MUMBAI: Ye’s 2021 Thanksgiving prayer doubled as a mea culpa.
On Thursday, Nov. 25, the rapper, formerly known as Kanye West, shared a video of a choir singing, layered with audio of himself addressing some of his behavior over the years, including spending money “like crazy,” his 2020 presidential bid, wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, his drinking and temper.
“Hello my name is Ye and this is my super, super, super, super, super long Thanksgiving prayer,” he began. “On this Thanksgiving, I’m so thankful for family, my blood family, my fans and our haters. We love you, too.”
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The performer noted he wrote the prayer after taking his and Kim Kardashian’s son Saint West to his first football game. “My mini-me is a mix of two of my favorite things. Me and my wife’s face. All I think about every day is how I get my family back together and how I heal the pain that I’ve caused,” he said. “I take accountability for my actions. New word alert: mis-actions. The one thing that all my successes and failures have in common is me.”
He acknowledged that his “hair-trigger temper” was heightened by his drinking, which he said he did to “take the stress away.” Addressing his temper, he said, “I know none of y’all would ever picture this, but sometimes I scream and that screaming might have helped me tell off everyone who doubted me in music, but that screaming did not help me keep my family together.”
He referenced Kim and their family multiple times, including in regard to the manic episode he faced in 2016. “I was placed under heavy medication,” he recalled. “Since then, I went on and off the medication which left me susceptible to other episodes, which my wife and family and fans have had to endure.”
In a section on politics, Ye candidly said, “Good lord, my wife did not like me wearing the red hat,” a reference to the “Make America Great Again” hat worn in support of former President Donald Trump and in connection with his presidential campaigns.
“Being a good wife, she just wanted to protect me and our family. I made me and our family a target by not aligning with Hollywood’s political stance, and that was hard for our marriage,” Ye said in his prayer. “Then I ran for president without proper preparation and no allies on either side. I embarrassed my wife in the way that I presented information about our family during the one and, thank God, only press conference.”
During his first campaign event in South Carolina in July 2020, the star told the crowd that he and Kim had talked about abortion while she was pregnant with their first child, North West. “Even if my wife were to divorce me after this speech, she brought North into the world, even when I didn’t want to,” he told attendees. “She stood up and she protected that child.”
In his prayer, Ye noted, “All my dad had to say afterwards was, ‘Write your speech next time, son.'”
