Kanye West

2022 - 10 - 25

Yeezy -- antisemitism Yeezy - antisemitism

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Image courtesy of "BBC News"

Adidas cuts ties with rapper Kanye West over antisemitism (BBC News)

Clothing giant Adidas has cut ties with rapper Ye, known as Kanye West, saying it does "not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech".

The rapper has also lost his position in Forbes magazine's list of billionaires. A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: "Adidas has finally joined other brands and agencies and cut ties with Ye (Kanye West). The brand is also looking for a new chief executive, after announcing in August that current boss Kasper Rorsted would be leaving in 2023. As leaders of this company (a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian), we feel duty bound to say to all of you this is a pernicious, terrible use of false logic," MRC Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness." "Kanye is a producer and sampler of music.

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Image courtesy of "The New York Times"

Kanye West Tests Adidas and His Other Corporate Partners (The New York Times)

The antisemitic outbursts and provocations by the artist now known as Ye have raised questions about how much offensive behavior companies are willing to ...

His remarks prompted outrage from the Floyd family and [an apology from the show’s host, N.O.R.E](https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/19/entertainment/nore-kanye-west-george-floyd/index.html). Owens accompanied him to an interview with [TMZ Live](https://www.tmz.com/2018/05/01/kanye-west-tmz-live-slavery-trump/) the following month in which he called American slavery a “choice,” spurring outrage. [“The Life of Pablo,”](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/15/arts/music/kanye-west-life-of-pablo-review.html) was his latest No. While his Season 4 show on Roosevelt Island in September 2016 [proved a debacle](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/fashion/kanye-west-fashion-week-season-4.html), his potent combination of reality-TV celebrity, music stardom, sneaker success and establishment disruption was impossible to resist for an industry that often felt stuck in the last century. [pictures](https://www.balenciaga.com/en-us/summer-23) and [videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh_1K9s6UV0) of the show. Trump](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/arts/music/kanye-west-trump-conservatives.html); launched a quixotic campaign [for president](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/us/politics/kanye-west-president-2020.html) in 2020; and [split with Ms. Lawyers for Ye argued that Gap broke “contractual obligations.” Gap said it was “deciding to wind down the partnership.” Ye has suggested that he may open his own line of retail shops. [“Donda,”](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/arts/music/kanye-west-donda.html) he included industry pariahs like Marilyn Manson, who had been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, and DaBaby, who had made [homophobic remarks](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/arts/music/dababy-lollapalooza-canceled-homophobic-comments.html) and waffled about apologies. Abrams, the Anti-Defamation League’s regional director there, [released a statement](https://twitter.com/ADLSoCal/status/1584275380789051392?s=20&t=D9wkjsHUVjsVYBOzwojNIg) that concluded, “Decisive action against antisemitism by Adidas is long overdue.” Ye [ended his Yeezy Gap partnership](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/business/kanye-west-yeezy-gap.html) last month, before the latest controversies erupted, but in recent days Gap sent out promotional emails for the Yeezy Gap hoodie. In recent years he has been condemned for saying that Harriet Tubman “never actually freed the slaves” and that centuries of slavery had been “ [a choice](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/arts/music/kanye-west-charlamagne-interview-tmz.html)”; polarized fans with his [embrace of right-wing politics and former President Donald J. He [withdrew from headlining this year’s Coachella festival](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/arts/music/kanye-west-coachella-swedish-house-mafia-weeknd.html) just over a week before it began.

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