It's been a hectic year for Kanye West. There was a new album that had a tortured, months-long release. Two fashion shows that were plagued by last-minute changes and long delays. There also was the reopening of a bitter feud with Taylor Swift, an ambitious U.S. concert tour, a newborn son, and a harrowing robbery of his wife.
"When was the last time I wasn't in a hurry," West asks on the song "Real Friends" from the new CD "The Life of Pablo." On another track, West admonishes his less industrious friends: "Y'all sleeping on me, huh? Had a good snooze?"
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A relentless schedule and a churning life in the media glare with his wife, Kim Kardashian, apparently took their toll on the Grammy Award-winner. West was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon for stress and exhaustion.
"In the last 12 months, there probably hasn't been anyone more in the spotlight than Kanye and his wife," said Bob Williams, the CEO/COO of Burns Entertainment & Sports Marketing , which specializes in celebrity procurement and music licensing.
"I don't know any celebrity who has been under more scrutiny than the two of them are," Williams added. "That creates tremendous pressure from the outside — expectations to perform, pressure to respond. It takes time. It takes effort."
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In the days leading to his hospitalization, West's behavior was somewhat erratic. On Saturday in Sacramento, California, he ended his show after just four songs but not before a 10-minute tirade about Beyonce, Jay Z, Hillary Clinton, Mark Zuckerberg, the radio and MTV.
West also flooded his Instagram account with nearly 100 fashion photos, many snaps of photos that were out of focus and poorly cropped. Then Sunday's concert in the Los Angeles area was canceled just a few hours before it was to start; West soon decided to scrap the entire tour. Requests for comment from the rapper's record label have gone unanswered.