Kanye West Opens Up About Traumatic Childhood Experience in Emotional Post

Content Warning: This article contains references to childhood sexual trauma.

Kanye West has publicly shared a deeply personal and troubling memory from his past, describing a traumatic incident involving a relative during his childhood. The Grammy-winning artist made the revelation in an April 21 post on X (formerly Twitter), where he also previewed a new song titled “Cousins.”

In the post, the 47-year-old rapper claimed he had a sexual experience with a cousin during his formative years. Kanye said the experience inspired his upcoming song, which also touches on the life trajectory of that relative. “This song is called COUSINS,” he wrote, “about my cousin that’s locked in jail for life for killing a pregnant lady a few years after I told him we wouldn’t ‘look at dirty magazines together’ anymore.”

Ye continued by reflecting on the guilt he carries from that time. “Perhaps in my self-centered mess I felt it was my fault that I showed him those dirty magazines when he was 6,” he wrote, “and then we acted out what we saw.”

Kanye further explained where the explicit materials came from, saying, “My dad had Playboy magazines, but the magazines I found in the top of my mom’s closet were different.”

He concluded the emotional post with a blunt confession: “My name is Ye and I sucked my cousin’s d–k till I was 14.”

This revelation follows a string of candid social media posts by the Yeezy founder, including a recent apology to his former collaborator Jay-Z. Earlier this month, Kanye issued a public apology for a deleted tweet in which he questioned the mental abilities of Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s twins.

“I’m sorry Jay Z,” he wrote on April 10. “I be feeling bad about my tweet but I still feel I gave my life to this industry and thought so many people were my family but when I needed family on some real sht none of these rap n***s had my back.”

Kanye West shares four children—North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm—with his ex-wife Kim Kardashian.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual abuse or trauma, support is available. Contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit RAINN.org for free, confidential help.