Kanye Confesses Suicidal Thoughts

LOS ANGELES -- Kanye West told an audience at a screening of his film, 'Runaway,' that he thought about killing himself, but now feels a responsibility to make a meaningful contribution to pop culture and art.

Describing himself as a pop icon and "soldier for culture," West told the crowd "there were times that I contemplated suicide." However, he said, "I will not give up on life again."

"There's so many people that will never get the chance to have their voice heard" as loudly as his, West said Monday. "I do it for them."

West, who didn't say when he had considered suicide, is credited as director of the abstract 35-minute film, which features portions of nine new West songs, boldly colorful visuals and off-kilter camera angles. The mostly dialogue-free piece, set to premiere this weekend on MTV, VH1 and BET, will accompany West's upcoming album, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,' which will be released Nov. 22.

The 33-year-old West told them that after a "long, hard year," he'd found his "creative sweet spot" by thinking like "a 5-year-old at all times." Besides his mother Donda West's death in 2007, West said he'd also lost three other parental figures in the last three years.

"Everything has been taken away from me," he said. "I'm so not ... scared. I so don't care."

After the Taylor Swift incident last year, which he called "a moment of sincerity," West took a six-month break. (At the MTV Video Music Awards, Swift's acceptance speech for best female video for 'You Belong with Me' was disrupted by West, who took the microphone to say Beyonce should have won instead for 'Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).')

He has hinted at the subject of suicide in his recent song 'Power,' which includes the repeated lines: "Now this would be a beautiful death -- I'm jumping out the window, I'm letting everything go."

Source: NY Daily News

Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and illustrator from New Jersey. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Follow him on Facebook.