Kanye West, or just Ye now, is no longer a billionaire after German sportswear company Adidas terminated its partnership with the rapper and fashion designer on Tuesday following his string of anti-Semitic remarks.
After Adidas cut ties with him, the musician’s net worth fell to $400million and knocked him off the Forbes list of the world's billionaires.
Adidas is the latest company to cut ties with Ye.
“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism (sic) and any other sort of hate speech,” the German company said in a statement on Tuesday. It further added that West’s recent comments and actions were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous” and violated the company’s values.
What’s Ye’s net worth
In April, Forbes released its annual report on billionaires which valued the rapper at $2 billion. On Tuesday, the magazine said without the Adidas partnership West is worth $400 million as the partnership accounted for nearly $1.5 billion of his net worth.
West also holds a 5 percent stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s shapewear firm, Skims. The rest of his wealth comes from real estate, cash, and his music catalogue, Reuters reported.
String of controversies
West has courted controversy in recent months for making troubling statements, many of which are anti-Semitic. The current wave of offensive speech started at the beginning of this month at the Paris Fashion Week and continued with unaired footage from an interview with Tucker Carlson. West has made a statement about the cause of George Floyd’s death during a podcast appearance and anti-Semitic remarks on social media.
Earlier this month, West tweeted that he would be “going death con
Twitter had deleted West’s remark and locked his account “due to a violation of Twitter’s policy.”
He refused to apologise for his tweet during an interview with Piers Morgan, The US Sun reported. However, he later acknowledged that his comments caused "hurt and confusion" to people.
Prior to this, West’s Instagram account was suspended after he posted screenshots of a conversation reportedly with rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. In the conversation, West alleged that he believed Combs was being controlled by Jews.
History of problematic statements
In 2018, the rapper made comments on TMZ that “slavery was a choice.” The same year he surprised fans by visiting President Donald Trump in the Oval Office and showing his support for him. He also announced his campaign for president in 2019.
He also called the COVID-19 vaccine the “mark of the beast”, Al Jazeera reported.
Earlier this year, when his relationship with ex-wife Kim Kardashian neared an end, he encouraged fans to yell at her then-boyfriend, Pete Davidson, and gave him the nickname “Skete.”
During his fashion show in Paris, West wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt.
He has made disparaging comments about Adidas, which manufactures and distributes his Yeezy line.
The multiple Grammy award-winning artiste earlier accused US apparel retailer Gap and Adidas of failing to build permanent stores for his Yeezy fashion line as contractually promised. He even accused Adidas of stealing his designs for their own products.
Brands cut ties
West’s talent agency, CAA, recently cut ties with him, while the MRC studio said it was shelving a complete documentary about the rapper.
Last week, the Balenciaga fashion house broke its partnership with West. JPMorgan Chase also ended its business relationship with West.
In September, Gap ended its partnership with West and said it would take steps to remove Yeezy Gap products from its stores.
Recently, West hired Johnny Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez. However, Vasquez reportedly dropped him as a client after West refused to walk back his anti-Semitic comments.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
