Kanye West’s Cousin Claims Stolen Sex Tape Was Behind Epic Meltdown

According to a somewhat-possibly-maybe-sort-of-reliable source (Kanye’s cousin, Lawrence Franklin), Kanye West’s recent mental breakdown—and we are going to go ahead and declare this a “breakdown” and not tip toe around the term; the man met with Donald Trump after being released from his nine-day stay at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center last month, for God’s sake—has roots in a family rift. 

Apparently, Kanye developed trust issues after a family member poked around a laptop that they had snatched from Kan-Kan and threatened to release a sex tape they discovered on it, unless Kanye coughed up some cash. 

Ummmmm….not to plop ourselves too firmly in Kanye’s corner (again, he is clearly going through a lot these days), but we can’t really blame him for getting upset/pulling away if this actually happened the way Lawrence said it did. It’s a pretty crappy move, even when you take the being family part of out the equation.

Kanye actually gave a not-so-nice-nod to the cousin in question in The Life of Pablo’s “Real Friends”, rapping that he basically had to drop a huge chunk of change —we’re talking $250,000, folks—to keep this tape from being distributed. Yikes.

The family was divided over the Kanye VS. Kanye’s Shady Cousin 2012 throw down, though it’s kind of odd to try to imagine how one can justify blackmailing one’s own cousin over their private sex tape. Oh and lawyers became involved, because OF COURSE they were.

No word on who the X-rated tape was actually with, but if we had to guess, we’d say that it is footage of Kanye with a mirror. Kidding. But it probably wasn’t with Kim; if it had been, we would have all seen it by now and we would have been hit with a sea of Kardashian-branded merchandise commemorating the coitus (or, as Kris might say, “Koitus”).

Anyway, go give your family members a hug today and thank them for not being terrible, sneaky, extorting tools.