Kanye West faces a very public judgment. The “Hurricane” rapper made headlines at his Yeezy Paris Fashion Week show on Oct. 3 for wearing a shirt emblazoned with the phrase “White Lives Matter” on his back and featuring black models in the shirt. The phrase is one that has been adopted by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the rapper has faced backlash from both fans. and celebrities online.
But the controversy didn’t end there for Ye, who doubled down on his Instagram comments and then took to Twitter to use anti-Semitic rhetoric in his posts, then continued to amp up his hate speech in interviews. Public reaction was swift, with several companies – including The Gap, Balenciaga, etc. — ended their relationship and branding deals with the rapper.
Forbes also reported that Ye had lost his billionaire status after Adidas announced on October 25 that he was dropping his deal and that the brand did not tolerate hate speech. According to the publication, the move now brings Ye’s net worth to $400 million and resulted in his removal from Forbes‘ list of billionaires.
From scrapped brands and documentaries, to streaming declines of his music catalog and more, here are the consequences Kanye West has faced due to his “WLM” and anti-Semitic remarks.
