“My account is not hacked 2 13 22” read a message from Kanye West, posted in early February on his Instagram account — leading most people to believe that he was truly losing himself. Recently, Kanye has been on a roller coaster of emotions on social media, and has nearly caused a civil war in the rap community between himself and Pete Davidson.

Kanye’s Instagram account was fairly dormant for several years before his release of his album “Donda,” when he made his return to social media. His posts were normal album promotions like fans would see from any other artist. However, once Kim Kardashian and Kanye’s divorce went public in late January, the feed changed. His social media posts received harsh criticism and hateful comments from the public. Since the divorce went public, his posts became more chaotic and angry as he talked about the divorce and his ex-wife. People on social media started claiming Kanye was harassing Kim and putting his kids in danger, when all he was trying to do was explain the way he was feeling to the public.

One impactful moment on his Instagram page was when he screenshotted and posted a comment of someone saying “Man’s off the meds album gonna go crazy.” This post is a prime example of how he dislikes the way the media will treat what he says as a joke, or something to gawk at. The caption is Kanye screaming at the world for judging everything he does and never taking him seriously, even if he’s talking about incredibly serious or sensitive topics. 

While he’s combatting harsh judgment from social media, Kanye is battling the issues that come with divorce. His ex-wife Kim Kardashian had publicly started a relationship with actor Pete Davidson, and   one of Kanye’s closest friends and fellow rapper Kid Cudi had taken the side of Davidson. In retaliation, Kanye made a statement about removing Cudi from his next album, “Donda 2.” This moment showed the magnitude of the situation:  how Kanye was willing to split ways with one of his closest friends over the divorce. 

Even after all of Kanye’s statements about how social media treats him poorly and how he is tired of it, nobody truly stopped. People all over social media made posts mocking him for taking Kid Cudi off of the album and editing jokes over the notepad he used to show everyone his account isn’t hacked and he’s just expressing himself publicly. Shortly after the intense criticism, Kanye decided to make everyone even more upset by only releasing his new album to his Stem Player. The Stem Player is Kanye’s half bluetooth speaker, half audio interface, which is sold for $200.

Only releasing the album to the Stem Player was met with harsh backlash from fans that don’t care to try and understand why he did it. The ones who do care either bought the Stem Player or found a way to listen. It may have shown who the superfans were, but it took away access to his album  from all his fans who couldn’t afford it. It contradicted his past philosophy of having free music for all.This shows how Kanye is leaving his old self behind and embracing his whole new self after his divorce. 

While it makes sense why he wanted to keep his album on a more niche platform, it still feels like a slap in the face to all fans who don’t have $200 to spend to listen to an album.  Instead of being able to listen on a streaming service, fans had to find creative solutions on how to listen to it. Finding the files that were pulled from the Stem Player website and uploading them into their own music library allowed them to enjoy the album the same as anyone who bought a Stem Player. In the end, the Stem Player choice still did its job, separating the real from the fake fans. 

It’s publicly known that Kanye has very strong bipolar disorder, which has always caused him to act differently than other celebrities. When he posts on social media angrily about not being allowed to go to his child’s birthday party, he isn’t harassing his ex-wife.  He is just trying to show that he cares in a time where that’s hard. People look past that his posts are about wanting to be with his family and only look at when he talks about Kim, saying he’s obsessive and harassing her.It just shows how people will disregard him trying to be a good father to get an excuse to bash him.

All of Kanye’s recent appearances in the media show how poorly men’s mental health is treated, from being bashed by social media for trying his hardest to be a good father, to posting his texts with Kim to show the world what he’s going through. If you take away all of the fame, he’s just a man trying to be a good father.