During the intimate “Runaway” premiere in Los Angeles Oct 18, Kanye opened up about his life like never before – confessing thoughts of suicide, talking about his mother’s death and the Taylor Swift incident, and most importantly, lifting the curtain behind his creative process. DJ Skee was there and shares his thoughts with The Comet.

An extremely introspective Kanye West premiered his new music video/short film for “Runaway” in Los Angeles during private theatre filled with celebrities, tastemakers and industry folk, many of whom were close friends and associates with Kanye. The event had a family-like atmosphere and vibe that put Kanye right at home.

The screening was supposed to be followed with a Q&A session, however Kanye soon turned it into just an A session and went into a typical Mr. West rant. He went deeper into his inner thought process than ever before with the nervousness and energy of a kid giving a passionate commencement address to the entire school. At the end of the night myself, along with everyone else walked away with a much deeper understanding of Kanye, his thought process, state of mind, and craziness & genius.

To me, it seems as Kanye has finally found an inner peace.

Although always fueled and motivated by any hate he receives, the past few times I’ve seen Kanye recently he truly has seemed at peace in a way unseen from him recently. Although many say they don’t care what others think and feel, it is much easier said than done, but I truly believe Kanye has accepted this though process.

“I’m so not fucking scared. I don’t care,” Kanye emotionally blurred over and over throughout his answer session with a passion.

Kanye further summed up his mind state of the moment by explaining he just went back to having fun and opening up his inner five-year-old, abolishing prejudices and what society teaches us and instead just doing what he likes.

The film itself is typical Kanye and in line with his new thought process. Clearly still influenced by the late 90s golden era of hip-hop music videos, Kanye teamed again with Hype Williams who provides enough slow motion explosion shots and Puffy-esque feel to certain shots that could be lifted straight from “Mo Money Mo Problems.”

Featuring everything from a parade around Michael Jackson with a marching band, a beautiful bird-woman/phoenix played by Selita Ebanks, a kid wearing a KKK-ish head cover (which Kanye explained he designed without the KKK thought process, instead creating a costume he just throughout looked cool), deer, woods, and anything else a five-year-old mind would imagine, the video is sure to cause an emotional reaction from both fans and detractors and build the buzz to a fever pitch before the release of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (which could easily have been the name of the film as well).

I don’t want to get to deep in describing or reviewing the video viewers will soon see and reporters will recap, but instead take an introspective look at Kanye at the moment and artists in general.

There is a fine line between crazy & genius. I believe they are one in the same. The greatest artists and creative types are always borderline insane. Van Gough, Mozart, Michael Jackson, Kanye (yes, he’s earned his spot both musically and culturally), etc. In a way, to get to the limits and creative boundaries set aside you almost half to be crazy. However, being able to live with this “disease” is the toughest part, many of whom don’t survive.

Kanye actually opened up last night about considering suicide before stating he would “not give up on life again.”

It’s clear Kanye still has a chip on his shoulder, make no qualms, but he seems to accept and embrace it like few artists can maintain and channel it into his art.

Artists always need a motivation and create best with the walls closing in. The tough part is containing sanity through this. Growing up, Kanye explained how he had six women in his life, always living with one, and today he has none. In a way, it was his way of opening up publicly outside of music for one of the first times about his mother’s death and other failed relationships. It seems he has finally contained this dark period (“808 & Heartbreaks”) in his life and now is able to truly move on, not an easy task for a creative like Kanye that has taken years to arrive at.

He also addressed the Taylor Swift incident and didn’t back down from his honesty at that moment, expressed slight frustration at how the media always misrepresents him, but most importantly explained how he wanted to utilize his platform to speak for others who don’t have the voice.

At the end of the night, I truly walked away understanding who Kanye West is. His motivations are clear, intentions are pure, and creativeness are both genius and insane. I think Kanye is not only at the best place in his recent life mentally, but musically understands how to express this and will drop one of the best projects of his life (sidenote: the other songs we heard in the feature were amazing). The intro & outro of the film perfectly represents who Kanye West is today: Stunning slow motion shots of him running with all his energy on a deserted road in the woods to save the world and his heart perfectly sum up Mr. West right now.