner with remarks from Ye questioning how a viewer might interpret its final cut.

One of the biggest takeaways from Nico’s doc, perhaps, is that fame, especially at this level, is a uniquely lonely and inherently isolating experience.

Kanye Shouts at Kris Jenner, Asks ‘Did You Have an Effect on My Mental Health?’ in New Documentary

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