Kanye and the bear mascot?

What's the deal with Kanye and that bear? Is their like a inside meaning to it or something? I know the bear have been on to of his album but what does it symbolizes? I even have a image of it if you don't know what i mean! a href="http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv21/Superpaul205/kanye-west-bear1.jpg" rel="nofollow"http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv21/…/a