I’ve studied and worked with children and teens who have behavioral issues and metal handicaps, and I can pretty much guarantee that Kanye has a very low IQ.

I wouldn’t go as far as to put him in the category of mentally handicapped, but it wouldn’t shock me if a test showed him in that low a range.

Children learn the basic skills that a rapper requires before they’re even 10 years old.
So, being able to rap isn’t really the banner ad for intellect. Memorizing nursery rhymes and “banter” type word play is part of most children’s lives. As most people get older they focus on other things, but rest assured, even the dumbest of children could astound you with their rap abilities if they continued that type of play behavior all the way through adulthood. As you age your life experience grows, you learn a more in-depth vocabulary and you can apply ides to themes and events that have a wider meaning than what they initially seem. The better you get at it, and the more you can utilize that wider body of knowledge, and you can make some really insightful lyrics. (No matter what anyone says, a “Rap” is just a lyric) Most rappers (even those who have the lowest of IQ’s) have a host of people around them and the internet to look up words and meanings, and that means they can sit down and given enough time and labor, can crank out lyrics that have some serious artistic merit on their own. Kanye doesn’t even remotely approach that. His lyrics are beyond simplistic, they’re the kind of thing you’d expect a child with no education whatsoever to come up with, if one of his songs had “Na na na na boo boo, pocket full of doo doo bitch, Uh, Yeah” in it, that would would fit in 100% with his current writing ability.

It would be different if lyrics this basic and devoid of intellect were spontaneous, like if he ONLY wrote in the heat of a rap battle. You’d have to made some consolations for that due to the massive constraints therein, but these are studio songs that could have been rewritten a million times to get “just right”. If that’s the polished version, I’m terrified to see the rough drafts. I’m guessing they all look like “Like Bitch, Uh Yeah, Money, Uh Thassright, word!”

It’s very obvious just from TV/Radio interviews that he has a sub standard IQ. He doesn’t have even have the basic understanding of many “real world” situations that children have. There are absolutely behavioral and mental issues there that I constantly see in children with intellectual deficits and/or mental handicaps. He likes to come off as an intellectual, and has obviously looked at a few “word of the day” calendars, but it’s also obvious that he doesn’t even have a basic understanding of a lot of the words he uses. He can parrot things he’s heard from other people, but he’s not smart enough to tie them together into a real narrative. He’s basically a 13 year old with unlimited funds and no guardians. Children just act impulsively without thinking, and then get their feelings hurt and try to deflect blame when they’re called out or reprimanded. Kanye does this all the time. Manners, polite behavior, and basic human decency are just fringe concepts to him. This is often the case with someone with low intelligence comes into fame/fortune. They never spend time/money to improve their intellect, or their understanding of the world. Instead they make sure they have the latest car, the biggest house etc… etc… and isolate themselves into small pockets of people who will never tell them how ignorant they are and who will always “look the other way” when they behave poorly.

When Kanye is in interviews and he gets asked any question that he doesn’t already have an answer for, something other than “How did it feel to win xxx, What was your favorite yyy” Something that requires a real position that one could defend with core beliefs, actions and understanding, he gets angry, afraid, dismissive and defensive because he knows that it’s obvious to any educated people that mentally he’s still a child.

It’s also important here to distinguish the fact that Kanye is a rapper, not a musician. Kanye doesn’t actually write or perform music (which would require an additionally higher IQ) it’s mainly done by machines pre-programmed loops/sequences, programmers or studio musicians. Even a rapper who sings shows a higher level of intellect, but Kanye isn’t singing, he’s mainly just talking. Anytime he tries to carry a tune, the studio engineers pull their hair out. He’s essentially tone deaf.

Which isn’t to say someone who “just raps” can’t be amazingly intelligent, far from it. Rap and hip hop are littered with people who are intellectual giants. See Saul Williams, Andree 3000, Lupe Fiasco and others,.. they have more intellect and ability in one of their bowel movements than Kanye has mustered in his lifetime, it’s just a shame the R&B and Hip-Hop community don’t elevate people for their intellect or ability over just blind fame and celebrity BS, and it doesn’t take a high IQ to pull that off, just watch any reality TV series.

I know Kanye’s music is popular, but popularity has never in the history of mankind been synonymous with intellect, or quality.

And let’s be honest,.. in general people don’t like to deal with others smarter than they are, this may be one of the reasons many celebrities are where they are (that and the afore mentioned pitfalls of fame) and people like that assurance that someone “as dumb/poor/illiterate/unattractive” as they are can make millions. 

I’m not 100% sure, and it’s not like you could just put an exact number on it, but as someone who’s seen hundreds of people of various age groups who have the same behavioral issues, mannerisms and responses as Kanye…
I’d feel REALLY safe putting Kanye’s IQ around 75-85 max.

There’s absolutely no way that it’s over 90.