Kanye West scrapped a whole album after he came under fire last month for admitting he was addicted to opioids and his controversial comments about slavery.
The 'Bound 2' hitmaker dropped his seven-track LP 'Ye' last week, but he has revealed he was forced to rewrite a few of the tracks, rework some bars and completely ditch tracks in the run-up to the release after he realised his outspoken lyrics may offend people because of the uproar he caused when he declared in an interview with TMZ last month that slavery was a "choice" for black people.
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Speaking to radio host Big Boy during an interview, he said: "I completely re-did the album after TMZ. We just sat there and really honed in on the words because now it's all headlines, it's like every bar can be used, there's even bars we had about that... I took a bar off the album. It was just too sensitive.
It was about that topic. And I just let go. 'I'm gonna just chill right now, let's just keep making some music.' You know, I feel like, as a son, and as a family member of the world ... that's the reason why the world won't let me go because I'm just a family member.
They might disagree with me, but I'm family. I've been here for 15 years, 18 years, and you know, I feel like the best thing I could do is sit there, and go in that studio, and keep chopping that thing that only I know how to do and only me and my crew know how to do."
The 40-year-old rapper has been praised for his "personal" album but he's adamant all of his songs come from his heart because he tries to find his "voice" in the studio.
He explained: "I think it came from me just continually going against mass opinion, and I was able to find my voice -- my voice -- because, as you know, I started off with my voice. And this is what happens with a lot of artists: They start off with their voice and then they start having to do so many records for so many different people .. and is this person going to be happy and is that person going to be happy.
"I just had to stand in front of that board every morning and ask myself, 'Do these songs truly make me happy? Are these songs I want to play back? Does the song make me cry? Does the song take me somewhere?
"I just think that when you start reaching your late 30s, there's this whole movement like, 'Nah, when you're in your 30s, we don't want to hear no music from you anymore.' And I just got a place where it's just art. Period."