Rapper who severed his penis and jumped from LA building criticises media treatment of mental health

'The fact still remains that the media are complicit in contributing to the stigma that's placed on mental health issues'

Andre Johnson, AKA Christ Bearer, who chopped of his penis and jumped from a building in LA, on 16 April 2014 (YouTube/North Star)

The rapper who cut off his own penis and then jumped from an apartment building has described the depression and addiction to drugs that caused him to carry out the extreme act - and criticised the media for relentlessly hounding him after it happened.

Andre Johnson, who goes by the rap name Christ Bearer, said that instead of trying to help him, the media harassed him constantly and tried to break him.

He described how he was repeatedly forced to move room at hospital so he could get some privacy from reporters.

"Clearly, the press were more concerned about making fun of a life-threatening episode than they were about the fact I could have died," he told Vice.

Mr Johnson also said celebrities he previously held in high regard made jokes at his expense "in an attempt to profit from my misfortune".

He said he had been "smoking weed and PCP one day" when he "lost all contact with reality and took the somewhat insane step of cutting my own penis off and jumping from a balcony."

"I'm only really known in hip-hop circles so I can't imagine what people in the wider public eye go through when they suffer from mental illnesses," Mr Johnson told Vice. "The fact still remains that the media are complicit in contributing to the stigma that's placed on mental health issues.

"A radical change is needed, or we will remain in the dark ages, where people who suffer from psychological problems will continue to be ostracized and treated as figures of fun."

Mr Johnson jumped off the second-storey apartment building in Los Angeles at around 1am local time in April 2014.

He was found lying on the sidewalk with critical injuries and was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Johnson was discovered by the Wu-Tang Clan producer RZA in 1998, while he was a member of the group Northstar.