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The superstar rapper no longer has a place on the Forbes Billionaires\u2019 list now that his lucrative deal with Adidas is over.<\/h5>\n
J<\/abbr>ust days ago,<\/strong>\u00a0the rapper-cum-fashion entrepreneur Kanye West challenged Adidas to drop him following a weeks-long barrage of antisemitic remarks made on social media and in national media appearances.<\/p>\n \u201cI can say antisemitic s\u2014- and Adidas cannot drop me,\u201d said the rapper, who legally now goes by the name \u201cYe,\u201d on the Drink Champs podcast earlier this month. Ye, who had worked with Adidas since 2013 on his Yeezy line of super-expensive, super-popular sneakers, thought he was untouchable. After all, Adidas gets an estimated 4% to 8% of its sales from Yeezy products, according to investment bank Cowen. For Ye, it was an even bigger deal, accounting for $1.5 billion of his net worth.<\/p>\n But Ye\u2019s words put the German athletic wear company, with its own Nazi ties dating back to its founders, in the hot seat. What followed was even more escalating pressure on Adidas to sever ties with Ye, as his string of antisemitic remarks drew condemnation from the top tiers of Hollywood. For weeks, Adidas stayed silent, except to say on October 6 that their partnership with Ye was \u201cunder review.\u201d<\/p>\n The pressure ratcheted up on Adidas after an image was released over the weekend of a banner draped over a Los Angeles highway overpass reading \u201cKanye was right about the Jews\u201d accompanied by a group of white supremacists giving the Nazi salute to the drivers below. The white supremacists were apparently referring to Ye\u2019s \u201cdeath con 3 on Jewish people\u201d tweet that got his Twitter account locked; other antisemitic remarks got him blocked on Instagram, and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of social media users chorused for Adidas to also drop Ye.<\/p>\n Today\u2014Tuesday, October 25\u2014Adidas finally broke its silence and ended the relationship. That move will cost them big, but Ye\u00a0even more, immediately knocking him out of the billionaire ranks.<\/p>\n \u201cAdidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye\u2019s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company\u2019s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness,\u201d the company declared in a\u00a0press release. \u201cAfter a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.\u201d<\/p>\n With that gone, Ye is no longer a billionaire.<\/p>\n It caps a stunning, self-induced downfall for one of the brashest and most volatile personalities to have graced\u00a0Forbes\u2019\u00a0<\/em>pages (and a magazine cover). Ye did not respond to request for comment.<\/p>\n The $1.5 billion value of the Adidas deal was calculated off of a multiple of annual earnings. Based on interviews with industry experts,\u00a0Forbes\u00a0<\/em>had\u00a0viewed\u00a0the royalties Ye received from Adidas to be similar to royalties from music catalogs or film residuals. The Adidas income stream could be sold off, those experts said, just like dozens of musicians (including the likes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen) have sold off their life\u2019s work over the past two years.<\/p>\n Without Adidas, Ye is worth $400 million. The remainder of Ye\u2019s fortune,\u00a0Forbes<\/em>\u00a0estimates, comes from real estate, cash, his music catalog and a 5% stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian\u2019s shapewear firm, Skims. (A source close to Skims told\u00a0Forbes<\/em>\u00a0Ye hasn\u2019t been involved with the brand since its 2019 launch.)<\/p>\n Removing Ye from the Billionaires\u2019 list caps off a years-long saga between the rapper and\u00a0Forbes<\/em>. Ye always felt his net worth was undervalued. When he first made the list in 2020, with an estimated $1 billion fortune, Ye wasn\u2019t happy. \u201cIt\u2019s not a billion,\u201d he texted us at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s $3.3 billion since no one at\u00a0Forbes<\/em>\u00a0knows how to count.\u201d<\/p>\n This pattern continued every year, with Ye continuing to complain about our low numbers. For this year\u2019s valuation, Ye sent documents claiming his Adidas partnership alone was worth $4.3 billion. When Ye learned he would clock in at $2 billion overall, his unhappiness with\u00a0Forbes<\/em>\u00a0leaked to the\u00a0tabloids.<\/p>\n Losing Adidas was the final nail in Ye\u2019s net-worth coffin. GapGPS\u00a0+1.7%\u00a0terminated its Yeezy partnership in September. Earlier this month, JPMorgan reportedly unbanked Ye. French fashion house Balenciaga nixed their relationship with Ye on October 21, just weeks after he walked their runway at Paris Fashion Week.<\/p>\n Just yesterday production company MRC said it would not air a completed documentary on Ye and talent agency CAA, where Ye was signed, dumped him.<\/p>\n The two had been in partnership since 2013, when news of their Yeezy collaboration was announced. In the decade since, Ye\u2019s ridden wave after wave of conflict\u2014with Taylor Swift, with his former recording home Universal Group, and more recently on social media against Kardashian and her boyfriend at the time, SNL alum Pete Davidson.<\/p>\n Now the road has ended. (There\u2019s always the chance Ye could relaunch Yeezy on his own.) Five days ago Ye made his first post to Parler, the right-wing social media site he agreed to acquire for an undisclosed amount after getting locked out of Twitter and Instagram. He quoted Romans 8:31.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n