Comedian David Letterman admitted to being impressed with rapper Kanye West, who opened up to him in the latest episode of Netflix‘s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman.
The former Late Show host previewed the episode on The View in an interview that airs Friday. Letterman said he got an insider’s look at West’s relationship with Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Kim Kardashian West.
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“The thing that was fascinating to me was his wife Kim, who I knew a little bit more than Kanye, is such a strong advocate,” Letterman said in a preview clip published by PEOPLE. “Not only for her family and her husband, but also as we know for prisoner rights and people who have been incarcerated unnecessarily lengthy terms in prison and prisoner rights.”
He added, “The combination of the two — the energy and dynamic was something I really was not expecting.”
West was also open about his bipolar diagnosis, showing Letterman how he learned to live with the disorder.
“I’m ignorant on this topic of bipolar or schizophrenia. Luckily, I don’t have it,” Letterman said on The View. “I’m not sure that I know anybody who does have it. But I recognize from my discussion with Kanye that you suffer.”
Netflix previously released clips from the interview, in which West told Letterman that he would not be able to explain it in medical terms, adding, “I can just tell you what I’m feeling at the time.”
“When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything,” West said, notes PEOPLE. “Everyone — this is my experience, other people have different experiences — everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things… You have this moment [where] you feel everyone wants to kill you. You pretty much don’t trust anyone.”
West also went into eye-opening detail about what it was like seeking treatment. He said at one point, he was handcuffed to a bed and separated from his family. West also discussed the importance of his medication, noting that without it, he would “start acting erratic, as TMZ would put it.”
“When you ramp up, it expresses your personality more,” West said. “You can become almost more adolescent in your expression. This is my specific experience that I’ve had over the past two years, because I’ve only been diagnosed for two years now.”
West told Letterman he really hopes to stop the stigma around bipolar disorder, comparing it to a “strained brain, like having a sprained ankle. And is someone has a sprained ankle, you’re not going to push on him more.”
“With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse. They do everything possible,” West said. “They got us to that point and they do everything to make it worse.”
The West episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman debuts on Netflix Friday. Letterman’s The View interview also airs on ABC Friday.
Photo credit: Getty Images
