Ye’s Antisemitic Rants Wreck Path to Multibillion-Dollar Fortune
The rapper lost out on a lucrative deal with Adidas, which said it would end the Yeezy line after facing blowback.
For years, it was an open question just how much Ye, the mercurial rapper formerly known as Kanye West, might be worth. He said he was a billionaire multiple times over thanks to a handful of lucrative corporate deals, most notably his Yeezy brand with Adidas AG.
It was hardly a stretch: The Yeezy business alone earned more than $500 million in total royalty payments and marketing fees over the first four full years of the Adidas deal through 2020, according to a document prepared by UBS Group AG. He had partnerships with Gap Inc. and Kering SA’s Balenciaga fashion label, while an unaudited balance sheet of his finances reviewed by Bloomberg in 2021 showed that he had $122 million in cash and stock.