Kanye West has claimed that he has lost the phenomenal sum of $2 billion this week, after companies abandoned the rapper after a series of antisemitic tirades.
West, who recently regained access to his Instagram account, posted a message to Jewish businessman Ari Emanuel, who had urged companies to stop working with him.
In an Instagram stories post, West said: "Ari Emanuel, I lost 2 billion dollars in one day and I’m still alive.
"This is love speech. I still love you. God still loves you. The money is not who I am. The people is who I am.”
The embattled music star reportedly showed up at shoe giant Sketchers’ main corporate offices in Los Angeles on Wednesday unannounced, seeking a new deal, and got turned away.
Sketchers, which was founded by Jewish entrepreneur Robert Greenberg and is now run by his son Michael, told reporters that Kanye West and his party were escorted from the building following a brief conversation.
A spokesperson for Sketchers said: “[Kanye] arrived unannounced and without invitation,
“Sketchers is not considering and has no intention of working with West. We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech.”
On Tuesday, Kanye was dropped by global apparel company Adidas over his recent antisemitic tirades, in a decision that cost the company a quarter of a billion dollars in net profits this quarter alone.
Kanye also lost his partnerships with fashion companies Vogue and Balenciaga, upcoming deals with GAP, his talent agency Creative Artists Agency, and plans for a documentary with MRC Entertainment because of his antisemitic comments.
Forbes reported this week that due to the termination of these lucrative partnerships, Kanye’s net worth is no longer above $1 billion, with some reports of the hip hop star losing as much as £900 million in total assets.
Streaming service Spotify has called Kanye’s recent comments ‘awful’ but has kept his music on their platform, which receives over 50 million unique monthly listeners.
Spotify CEO Daniel Elk told Reuters that Kanye did not violate anti-hate policies since his comments were not made on the platform itself.
Elk said: “It’s really just his music, and his music doesn’t violate our policy,
“It’s up to his label, if they want to take action or not.”
The streaming giant removed R&B singer R Kelly’s music from their platform following 2018 allegations and a conviction of sexual misconduct against minors but walked back the policy after other artists threatened boycotts, giving users an option to block particular artists instead.
