It’s no secret that Kanye was deeply impacted by the death of his mother, Donda West, in November 2007. Notably, John weighed in on the widely theorized belief that “there was definitely a difference” in Kanye from that point onwards in terms of his problematic behavior. “His descent started then and seems to have accelerated recently,” he said.
IMO, John has it spot on. You can read his full interview with the Times here.