Kanye West’s downfall: Conscience outweighs Capital

Contributor

From the day Kanye West began creating his own music in 2003, his voice became one of the most prominent in the hip-hop and pop culture industry. Along with musical attributes, Kanye West has been outspoken about the hard-hitting issues personal to him despite the ways in which they have led to his downfall.

Kanye West has made it quite clear that he has bipolar disorder, otherwise known as BPD, going as far as to place the saying, “I hate being Bipolar, it’s Awesome” on the front cover of his eighth studio album, Ye. Since impulsivity is a major side effect of BPD, much of what Kanye West says in the moment has no true reflection of his personal views.

Around 2019, Kanye West began a complete religious transformation, becoming a born again Christian and releasing the album Jesus is King to encapsulate his new findings. As great as this may have been for Kanye West’s mental health, his radical religious views quickly enveloped his whole life and political stance, giving birth to a whole new and destructive era of Kanye West. said. To follow the trends of cancel-culture, the world attempted to rid itself of any piece of Kanye West. in the near future. Since Kanye West’s “Yeezy” line of clothing made up around 8% of Adidas profits, the company’s bottom line was affected.

Companies such as Adidas, Gap, Footlocker, and many more terminated all contracts with Kanye West shortly after his anti-Semitic comments. He was temporarily banned from Twitter to restrict his public outreach in a point of mental insecurity.

On December 1, 2022, a fully masked Kanye West made an appearance on Alex Jones’s InfoWars where he stated, “I like Hitler.” Although this idea was supposed to relate to the rationale that God loves everyone, no context could excuse what he

While dropping Kanye West from these companies did improve their public image, a clear conscience is not always the best thing, economically. According to CBS News, Adidas’s decision to cut ties with Kanye West costed them $734.2 million USD (estimate of $1billion CAD) out of pocket due to unsellable product, along with a $1.77 billion USD (estimate of $2.4 billion CAD) projected loss

Due to the grave impact of this cancellation, Adidas plans to sell the unsold Yeezy products soon, even though Kanye has no official association with the company. Regardless, speculation has risen that this continuation of sale has led to a discrete $679.8 million USD (estimate of $900 million CAD) deal with Kanye, welcoming Kanye West back into the foreground of Adidas.

If Kanye West ever wants to be placed under the spotlight again, it is necessary for him accept the fact that words should be spoken with clear conscience and context. On the flip side, if companies such as Adidas want to maintain their clean repertoire, they need to be willing to sacrifice profitability for longevity.