Rapper Ye’s falling out with corporate partners has cost him his status as a billionaire, according to Forbes.
In the last few weeks, Ye — also known as Kanye West — has seen luxury fashion house Balenciaga, Gap and most recently Adidas end business relationship with him for antisemitic comments and wearing a shirt with a slogan linked to the Ku Klux Klan.
On Tuesday, Forbes, one of the leading trackers of wealth among the world’s financial elites, declared it had dropped Ye from its list of billionaires. It estimated the Adidas deal accounted for $1.5 billion of his net worth, but Forbes now estimates it at a mere $400 million.
Forbes said that the $400 million remaining of his net worth comes from real estate, cash, his music catalog and a 5% stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s shapewear firm, Skims.
Of course, it’s likely that Ye still considers himself a billionaire, given that he has complained for years that Forbes was underestimating his net worth. Forbes reported that in 2020 — when it first listed him as a billionaire — he texted the magazine saying, “It’s not a billion. It’s $3.3 billion since no one at Forbes knows how to count.”
For this year’s valuation, Ye sent documents to Forbes claiming his Adidas partnership alone was worth $4.3 billion, and has claimed elsewhere that his net worth was about $7 billion.
