The American rapper Kanye West is one of the greatest musical geniuses, at least when it comes to hip-hop music. Recently, his name appears more and more frequently in journalistic articles. Unfortunately, in a negative context.

Recently, West has shocked the world with his controversial views, full of intolerance towards the Jewish people on racial and national grounds and with hate speech.

Because of this, understandably, almost everyone turned their backs on him.

He declared himself to be God

Kanye West was born in 1977, in Atlanta, but grew up in Chicago – the two centers of African American music for the last three decades.

He is considered by many to be one of the most influential hip-hop musicians of all time. West recognized rap music as a genre with great potential, so he added synthesizers to the regular hip-hop matrix, as well as touches of soul and r'n'b music. Also, the influence of the French disco and house school is felt in his songs.

Today, he is one of hip-hop's most popular artists, with over 160 million albums and singles sold and 24 Grammy Awards. From the beginning of his career, music critics saw him as a kind of "messiah" and a man with a talent for hits and a sleeve full of production tricks. His wound, so called "school" trilogy albums "The College Dropout" (2004), "Late Registration" (2005), "Graduation" (2007) raised him to the throne of rap music. His talent for music managed to reach even those listeners who do not like rap music as a music genre. With each successive album, he became better and better in his musical expression.

In the album "The Life of Pablo" (2016), he declared himself to be God. From that moment on, God became the central theme in his music. West turned to religion and began creating albums with biblical themes, accompanied by gospel choirs. As a result, his popularity began to decline, and he became an object of ridicule.

A very important moment in his private, but also public life, is his marriage to the famous star of reality shows, Kim Kardashian. They were together from 2014 until 2022. West seems to have totally lost his compass after their divorce.

Impaired mental health

Numerous researchers have argued that writers are at higher risk of anxiety and bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, unipolar depression, and substance abuse.

West was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital in 2016, where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In the years that followed, he spoke openly about his episodes of unbridled mania. The rapper perceived his illness as his "superpower", but also began the topic of the stigma surrounding mental illness.

His so-called outbursts on social networks were jokingly reported in the media. West is known for his big ego, so the statements that he is "the best musician of all time" and "the future president of the United States" were not so problematic. His sense of grandiosity and overconfidence was seen as a symptom of mania.

During his music tour in 2016, he began giving long speeches praising former US President Donald Trump. In 2018, he made the problematic statement that "slavery is a choice."

His behavior again became the subject of concern and ridicule in 2020, when he launched a campaign for president and made controversial remarks about Harriet Tubman and abortion.

At the time, his ex-wife Kim Kardashian wrote: “As many of you know, Kanye has bipolar disorder. "Anyone who is dealing with this illness or has a loved one in their life who has bipolar disorder knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand." Calling her husband a "brilliant but complicated person," she added: "Those who are close to Kanye know his heart and understand his words, even if they sometimes disagree with his intentions."

Racism and anti-Semitism

His endorsement of Trump seemed to open the door to an abyss from which he never came back. His social decline culminated in recent events.

First, West organized a fashion show with the controversial slogan "White Lives Matter" at Paris Fashion Week, and then began posting anti-Semitic messages on Twitter. He's also started spouting his conspiracy theories that everyone is working against him – from secret societies to his ex-mother-in-law Kris Jenner.

As a consequence of all that, a whole series of influential companies terminated their contracts with the rapper in an attempt to distance themselves from him. Gap, Balenciaga, Adidas, Foot Locker and Peloton are just some of the brands that have ended their collaboration with West.

London's Madame Tussauds museum has decided to remove the rapper's wax figure, becoming the latest in a string of institutions to cut ties with the hip-hop artist over his anti-Semitic views, The Guardian reported.

The prestigious magazine "Forbes" reported that the rapper is no longer a billionaire after Adidas stopped working with him. According to their calculation, West's deal with Adidas is worth about $1,5 billion and that now, without that deal, his net worth would drop to $400 million.

Also, the talent agency CAY no longer represents West, and the film studio Emery has decided not to release his documentary.

"I lost $2 billion in one day and I'm still alive"

Kanye West took to Instagram after numerous companies stopped working with him.

In the message, he addressed Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, who wrote an op-ed for the Financial Times urging companies to cut ties and distance themselves from West over his anti-Semitic comments.

"I lost 2 billion dollars in one day and I'm still alive. This is the speech of love. I still love you. God still loves you. Money is not who I am. People are who I am," the famous rapper wrote.

 

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