A book could be written with all the controversies that Kanye West has been involved in in just the last month. During these weeks of February, the world has witnessed the designer's descent into hell – repudiated by the industry and censored on social media for his anti-Semitic comments – but also his unexpected rise to the heavenly panorama of musical hits with Vultures, his new album. collaborative with artist Tye Dolla Sign, in which his daughter North West also participates.
Among the most notorious controversies carried out by the artist self-baptized as Ye, this week his war against Adidas, a former distribution partner of his Yeezy footwear company, stands out for allegedly having launched a model of his shoe on the market that was not authorized by him and without paying him for its commercialization. West also claims that Adidas has filed a lawsuit against him for $250 million. “Anyone who loves Ye wouldn't buy these fake Yeezys. I never authorized these colors. They don't pay me for them and Adidas is suing me,” the artist wrote on his Instagram alongside an image of the alleged “fake Yeezeys.”
Added to their business brawls is the lack of liquidity. An economic problem that almost ended in bankruptcy. At the beginning of the year, the American rapper was left without most of his advertising contracts, with brands such as Gap and JP Morgan, due to his continuous anti-Semitic comments on X – the former Twitter – where Elon Musk was forced to censor him.
After several weeks of being canceled on social media, the artist knew that he had to redeem himself, at least for a reasonable time to be able to release his new album and recover financially. Shielded, or not so much, by his bipolar disorder, the singer published an apology in Hebrew to the Jews: “I commit to starting with myself to learn from this experience in order to guarantee greater sensitivity and understanding in the future,” said the artist, who in the past was compared to Hitler.
But his words did not convince the fashion industry, where many still consider him persona non grata. So, at the beginning of February and with about seven million dollars in his bank account, he decided to bet everything on the same trick. The rapper bought one of the Super Bowl advertising spots for that amount and used it to promote his shoes with a simple video selfie: “Hello everyone, I'm Ye and this is my ad. Since we have spent all the money on the advertising space, we have not spent anything on the advertisement. So what I want to tell you is go to Yeezy.com. I have some shoes... and that's it.” Madness or genius, the truth is that his homemade advertisement grabbed the headlines and went viral. But two weeks after the announcement and after reducing all the products on his website to 18.95 euros, his catalog is far from hanging the "out of stock" sign.
As if that were not enough, his personal life is also the subject of controversy. As published by the Daily Mail, the marriage agreement signed by Bianca Censori, whom he secretly married in December, states that he "never speak", eat certain foods, train - even though he does not do it - and wear a somehow. The looks with which Censori borders on exhibitionism have ended up making her father, Leo Censori, jump, who yesterday revealed to the same medium that he plans to confront Kanye West for taking his daughter away from her family and turning her into poor quality merchandise. “That's not love, it's control,” said a close source about her father's opinion.
Not even his musical work is safe from criticism. Despite obtaining 169 million streams in its first week, the rapper's album was reported on Thursday by Donna Summer's children for an alleged copy of I feel love. Bad times for the Chicago rapper, who wanders the streets hooded, like a shadow of the artist who went on to win 24 Grammys.
