Rapper, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, apologized in a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal published on January 26.Ye attributed his past antisemitic and racist remarks to untreated bipolar disorder, which he claims was caused by a brain injury he suffered during an October 2002 car accident.According to Newsweek, the Yeezy founder was driving himself to a hotel after a recording session at the Roc-a-Fella Records in Los Angeles when he fell asleep (reportedly from overworking-induced exhaustion) at the wheel of his rented Lexus and crashed into an oncoming car around 3 AM. At the time, it was reported that Kanye West broke his jaw and had to undergo emergency surgery. A metal plate was put into his chin, while his mouth was wired shut for six weeks.No reports about any neurological damage or brain injury surfaced at the time. However, now, Ye has claimed:“To Those I’ve Hurt: Twenty-five years ago, I was in a car accident that broke my jaw and caused injury to the right frontal lobe of my brain. At the time, the focus was on the visible damage—the fracture, the swelling, and the immediate physical trauma. The deeper injury, the one inside my skull, went unnoticed.”He continued:“Comprehensive scans were not done, neurological exams were limited, and the possibility of a frontal-lobe injury was never raised. It wasn’t properly diagnosed until 2023. That medical oversight caused serious damage to my mental health and led to my bipolar type-1 diagnosis.”Kanye West mentioned that he is “not a N*zi or an antisemite.” Instead, he “loves” Jewish people. It was seemingly in reference to his 2025 online rants, where he called himself a “N*zi,” hailed Adolf Hitler, and sold/ wore Swastika-printed merchandise, among other controversial things.Ye also apologized to the Black community for letting them down, while thanking them for holding him down through “all of the highs and lows and the darkest of times.” He claimed they were “unquestionably, the foundation of who I am.”More about Kanye West’s 2002 car crash amid recent apologyA few months after his car accident, Kanye West spoke with MTV News about the near-fatal ordeal. He began:“My jaw was broken in three places. I had nasal fractures. I'd be talking to people, and my nose would start bleeding. Even to this day, I could start choking because spit will go down the wrong path. That whole area is messed up.”Ye added:“But right now, I'm healing, I'm just learning how to pronounce words like 'What's up' with the 't' and the 's' together without it being slurred, so I can rap again. The first two or three days were like some of the worst pains in my life. I would not wish this on anybody, except maybe three people.”The Donda maker recalled feeling “scared” to die in surgery as his injury dealt with his breathing, and every few minutes, he was coughing bloody mucus. Ye later even told his mentor, No ID, that the accident helped him “figure out my direction.”The other motorist, Miguel Villasana, fractured both his legs.It is noteworthy that only two weeks after the crash, Kanye recorded his single, Through the Wire, which became a hit upon its release in September 2003. According to Song Facts, his mouth was still wired shut, and he had to deal with constant pain and take medications between his recording takes.The song, which sampled Chaka Khan’s 1985 track, Through the Fire, went on to earn a Best Solo Rap Performance nomination at the 2005 Grammys. It also went platinum and gold in the USA and UK charts.During a 2014 conversation with Interview Magazine, Kanye West shared that the 2002 accident changed his music.“I think I started to approach time in a different way after the accident. Before, I was more willing to give my time to people and things that I wasn't as interested in because somehow I allowed myself to be brainwashed into being forced to work with other people or on other projects that I had no interest in.”The College Dropout artist explained:“So simply, the accident gave me the opportunity to do what I really wanted to do. I was a music producer, and everyone was telling me that I had no business becoming a rapper, so it gave me the opportunity to tell everyone, ‘Hey, I need some time to recover.’ But during that recovery period, I just spent all my time honing my craft and making The College Dropout.”It was his debut studio album, released in February 2004, and won the Best Rap Album award at the next year’s Grammy Awards. Kanye continued:“Without that period, there would have been so many phone calls and so many people putting pressure on me from every direction—so many people I somehow owed something to—and I would have never had the time to do what I wanted to.”Over the years, West had mentioned his car crash on many songs, including the January 2022 release, Eazy. The following month, a three-part Netflix documentary titled Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy also referenced the accident.His mother, Donda West, also wrote about the horrifying incident in her memoir, Raising Kanye: Life Lessons From the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar.In October 2023, Kanye West also sent a text to tech mogul Elon Musk claiming the incident also caused him “signs of autism.” The text exchange, which was shared by designer-model Ian Connor on X, at the request of his close associate Ye, showed the rapper telling the billionaire Tesla CEO:“When are we going to speak? You owe me nothing. You never have to speak to me again. But if we do speak. The nature of the relationship has to change. I’m not bipolar. I have signs of autism from my car accident.”Ye continued to write:“You can’t watch Kim [Kardashian] keep my kids from me. And not say anything publicly and then call yourself my friend so I can bring my audience to your struggling platform.”It remains unknown whether Musk ever replied. The X founder did, however, ban Ye from the platform after the latter posted an edited image of the Star of David with a Swastika. The account was later reinstated after eight months.Kanye with his wife Bianca at the 67th GRAMMY Awards - Arrivals - Source: GettyNotably, Kanye West has denied being bipolar during his December 2022 interview with X17.“I believe that in no way I am not bipolar, I am not in some kind of episode. But I may be slightly autistic — like Rain Man, and that’s part of my superpower… That’s the reason why I can produce tracks and design and do so many things, but what I can’t do — there’s two things that I can’t do: I can’t accept hate, and I can’t hate,” Ye said at the time.In his latest apology on The Wall Street Journal ad, Kanye West specifically addressed the “four-month-long manic episode” in 2025, where he exhibited signs of psychosis, paranoia, and impulsive behavior, claiming they “destroyed my life.”“As the situation became increasingly unsustainable, there were times I didn’t want to be here anymore. Having bipolar disorder is a notable state of constant mental illness. When you go into a manic episode, you are ill at that point. When you are not in an episode, you are completely ‘normal’. And that’s when the wreckage from the illness hits the hardest,” Ye explained.However, he credited his wife Bianca Censori for encouraging him to “finally get help.” Kanye West noted that reading similar stories on the Reddit forum helped him cope. Additionally, he has been taking medication, doing exercise, going to therapy, and engaging in “clean living” to get back to normalcy.“I am pouring my energy into positive, meaningful art: music, clothing, design, and other new ideas to help the world. I’m not asking for sympathy or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness. I write today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home. With love, Ye.”Earlier, in 2023, he delivered a similar and lengthy apology for his antisemitic rants via X, before taking it back.