There’s no better way to describe what's transpiring with global artist and fashion entrepreneur Kanye West. At the beginning of the year in March, the Oscar awards had a moment which turned challenging for Will Smith and he accurately quoted in his speech saying “ D.- Denzel [Washington] said to me a few minutes ago, he said “ At your highest moment, be careful. That's when the devil comes for you.” At this moment it appears like Ye’s calling. Being a youth icon, phenomenon rapper and rolling dice opulently for doing everything in absolute perfection, Kanye West has been encountering a domino effect post-separation from Kim Kardashian. Ye’ an American rapper, songwriter, record producer and fashion designer pulls a gigantic fan following under his belt and is regarded as the most influential artist of his generation. His net worth is nevertheless relatively high, growing to $500 million as of now, falling into prey and separating from his wife, losing brand collaborations to being accused of creating an inappropriate and toxic environment at the workspace through derogatory behaviour with his employees. Kanye has a never-the ending line of tragic accusations coming his way.
Kanye Glorified
Ye’ has been a true trailblazer for American rap music, and distress clothing which got hyped by many brands after Ye’ flaunted ripped clothing in the most expensive spectrum. The coolest kicks our generation could wear under the YZY collaboration got invented by him. West’s collaboration with Adidas was the biggest fortune with sales climbing to nearly 2 billion in 2020- earning him $191 million in royalties as per the Forbes estimation. As a result of their split, the company lost $250 million of their net income in 2022. Gap X Balenciaga was estimated at $970 million when the deal was announced in early 2021. The gap was part of the deal between Yeezy and Balenciaga with an estimation to bring in $1 billion in project sales. Ye’ remains a partner in Skims which is estimated at $160 million, he previously ranted about ownership of 5% of the business's net worth. His music has sold over 140 million albums worldwide and documents seen by Forbes show him holding publishing rights worth $90 million minimum. Forbes estimates that Kanye is worth around $2 billion but where will this be heading? This is what appears to be the real breakdown.
Turned off his virtuous compass
Post-separation from his wife, Ye’ did get his hands dirty on social media by dispatching numerous conflicts out loud to Pete Davidson. Due to blundering with his mental health issues, netizens had a mix of responses to Ye’s bipolar behaviour. Actual shocker reached during the Paris Fashion Week in October 22, when West exhibited t-shirt with a “White Lives Matter” slogan and tweeted among other controversial statements - that he was going to go “death con 3 on Jewish People” amid the fallout. Indicating at tables turning from “Black Lives Matter” to “White Lives Matter” as a futuristic imagination, stirred up many presumptions around. He has been dropped by his talent agency, CAA and JP Morgan Chase, while Gap and Balenciaga cut ties. He also received bans on Instagram and Twitter, later in recent times, his accounts have been reinstated. Getting in a bigger rift with Adidas West has been in bad fix by some of the employees disseminating their office encounters to Rolling Stone magazine last week. While West was asserting to sell his collab hoodies with Balenciaga, Adidas and Gap for $20, in a video broadcasted by celebrity news portal. Some of those hoodies carries the slogan “Ye24” to mark his second presidential run in 2024, which implicates working with the alt-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos. Before we go breathless on Kanye chaos and jumble of shockers, another piece of news got thrown down in a new open letter, Yeezy employees allege that Ye’ used sexually explicit images- having a video of himself and Kim Kardashian- and compelled employers to watch various porn including two other women. Last month another rumour started churning around from West’s antics, and footage of him showing porn to seemingly awkward executives was shared as a documentary publicly last month. The open letter titled “The Truth About Yeezy: A Call to Action for Adidas Leadership” was shared by Rolling Stone this week, the toxic and chaotic environment that Kanye West has been initiated in includes many allegations coming from women for his disgusting pattern of precious behaviour. He has exploded at women in the room with horrendous remarks and used sexually disturbing references confirming his feedback on design approval. In 2017 West yelled at a worker during a feedback session, then turned to a senior female employee and made a statement saying “ I want you to make me a shoe I can fu**.”
A representative for Kardashian and a lawyer for West have chosen to remain silent and have not responded immediately to many news portals that have been requesting and seeking their response to the current matter. Let's hope that we remember his highs being so high in the past and pray for lows not to drop any further than this.
