The Downfall of Kanye West
18 years of controversies and Kanye West, who is now legally known as Ye, seems to be untouchable. In the previous years, he has invited a well known homophobe, DaBaby and accused abuser Marilyn Manson to perform with him, he has also made statements about how slavery was a choice and has defended Bill Cosby, a convicted rapist.
Kanye West has involved himself in politics by accusing George Bush of hating black people and has aligned himself with Donald Trump. He also ran his own presidential campaign which was founded on capital punishment and anti-abortion. However, even though he managed to return to the top echelons of the music and fashion industry, his latest controversy may have just burned his empire to the ground.
The beginning of this controversy was on the 3rd of October during his Paris Fashion Show, when Kanye sent models down the runway wearing “White Lives Matter” shirts. He also posted pictures of conservative pundit Candace Owens wearing “White Lives Matter” shirts, which has become a white supremacist slogan which rallies against the Black Lives Matter social movement – a movement which highlights systematic discrimination, racism, and inequality experienced by black people.
In an interview when he was asked about his supremacist slogan, he stated that “White Lives Matter” because they do. This reply was nothing but an ignorant and offensive response to the black community and the black lives matter movement.
The shirts at the fashion show enraged the fashion world, which Ye viciously defended on his Instagram. He attacked Supreme creative director Tremaine Emory, model Gigi Hadid, and former Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson in what he stated was a “war.”
On the 7th of October, he was quickly kicked off of Instagram, and as a result, West turned to Twitter. After not posting for about two years, he returned on the platform on the 8th of October and tweeted about how he would go death con 3 on Jews. As a result, Kanye was kicked off from Twitter as well, which left with him little to no places to run to.
Today, even though Ye is free to continue designing shoes, he may be having trouble making any money from them. He is on the lookout to partner with companies and resume collecting royalties, however, there are not many clients who might be willing to work with the problematic Ye brand.
Ye was put in an exact similar position when he turned up unannounced on Wednesday at the Manhattan Beach, Calif. headquarters of shoemaker Skechers and as a result, he was escorted off the property very swiftly.
To make these matters more interesting, a spokesperson for Skechers told TMZ in a conversation that the company is neither considering nor has any intention of working with Ye. Additionally, they also openly condemned his divisive remarks and stated that they did not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech.
Even the most ardent Kanye fans are now finding difficulty in defending his actions or his new status as an anti-Semitic voice for America’s growing extremist right wing. Over the span of three weeks, he has dug his own grave as his actions and words have destroyed any possibility of success for him. Even though Ye would have managed to survive and thrive during such controversies, the question which begs a response is whether he will be able to do it again from here onwards.
