Reason for Kanye West’s hospitalization revealed as “psychiatric emergency”
By Sewe Ishola
American rapper, Kanye West was hospitalized on Monday in Los Angeles for exhaustion, hours after he canceled the remainder of his 2016 tour and went off on a rant at his last concert.
However, the real reason for his hospitalization has been revealed. According to TMZ’s report, the Los Angeles Police Department said that it had responded to a call in the West Hollywood area at 1:20 p.m., but that the encounter became a “medical emergency” and was handed off to the Los Angeles Fire Department. In a recording of the Fire Department’s dispatch call obtained by TMZ, the matter was referred to as a “psychiatric emergency.”
Mr. West’s representative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the call had come from the rapper’s doctor and that he was taken willingly to the U.C.L.A. Medical Center for evaluation.
As news of the tour cancellation and Mr. West’s hospitalization spread, the rapper’s friends and collaborators took to social media with messages of support. “He’s obviously going thru a tough time,” Terrence Henderson, the rap executive known as Punch, wrote. “Maybe things u don’t know about. When it hit the fan are you still a fan?”
The producer and record executive 9th Wonder added: “Been knowing the brother upwards of 13 years. Mental healing is a serious thing, no matter what. Stay strong Kanye West.”
Chance the Rapper, in a BBC Radio appearance on Tuesday morning, also addressed the situation, calling Mr. West a “big brother” figure. “I want to just extend this prayer and extend this love from all the way in Britain,” he said. “We might come back early to come see this man.”
Mr. West has been especially prolific this year. In addition to releasing a new album, “The Life of Pablo,” in February, he has presented two fashion collections and performed more than 30 shows during the initial North American leg of the tour, which ran from August through October.
Last month, Mr. West dramatically cut short a festival appearance in New York when he learned on stage that his wife, Kim Kardashian West, had been tied up and robbed at gunpoint in a Paris apartment. She has since receded from the spotlight, but had been scheduled to make her first public appearance in more than a month on Monday night at a charity gala in New York.
Instead, following news of Mr. West’s hospitalization, Ms. Kardashian West was photographed returning by plane to Los Angeles.