Kanye West Tells Touching Story About His Late Mother

2004 MTV Video Music Awards - Show

Kanye West was very close with his mother Donda when she passed away in 2007, but he always kept his memories close to his heart and away from the public. Now, he's opening up about her like never before.

"This would have been the funnest time of her life, to have those kids running around that house and being able to go and buy them toys," the rapper tells David Letterman in a preview of his appearance on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. "I remember my mother bought me a bear that was multicolored and I was very into [Japanese contemporary artist] Takashi Murakami at that time on that third album, Graduation. She said it kind of, you know, feels like Takashi Murakami. And then I was sort of like, 'I don’t want that, that ain’t no Takashi Murakami bear, and stuff like that," he recalls with a gentle laugh. "And then she passed a few weeks after and I did everything I could to find that bear and place that bear on top of all the Takashi Murakami stuff I had in the house."

"But she's here, with us, and she's guiding us," he adds with a smile. Watch the clip below, and stream the whole interview on Netflix May 31.

Donda passed away in November 2007 due to complications from a cosmetic surgery procedure, nearly six years before Kanye and his wife Kim Kardashian welcomed their first child, North. She was 58 years old.

The rapper has been candid about the impact his mother made on his life, and how her death has affected his mental health.

Photo: Getty Images


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