According to Forbes, Kanye West Is Officially A Billionaire.
West directed his team to provide what we feel is an authentic numeric look into Kanye, Inc.
Three things became clear from this exercise. First, it reinforces why we put him on the cover in the first place — West, in just a few years, has created a brand that’s challenging Nike’s Air Jordan for sneaker world supremacy. It’s one of the great retail stories of the century.
Second, it reinforced that West, who claims both in words and in this paperwork that he’s worth more than $3 billion, is as overly boastful as his political idol, President Donald Trump. Not a numbers guy? We agree.
Finally, and perhaps most critically to West, it does confirm, based on our estimates, that his stake in Yeezy indeed makes him a billionaire. A bit over $1 billion, actually.
In the process, we can now share more details about Yeezy than ever before revealed—as well as some insight into what drives this extremely creative, extremely enigmatic ten-digit artist.
Yeezy is a complicated asset. West owns 100% of it. But it’s also functionally tied, at least for five-plus years based on the documents we saw, to Adidas, which produces, markets and distributes the shoes. There’s also a separate apparel division which we don’t believe makes money. Last year, our sources projected the shoes would finish 2019 with revenue north of $1.5 billion (Adidas would not comment then, or now)—per recent conversations and internal documents we believe the final revenue number ended up closer to $1.3 billion.
Shouldn’t West have also socked away hundreds of millions more, given his incredibly successful recording career and burgeoning Yeezy dividends? If you spend like a superstar, not necessarily. (The guy owns a tank.) The statement of assets supplied by his team yesterday, lists just $17 million in cash and $35 million in stocks.
The biggest assets, according to his internal team, are $81 million in “buildings and improvements” and $21 million in land. His homes are surely most or all of that. The Los Angeles mansion Kanye West shares with his wife and four children, is itself a work of art—down to the floors, made of a special Belgian plaster that, if scuffed, can only be fixed by summoning a crew from Europe. “The house was all him,” Kardashian West told me last year. “I’ve never seen anyone that pays such attention to detail.” A pair of $14 million Wyoming ranches—nearly 10,000 acres between the two of them—has been taking up more cash.
Then there’s the matter of his music. Documents we reviewed show West’s G.O.O.D. label—and his own recorded music and publishing rights—to be worth at least $90 million.
