Kanye West has left social media again.
On Oct. 6 — following a week of drama and intense criticism in the wake of his latest round of controversial rants and comments — the rapper and fashion designer deleted his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
He left social media back in May 2017 too, reactivating his Instagram account in February, deleting it, and returning in September. He returned to Twitter in April before leaving again on Saturday.
The move comes a week after he announced on Twitter that he was changing his name to "Ye." The same night, he performed as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" and, after the show wrapped, delivered a pro-President Donald Trump rant in which he claimed he was bullied backstage for wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat (which cast member Pete Davidson denied on the following week's show), complained about liberal media, criticized Democrats a well as people who criticize Trump, and declared "you can't tell me what to do."
The next morning on Sept. 30, Kanye stirred up more controversy when he tweeted that he wanted to "abolish the 13th amendment," which put an end to slavery — this after his comments a few months ago in which he claimed slavery was "a choice." Later, he walked back some of his comments and said he meant "the 13th Amendment is slavery in disguise meaning it never ended" and actually wanted to "amend the 13th amendment."
That same night on an ill-timed episode of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian West, shared stories about three arguments they got into in recent months that made Kanye look ridiculous. One was over his jealousy that she would spend time giving their 2-year old son, Saint, a bath rather than "hang out" with Kanye. Another was over his desire to control and curate her Instagram account with images of his choosing because "you don't understand, I see the vision!" And another detailing a tantrum he had over the color of three Band-Aids Kim gave him.
Kanye — who suffered a mental breakdown for which he was hospitalized in late 2016 — also revealed some troubling news days before deleting his social media accounts. On Oct. 1, he revealed during a bombastic interview with TMZ that he's stopped taking medication for his bipolar disorder. He also explained that he canceled the release of his next album, "Yandhi" — which was supposed to come out the same night he appeared on "SNL" — because he felt the need "to go to what is known as Africa — I need to find out what it's really called… and just grab the soil and be and cook food" and record new music there.
TMZ speculates that perhaps Kanye's deleted his social media accounts for now because he's on his way to Africa "and just doesn't want any added distractions." Others think maybe he can't take all the criticism for his divisive comments — some of which has come from fellow celebrities including actor Chris Evans and music star Lana Del Rey.
Chris lamented Kanye's recent comments about slavery, tweeting, "There's nothing more maddening than debating someone who doesn't know history, doesn't read books, and frames their myopia as virtue." Lana left Kanye an Instagram comment explaining, in part, "Trump becoming our president was a loss for the country but your support of him is a loss for the culture."