By Florence Mafomemeh
“I’m a bit sleep tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can’t be ANTI Semitic because Black people are actually Jew also You Guys have toyed with me and tried to Black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
This is the tweet that brought down Ye, his multi-billion dollar empire and destroyed his relationships with many around him. He has lost his business deals due to these anti-semitic remarks. Formally known as Kanye West, many people in the world and entertainment industry have overlooked his erratic public behavior for years either out of sympathy because of his mental struggles or because of business dealings with him. But his recent anti-semitic remarks went too far and many people and companies decided to sever all ties with the superstar.
Fashion house Balenciaga set the ball rolling and a slew of other companies followed suit. Gap, Creative Arts Agency-CAA, MRC Entertainment, T.J. Maxx, Foot Locker, JPMorgan Chase, Def Jam, Peloton, Jaylen Brown and Aaron Donald/Donda Sports, Vogue and Anna Wintour, and Madame Tussauds London all ended their affiliations with Ye.
Adidas didn’t cancel Ye immediately and amidst the backlash, he instead said in a recent podcast, “I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me.” Adidas had no choice but to drop him. Adidas had faced the most pressure to cut ties because of its lucrative partnership with the rapper. Through royalties earned from the sale of Yeezy products, Ye’s stake in the partnership was valued at around $1.5 billion.
Earlier, he was kicked out of Instagram and he hopped over to Twitter and went at Mark Zuckerberg with this tweet. “Look at this Mark. How you gone kick me off instagram. You use to be my nigga.” He was later kicked out of Twitter too.
Not only companies ended their relationships with Ye. Many celebrities including his ex-wife, Kim Kadarshian condemned his behavior and her family disavowed him. His on-going projects and scheduled appearances including a concert at Sofi Stadium, a Fox News documentary and interviews on The Shop and Drink Champs have all been canceled. Ye has also been banned from Fox News, Daily Wire, KANO STEM player, Skechers and boycotted by WME and UTA. His assistant and lawyer also cut ties with him. The world wasn’t done yet with Ye. Madame Tussauds removed its wax figure of the rapper from public view.
However, not everyone has turned their backs on Ye. Donda Academy, Ye’s private Christian K-12 prep school didn’t exactly cut ties with him but did reportedly shut down Oct. 27 for the rest of the school year. Though Spotify CEO Daniel Ek condemned the rapper’s remarks in an interview, calling his commentary “awful” he explained that Ye’s music would not be removed from the streaming platform as the music itself does not violate Spotify’s policy.
All these losses in deals have brought Ye almost to his knees and it was not a surprise that he lost his billionaire status. Forbes announced he was no longer a billionaire saying that The superstar rapper no longer has a place on the Forbes Billionaires’ list now that his lucrative deal with Adidas is over.
No one knows where Ye goes from here.
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