Kanye West: How rapper-turned sneaker mogul is bigger than ever
We may scoff at US music star Kanye West’s outlandish claims but he continues to have the last laugh as he builds his empire.
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Kanye West has never had a problem declaring his own genius.
“I am Warhol. I am the number one most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh. Walt Disney. Google,” he said in 2013 as stunned US radio host, Sway Calloway, looked on.
That same year, West also sounded off on his ambitious business aspirations, telling an equally gobsmacked British DJ Zane Lowe that “I eventually want to be the anchor and the force behind a billion-dollar company. I eventually want to be the anchor of the first trillion-dollar company”.
We may have all scoffed but close to a decade on, it is West who continues to have the last laugh. The rapper-turned-sneaker-mogul is bigger than ever and, like his brief political hero Donald Trump, an always outspoken cultural presence who invites a crowd of both imitators and haters.
In April, Forbes placed the Grammy winner’s net worth at $A2.5 billion, while the business bible also reported that his Yeezy sneaker empire (in collaboration with Adidas) banked a staggering $A2.3 billion in sales in 2020 alone.
He’s a musician who doesn’t play a musical instrument but is a producer Jay-Z, Lil Nas X and John Legend run to work with. Time and again, he stacks his albums with of-the-moment rappers and musicians. Like Madonna before him, has always been a step ahead of the culture.
West has never been one to shy away from speaking his mind — his declaration that former US President George Bush did not care about Black people displayed him as music’s then most uncompromising artist.
But the moment many point to as being when West became truly divisive was when he stormed the stage at MTV’s Video Music Awards in 2009, interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video, saying Beyoncé should have won.
Somehow, he even made reality TV stars cool.
West and estranged wife Kim Kardashian dominated pop culture for more than a decade, getting engaged in front of family and friends at San Francisco’s Giants stadium, before marrying in an over-the-top Italian wedding in 2014 (though West’s appearances on the show were rare, both events were documented on Keeping Up with The Kardashians).
Four children later, the couple called it quits after his increasingly troubled outbursts which left them living in separate states (she in California with the kids, he in Montana).
But despite West’s issues over the past few years; the mental health challenges, the turn towards religion, the bizarre presidential run, his defence of Bill Cosby, the endless Drake feud, the incessant tweets, not to mention the rushed albums, the promised albums, the late albums – none of it has mattered to his rabid and loyal fanbase.
Take the recent chaotic listening parties for the release of his latest album Donda (named after his English professor mother who died in 2007 during a botched plastic surgery procedure).
West did not hold pandemic-diminished events in small clubs or slum it at a record company office. No, he went big – as he always does – and sold out a litany of stadiums packed with fans happy to watch him stand on stage and play his album. Not perform it; play it. He is, quite literally, an event.
Infamously, he became one of former US President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters (he said Democrats had “brainwashed Black people”).
He horrified many of his peers when he schmoozed with the former president through a frenzied 2018 meeting at the Oval Office where he turned up decked out in a bright red MAGA cap.
But West’s alignment with the polarising Trump – like his marriage to Kardashian – didn’t harm him. In fact, the more he supported the equally divisive Trump, the more his business boomed, and the more his music sold.
On the week of its release, Donda notched up a staggering 100 million streams a day for three straight days on Spotify.
But Donda’s release hasn’t been without its own Kanye-ified controversy. Earlier this week, West shared one of his only two Instagram posts to his 8.1 million followers (he ditched Twitter long ago) claiming his record label, Universal Music Group, released the much-delayed album without his permission.
He also claimed the label had “blocked” a song featuring DaBaby and Marilyn Manson from being on the record.
“Universal put my album out without my approval and they blocked Jail 2 from being on the album,” he wrote.
The track in question includes contributions from rapper DaBaby who has been accused of homophobia and rocker Marilyn Manson, who is at the centre of a sexual assault claim.
But, as he always does, West doubled down, making his own point about “cancel culture”. During one Donda listening event in his hometown of Chicago, he brought both artists on stage with him. Kardashian also featured wearing a Balenciaga wedding dress. (Why let divorce get in the way of good publicity?)
But West appears to be stripping it all back – and not just in his pre-pandemic-ready Yeezy fashion line of outlandishly expensive hoodies and sweatpants.
Last week, he filed a petition in a Los Angeles court to formally change his name from Kanye Omari West to simply, Ye (he flirted with the name-changing idea as early as 2018). No more Kanye, No more Omari, no more West.
One thing’s for sure, we’ll be watching, listening – or wearing – whatever he comes up with next.
FIVE ARTISTS THAT GO PLACES OTHERS WON’T
LIL NAS X
A Black, openly gay rapper is revolutionary. Lil Nas X has rocked the hip-hop establishment with his unashamed queerness, while his videos have caused the biggest uproar since Madonna’s Erotica (or Like a Prayer – remember the Black Jesus?). In Montero (Call Me by Your Name), he gives a lap-dance to Satan, while in the brilliant Industry Baby video, he plays a prisoner who dances in a jailhouse communal shower with a group of other hot men.
CARDI B
The Bronx native went from stripper to Instagram star to bona fide superstar. She did it her way, releasing mix tapes, then doing selfie videos on Instagram to finally getting a record deal. The majority of her fan base is women who go absolutely nuts for her.
HARRY STYLES
The former One Direction star has well and truly shed his boy-band skin, playing with gender fluidity in his videos and in his fashion. Most famously when he appeared on the cover of Vogue in a dress (the US edition’s first-ever male cover star). Styles has also played with the use of pronouns in his songs. Very on point for the gender fluid, non-binary Millennials and Gen Z crowd.
LIZZO
The charismatic superstar brought back the flute and changed the way we think about our pop stars. If Lizzo, with her message of body positivity, can thrive in an industry which routinely values thinness above all else, the rest of us can look in the mirror and feel OK.
BEYONCE
Yes, she started off as a sweet teen from Texas in Destiny’s Child, but Beyonce’s transition into well, Beyonce, has been nothing short of extraordinary. Her Black Panther-inspired performance at the Super Bowl in 2013 stands as the second most tweeted about moment in history at 268,000 tweets per minute.
She has become increasingly outspoken on racial issues in the US through her music – the Black is King album – and routinely hires only Black musicians and performers for her shows.
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