Dissecting my favorite Kanye intro, I Thought About Killing You; a thread:

TW // mentions of suicide, suicidal thoughts, and bipolar disorder

In the two years following the release of The Life of Pablo, it was becoming clear something was wrong with Kanye. With his wife being robbed in Paris while he was on tour, a rocky patch in his relationship with Kid Cudi, and cancelling the last half of his tour, Kanye wasn’t

in the best state when it came to his mental health. Soon after, it was discovered that Kanye suffered from bipolar disorder. Kanye’s newly discovered mental illness is a common theme throughout ye, with one example being referring to his bipolarity as a “superpower” on Yikes.

Being completely honest, ye was the first Kanye album I listened to. I’ve listened to Kanye’s music prior, with his more popular songs like Stronger and Power, but this album was my gateway into Kanye’s music; my first impression. I remember listening to it for the first time and

hearing the almost ethereal instrumentals on the intro. Having no context to what Kanye was going through at the time, hearing him express thoughts of premeditating murder on an unnamed individual was haunting to an extent. But now, having listened to his whole discography, it’s

time to dive back in and analyze one of Kanye’s most important songs to me.

Kanye opens up the song with this set of lines. Right at the start, he introduces his bipolar tendencies. We’ve all seen the slightly arrogant and happy Kanye, but the following lines introduce this new side of Kanye, one that uses premeditated murder to refer to suicidal urges.

He even references his narcissism in these lines as well. When I used to listen to this song, I always thought he was talking about his wife Kim, but the meaning of this track finally dawned on me as of today. (probably not today when I tweet this)

Here, Kanye references his openness when it comes to his opinions. Around the time of ye’s release, you already know about Kanye’s donning of MAGA hats, and I’m sure you’re familiar with what happened on the Hurricane Katrina telethon, or at the 2009 VMAS and the TLOP shows.

This also doubles as a message for himself and anyone else to be open about their own thoughts. In an interview, Kanye said “I’ve thought about killing myself all the time... like Louis C.K. said: I flip through the manual. I weigh all the options.’”

These lines refer to Kanye’s reluctance to apologize for his actions. But him saying it as “I think I’m supposed to make it sound better” insinuates that he somehow cannot make his suicidal urges sound better, due to his mental illness. Now, these thoughts are out of his control.

Following these lines, Kanye shows that he wants to liken his struggles to other people suffering from mental health or depression, but then ends these lines saying that loving himself is not a problem, again tying into Kanye’s narcissism. The problem is that he cannot control

his suicidal tendencies as a result of his bipolar disorder.

And then Kanye’s spoken word intro to the song ends, and the verse begins. Kanye talks about how he seeks the help of his family as he suffers from his bipolarity, but follows it with a somewhat strange line. From what I can interpret, Kanye is likening himself up to be as

radical as an Islamic terrorist state such as ISIS. But even then I’m still not sure, so please don’t take offense to it.

Kanye asking for coke and no rum insinuates he seeks out sobriety, while mentioning an unknown lover’s drug habits. Contrasting the media’s portrayal of Kanye, he asserts he is sober while people around him are intoxicated. He follows with an insincere reference to dead musicians

Ending this portion of the verse, Kanye says that his name will be lasting. Throughout the upper echelons of music-related social media, Kanye’s work is critically acclaimed and always discussed, meanwhile on mainstream media, Kanye is constantly criticized and always discussed.

Throughout the end of his verse, Kanye raps a lot of bars which all have their own meanings to them, but for the sake of keeping the thread short, I will not go over them.

Closer to the end, Kanye raps these series of lyrics. This seems to reference Kanye and Jay-Z’s relationship, as Kanye used to have braids and Jay used to wear a durag/wave cap. Saying “ASAP” could also reference Rocky and Ferg, as Rocky has his braids and Ferg has his durags.

And with these final lyrics, Kanye sends out a message to anyone talking smack about him. Kanye referring to him “going ape” ties in to how the media portrays him as “crazy”, and could also reference him in a manic state due to bipolar disorder. With the final line,

Kanye threatens physical violence on his detractors, but also brings up Frito Lay. Kanye uses “tooth chipped” as a homophone, which also sounds like “two chip”, which Frito Lay produces two types of chips: Fritos and Lays.

End of thread! I hope everyone that took time to read learned something from the thread, this took me around an hour to make in its entirety. If you or someone you know is struggling from suicidal tendencies, make sure to get you or them any form of help you can. My DMs are open.