Kanye West blames Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian's robbery, for 2016 breakdown

Kanye West takes the microphone from Taylor Swift and speaks onstage during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Photo/Getty

Kanye West has spoken publicly for the first time about the reasons behind his 2016 "breakdown".

In a two-hour interview with US radio host Charlamagne Tha God, the controversial rapper spoke about the incidents which he believes contributed to his mental decline.

West said the infamous "moment" he stormed the stage while Taylor Swift was accepting an MTV Award in 2009 led to radio stations ditching his music and affecting his career.

He also pointed to Kim Kardashian's robbery, the fashion world deriding him after a disastrous New York Fashion Week show, and the drudgery of being on tour, as major factors.

"Fear, stress, control, being controlled, manipulation like being a pawn in the chess piece of life. Stressing things that like create validation that I didn't need to worry about as much and just the concept of competition and being in competition with so many elements at one time," West said, when asked about contributing factors in his breakdown.

"On a race against time, your age, you're getting old. A race against popularity on the radio: [DJ] Khaled got this song, Drake got this song on the radio, it's playing to death but Saint Pablo ain't playing. I could take the whole interview talking about [this]."

He claimed that US radio stations stopped playing his songs after the Taylor Swift "moment".

"Ever since the Taylor Swift moment it has never been the same, the connection with radio. Like whatever powers that be, it was much harder after that," he said.

West also said he was "hurt" that Jay Z and Beyoncé did not attend his and Kim Kardashian's wedding: "I understand they was going through some things. But if it's family, you're not gonna miss a wedding."

He also spoke about Kim Kardashian's infamous robbery in Paris, which he said left him "helpless".

"I went to Paris on that trip to protect her but not protect her physically but to just help her with her looks.

"I was like, 'let me put my eye on it personally while she's in Paris to make sure she bust these n***as a**,' you know, get fly, and one of the things she said that she heard is that they were coming to rob her and they had to wait til I had left.

"And that people were strategising and scheming that for a long time so when she probably got to Paris by herself they were like, 'Okay, this is our chance.'"

West also spoke about his much-maligned Yeezy show at New York Fashion Week in September 2016 where he was accused of turning up two hours late (he maintains it was 45 minutes), while models fainted in the heat.

"As soon as I was 45 minutes late, I felt it was the fashion community getting the right to say n***** without saying it.

"To be like, 'Yo we know you come through stepping on necks and all that when it comes to your approach to things but if you get out of line boy we going to roast you,' and it affected me because I'm an artist and it affected me emotionally.

"It's like all these things were almost set up to put me on meds, to break me down like the robbery, I don't know where that came from. Was that a bigger plan? A bigger set-up."

He also says that touring contributed to his overall exhaustion.