Once a fame-addict like Kanye started mainlining with the Kardashians it was only a matter of time before he overdosed

• e-mail

‘Fame and power are the objects of all men,’ said the former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. ‘Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.’

I thought of this quote when I heard that Kanye West had collapsed, suffering from ‘severe exhaustion’.

I can’t say I was entirely surprised by the news. Like many, I’ve become severely exhausted myself just trying to keep up with him.

For the past 18 months, the rap superstar has behaved in an increasingly erratic and bizarre manner.

I can’t say I was entirely surprised by news Kanye was hospitalized. For the past 18 months, the rap superstar has behaved in an increasingly erratic and bizarre manner

Of course, Kanye’s always been a bit weird. That’s been part of his appeal. He doesn’t play by conventional rules, he plays by Kanye West rules.

He’s always been provocative, too.

Back in 2005, he infamously used a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina relief to say that President George W. Bush ‘doesn’t care about black people’.

And we all remember where we were when he charged the stage at the 2009 VMAs to express his fury that Taylor Swift had won the Best Female Video award, and not his friend Beyoncé. A crass move that prompted President Obama to brand him a ‘jackass’.

But Kanye’s recently strayed into a whole new territory of outrage.

He appears to have been on some kind of rampant, relentless shock-a-thon, devoting his every waking moment (so most of the time, judging by the reports of his chronic insomnia) to working out new ways to grab headlines.

He inexplicably tweeted: ‘BILL COSBY IS INNOCENT!!!!’

He got in a vicious public war with rival rapper Wiz Khalifa, branding his estranged wife Amber Rose a ‘stripper’ and disgracefully sneering about their two-year-old son: ‘You wouldn’t have a child if it wasn’t for me. I own your child!!!’

He targeted Taylor Swift by including this revolting line in his song Famous: ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. I made that b*tch famous.’

He then shot a sickening video for Famous comprised of naked hi-tech waxwork models of a number of celebrities including Swift, Cosby, Donald Trump and Chris Brown - all lying in bed together in some kind of post-orgy stupor.

He targeted Taylor Swift in his song Famous: ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. I made that b*tch famous’ and shot this sickening video for Famous comprised of naked  wax models of a number of celebrities including Swift, Cosby, Donald Trump and Chris Brown

After cutting short Saturday's show after just half an hour, he cancelled the rest of his tour

And all the while he’s kept up a constant stream of self-aggrandising nonsense on social media reaffirming his own greatness.

Then came this latest week of mayhem.

First, Kanye declared to a stunned audience in San Jose that he’d have voted Trump if he’d been bothered to vote at all, and he said black people should ‘stop talking about race so much.’

On Sunday, he speed-posted 99 blurry images of clothes and shoes on his Instagram

Two days later, he used a gig in Sacramento to embark on a wild, foul-mouthed rant about Beyoncé and Jay-Z, screaming: ‘F**k winning! F**k looking cool! F**k all that!’

Then, after suggesting Jay-Z may send people to kill him, he cut short the show after just two songs.

On Sunday, he speed-posted 99 blurry images of clothes and shoes on his Instagram.

Finally, yesterday afternoon, it was suddenly announced that the rest of his tour was cancelled.

A few hours afterwards, news broke that Kanye had been taken to hospital. He was said to be in a state of ‘psychotic breakdown’ and had to be handcuffed in the gurney during transit ‘for his own safety’.

Family and friends swiftly briefed that he was suffering from ‘exhaustion’, the habitual cover story for all manner of celebrity ailments.

Perhaps he is.

But I suspect the truth is that he’s suffering from a far more dangerous health hazard: fame addiction.

Kanye is a celebrity junkie who set out to seduce and marry Kim Kardashian, thus deliberately implanting himself right into the heart of their 24/7 reality television goldfish bowl

Kanye West is a celebrity junkie.

Not content with being one of the world’s most famous entertainers, he set out to seduce and marry Kim Kardashian, thus deliberately implanting himself right into the heart of a 24/7 reality television goldfish bowl.

There’s no escape from such a fatuous, fickle world.

It’s an unstoppable, deeply cynical beast that needs constant feeding.

There can never be enough drama, attention-seeking antics, showing off, bling-blasting, and transparently fake ‘look at my perfect universe’ bulls**t.

Nobody can actually ‘Keep Up With The Kardashians’ because the commercial machine of self-invasive, privacy-whoring chaos never gets turned off. It’s a vapid, soulless, money-grabbing hellhole

Nobody can actually ‘Keep Up With The Kardashians’ because the commercial machine of self-invasive, privacy-whoring chaos never gets turned off.

It’s a vapid, soulless, money-grabbing hellhole from which no semblance of dignity can be preserved.

Kanye West had no need to be part of it.

He’s a wondrously talented musician who already had a great career.

But he couldn’t stop himself, because in Kim Kardashian and her family he identified a bunch of people just as fame-hungry as him.

Together, they could all conquer the planet!

There’s just one problem with that game-plan: nobody, in the end, ever conquers the planet.

Instead, the planet eventually conquers all of us.

We’re here until we die, and then we’re just a footnote in history, albeit of varying size.

It doesn’t matter if you’re Cleopatra, Marilyn Monroe, Abraham Lincoln or Kanye West; no amount of fame or infamy can save any of us from the Grim Reaper or the yellowing, frayed pages of old newspaper obituaries.

One of the most shocking aspects of Kanye’s breakdown is how un-shocked everyone seemed by it.

Even worse, many on social media refused to even believe it, assuming this was just another made-for-TV scam from a family with ‘Self-Publicity’ injected into their DNA.

We saw the same reaction when his wife Kim was robbed at gunpoint in Paris two months ago. It was a horrific incident but one which caused many to laugh in mockery and suspicion.

In Kim and her family he identified a bunch of people just as fame-hungry as him. But by his weekend show in Sacramento  he was so far gone he suggested Jay-Z (with the Wests in 2012) may send people to kill him. Appear on reality TV too much and nothing appears real

This is what happens when you sell your life to reality television.

Eventually, nothing appears real any more.

People stop taking you seriously.

As public interest inevitably wanes, so the fame addict’s desperation to titillate the public grows ever more desperate.

Kanye’s stupendous ego wrote a cheque so large this week that even his ‘perfect’ body and talent couldn’t cash it.

He became a parody of himself and hit the wall that every fame addict hits in the end: a wall of harsh reality.

In his case, one that left him hyperventilating in handcuffs in a hospital room.

As with Kim after Paris, this is your wake-up call, Kanye.

Life isn’t about creating yet another headline to prove how famous and successful you are, it’s about what you do behind the headlines, away from the cameras and public gaze.

‘I will go down as the voice of this generation,’ you once said. ‘I will be the loudest voice.’

Right now, Kanye, you’re just the loudest noise and we’re all getting bored with you.

It’s time to get some sleep, and get real.