Kanye West wants to break up with Corporate America. But it won’t be easy

“If I argue with someone broker than me, the only outcome is that I get broker,” Ye said.

Longstanding disagreements

Adidas, one of Ye’s longest tie-ups, manufactures and distributes Yeezy’s footwear. He’s had longstanding disagreements about how the line has been managed, especially in times where he hasn’t been consulted on planning and strategy. The latest row was over an Adidas slide design that looked similar to a Yeezy style. He said it was “blatant copying.”

“No one should be held in that position where people can steal from them and say we’re just paying you to shut up,” said Ye, who certainly hasn’t shut up in recent weeks, with a series of Instagram posts hammering Adidas executives. “That destroys innovation. That destroys creativity. That’s what destroyed Nikola Tesla.”

Gap, meanwhile, has been rolling out clothes like hoodies, anoraks and tees under the Yeezy Gap name and has billion-dollar ambitions for the line. Ye said he joined Gap in the first place because he wanted to sell his designs at a more affordable price — something they accomplished. He has complained of not being included in meetings and being shrugged off by management.

No one should be held in that position where people can steal from them and say we’re just paying you to shut up

Kanye West

“Every step of my career there was something in the way,” said Ye. “They did the dream, but just without Ye.”

Ye has also been at odds with his bank JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he had moved his money earlier. On Instagram, he criticised executives Bill Grous at JPMorgan’s wealth management business, investment banking Vice Chair Jing Ulrich and chief executive officer Jamie Dimon. He said he couldn’t get the CEO on the phone or any deal flow. Representatives for Dimon and JPMorgan declined to comment on the matter.

“I feel like there’s a lot of controlling and handling to suppress my ability to affect the American economy and industry,” Ye said of his experience with the bank.

Complex finances

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The saga of Ye’s finances is complex, going back several years to when he said he was saddled with millions in debt and rapped about dying broke. He has vastly turned around his fortunes since then. An unaudited balance sheet of his finances reviewed by Bloomberg last year showed that he had $US122 million ($177 million) in cash and stock, with billions more in other assets such as Yeezy. His Yeezy business made $US191 million in royalties from the Adidas deal alone in 2020, according to a private document prepared by UBS Group.

Ye recently enlisted Michael Cohen, former President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, to help him with his personal affairs. Cohen said he no longer works with Ye but is glad the artist has moved his money to JPMorgan after previously keeping it at a small Wyoming bank. That bank “was not equipped to handle his businesses or him personally,” Cohen said in a text message this month.

Ye has been cutting his ties more broadly to Wyoming, where he spent much time after moving to Cody, a small town with a population of 10,000, in 2019. He listed one of his ranches for sale late last year, around when Ye and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian were divorcing. The ranch, which includes lakes, a lodge, a horse facility, corrals and a go-kart track, according to the real estate listing, has been taken off the market.

As for those brand deals, Ye wants to negotiate with Adidas to get a 20 per cent royalty on all the shoes he’s designed with the company in perpetuity and save it for his four children. How’s he going to swing that?

“If these companies, if they want to play with me — I’ve been playing nice up to this point,” said Ye.

Bloomberg

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