Yeezy

For the past few days, West has spewed virulently antisemitic, homophobic and misogynistic hate speech via his X account to his more than 32 million followers. Celebrities, Jewish groups, anti-hate organizations and other X accounts had pleaded with Elon Musk’s X platform to take action, though Musk himself has courted controversy with his own behavior and comments about the Holocaust.

The Yeezus rapper made his third appearance on an alcohol-fueled episode of Drink Champs, hosted by rapper N.O.R.E. During the conversation, Ye pushed the false claim that George Floyd was not killed by former police officer Derek Chauvin, but instead had died from a fentanyl overdose.

Current and former Adidas managers and executives told her about an exodus of top Black management, a tone deaf attitude towards Black employees, and a dismissive attitude towards Black staff who warned the company about the risks of working with Ye years before his anti-Semitic meltdown.

It’s impossible to talk about diversity at Adidas without considering its biggest success of the past decade—which turned into its most spectacular public relations disaster. The story of the Yeezy line, and Adidas’s falling out with its cocreator, Ye, that’s familiar to most, happened in 2022: the messy, embarrassing, financially devastating breakup of the German shoe giant and the American superstar after he took to social media to say he was about to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” (Presumably, he meant Defcon 3, the military term suggesting readiness for a full assault.)

Adidas is known for projecting this progressive, scrappy optimism in its marketing campaigns, with Black success stories often driving the narrative, and Black athletes, models, artists, and celebrities carrying the message. But former and current employees at the German company say that despite this public exaltation of Black empowerment, Black professionals within the corporation are rarely able to penetrate the top strata of leadership—or to feel comfortable when they do.

The first significant crack in Adidas’s relationship with Ye appeared in May of 2018. That’s when the celebrity was interviewed on the Hollywood news site TMZ and suggested that America’s history of slavery could be blamed on enslaved people. “When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” he told the stunned TMZ anchors.

West’s website received fresh promotion Sunday evening when he bought a local TV ad during the Super Bowl, appearing to show him sitting at the dentist’s office while recording a 30-second spot on an iPhone to push people to his Yeezy website.

It comes just days after West, now legally known as Ye, ran a Super Bowl ad promoting the site, where only one item was available for purchase: a $20 white T-shirt featuring a black swastika. The 30-second commercial kicked off with the rapper filming a close-up of his own face while sitting in a dentist chair.

The website that was selling Kanye West’s T-shirts embossed with swastikas has been deactivated by Shopify Tuesday.

Adidas said Wednesday that it’s donated or is planning to give away more than $150 million to groups fighting antisemitism and other forms of hate from the sales of Yeezy shoes last year after it severed ties with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

“After careful consideration, we have decided to begin releasing some of the remaining Adidas Yeezy products,” said Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden in a statement. “Selling and donating was the preferred option among all organizations and stakeholders we spoke to. There is no place in sport or society for hate of any kind and we remain committed to fighting against it.”

BuzzFeed News; Jonathan Leibson / Getty Images for ADIDAS

Black employees still feel betrayed by how Adidas responded to their alarm at Ye’s anti-Black racism, former workers say. And the fallout from the company’s relationship with the musician continues to play out uncomfortably and under the harsh gaze of public scrutiny.

Ye makes an appearance on Tim Pool’s Timcast IRL podcast along with his two racist new associates, Fuentes and supposed campaign manager Yiannopoulos.

The rapper expressed his frustration with how he’s been treated by particular individuals in the entertainment industry and made repeated blanket antisemitic statements about the Jewish community, which Fuentes supported.

In an exclusive interview with celebrity news site X17 just days earlier, he shared a look into one of his working spaces where he is manufacturing #YE24 merchandise using remnants of Balenciaga, Yeezy, Gap, and Adidas. Ye also debuted his latest affiliate, far-right agitator Milo Yiannopoulos, who joined the fold as supposedly his 2024 campaign manager.

A group of investors who bought Adidas shares between 2018 and early 2023 has filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that Adidas misled shareholders by not disclosing the risks connected to Ye’s behavior. The company knew as far back as 2018 that employees were rattled by Ye’s slavery remarks and other behavioral issues, the investors say. In a company statement to Fortune, Adidas said, “We outright reject these unfounded claims and will take all necessary measures to vigorously defend ourselves against them.”

Adidas shareholders have filed a class action lawsuit against the sportswear brand, claiming it knew about Kanye West’s problematic behaviour years before it ended their partnership over his antisemitic comments.

Ye attended a dinner hosted by Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort and estate in Florida alongside Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. During their dinner, the presidential hopeful informed Trump of his intention to run for office and suggested the former president be his running mate.

Adidas has since launched an independent investigation into reports that Ye created a “toxic environment” at the company, after staff wrote an open letter claiming that Ye showed them explicit images of himself and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, shouted at female workers, and made “sexually disturbing references when providing design feedback”. In the letter, staff claimed bosses were aware of Ye’s “problematic behaviour” but “turned their moral compass off”.

A spokesperson for Adidas confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it would be investigating claims made in an anonymous letter that senior leadership was aware of Ye’s “problematic behavior” and did nothing.

A report from Rolling Stone detailed a highly toxic work environment that employees said Ye created at Adidas throughout his partnership with the brand. Former team members accused the Yeezy creator of flaunting sexually explicit content, bullying, and using “mind games” to control workers.

Yet fashion has begun to divorce itself from the muddled tones and gummy textures that defined Yeezy. And of course, Ye was swallowed in recent years by self-inflicted controversies. A spate of antisemitic and discriminatory statements (for which he later apologized) led Gap, Balenciaga and Adidas to distance themselves from him. Ye’s fashion authority has dwindled.

Hours after the Adidas breakup, Gap announced that it was taking action to remove all Yeezy Gap products from its retail outlets because of his antisemitic and racist comments.

But this fall, even the corporate collaborators who had long benefited from Ye’s cultural capital found themselves backed into a corner, as their cash cow plummeted them into a moral crisis. The first of his business dealings came to an end in September, when the announcement came that the Yeezy Gap 10-year-deal, said to be worth billions, was ending after only two years.

After “repeated efforts” to privately resolve issues between Ye and the German brand, Adidas issued a statement announcing that the partnership was “under review.”

But when West made a series of antisemitic comments on social media in October 2022, Adidas announced it was ending the partnership, calling his remarks “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous”, adding that it would “not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech”.

The rapper apologized to the Jewish community in 2022 only to later retract his apology in a barrage of social media posts in February in which he declared he was a Nazi.

Ye’s biggest deal finally collapsed when German sports brand Adidas announced the end of its highly lucrative partnership, after mounting pressure from the public and staff.

The decision to part ways with the designer took immediate effect, with Adidas announcing that it will end the production of Yeezy-branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. This is expected to cause a shortfall of $246 million in the company’s revenue for the year.

Ye has targeted minority communities with hate speech and dangerous rhetoric, and now the Yeezy empire has unraveled.

Today, however, ex-employees say that little has improved at Adidas over the past four years, and, if anything, there has been a “rewinding” of DEI progress under Bjørn Gulden, who became CEO in 2023. Soon after his appointment, Gulden commented to senior staff that DEI was a waste of time and that employees should get back to caring about profits, according to a former executive who said they were in the room. Gulden declined to comment for this article, but an Adidas spokesperson denied that Gulden made these statements and said they do not reflect his attitude.

Lately, former and current Black leaders at the company tell Fortune, things have gotten worse: Since the beginning of 2023, 10 Black and brown executives at the VP level and above—many hired in the U.S. in 2020 and 2021 during the reckoning in corporate America following the murder of George Floyd—have been pushed out or quit, Fortune has learned. At least eight other Black executives in key roles in the U.S. have also departed since 2020.

Eight employees, including some minors, allege that West (who now goes by Ye), his then-chief of staff Milo Yiannopolous, and his Yeezy company did not pay team members and also referred to them as “slaves” and “new slaves” along with other derogatory treatment. They also claim they were exposed to pornographic images in the “hostile work environment.” The plaintiffs are seeking payment for unpaid wages along with attorney fees, as well as damages for emotional distress.

The latest suit, which was filed in a United States District Court in California, is one of several other lawsuits the rapper is facing from former employees. Earlier this month, West’s ex-assistant Lauren Pisciotta accused him of sexual harassment, breach of contract, and wrongful termination. West said he would countersue, with a statement from his legal representative calling Pisciotta’s claims “baseless” and accused her of engaging in “blackmail and extortion” after he rejected her sexual advances. In April, former Yeezy and Donda Academy employee Trevor Phillips sued West, joining a number of former employees, accusing him of spewing “dangerous rhetoric” including antisemitic remarks and at one point threatening to punch him.

Kanye West and his Yeezy company have been accused of mistreating several staff members — including bullying and not paying a number of them while they worked on developing a streaming app earlier this year — in a new lawsuit filed Saturday, The Washington Post reports.

Eight former Yeezy employees, including some minors, claim the musician and his company didn’t pay them, called them “slaves,” and showed them pornography

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, his company, and its former chief of staff maintained a hostile and abusive working environment during the development of an app to stream his new album Vultures 2, a suit filed in California federal court says.

Ye appeared on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight for a two-part interview during which he made anti-fat remarks about Lizzo, attempted to explain his White Lives Matter shirts, and spoke out against abortion in the Black community

“I see good things about Hitler,” said Ye, who appeared on the show with his face concealed under a black mask. “Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”

Leaked segments of Ye’s interview with Tucker Carlson that did not make the final edit were obtained and published by Motherboard. They include further antisemitic comments from Ye, including invoking racist tropes regarding Jewish people and money.

The staffer, Murphy Aficionado, sued Ye in November 2024, alleging that his job as a Yeezy project manager became a living “nightmare” after Ye purportedly hired him in late 2022 at $125 an hour. Aficionado claims he routinely worked 70-hour weeks and sometimes slept at the office to meet Ye’s demands, including work on a plan to move Donda Academy to a new “decrepit property” without the necessary permits. His lawsuit includes a text in which Ye allegedly wrote, “I need to pay you for your time.”

Ye uploaded a documentary to YouTube titled Last Week, which led to accusations of him harassing Adidas employees, due to a scene in which he attempts to force executives to watch pornography.

Ye goes full-on Hitler fan, expressing admiration for the German leader responsible for charging the genocide of millions of European Jews, in an interview on Infowars with Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Speaking anonymously, a former business associate of Ye’s told CNN that the Yeezy creator had an “obsession” with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

After having his social media accounts restricted for antisemitism, Ye appeared adamant about saying what he wanted to say unchecked, and what better way to do that than to own your platform?

After making antisemitic comments on Instagram and Twitter, Ye had his social media accounts restricted and moderated.

In 2020, following the weeks-long, often public, confrontation between Black employees and the company’s top leadership team, Adidas made several pledges to repair ties and rebuild its diversity efforts. In response to the work and research of a group of 12 high-level Black employees who had created a coalition advocating for DEI across Adidas, the company promised that Black and Latino people would fill at least 30% of all new job openings in the U.S. and earmarked $120 million for scholarships to support Black students over five years.

During a surprise YZY SZN 9 runway presentation at Paris Fashion Week, Ye dressed models in white T-shirts featuring a photo of Pope John Paul II on the front and the phrase “White Lives Matter” printed boldly across the back.

By Emmy Freedman ( January 10, 2025, 4:17 PM EST) -- Ye and his clothing company, Yeezy Apparel LLC, will pay $625,000 to resolve a class action accusing them of incorrectly classifying design workers as independent contractors and thus causing them to lose out on overtime wages, an order in California state court said. . . .

The lawsuit is not the first filed by a purported Yeezy project manager alleging mistreatment. At a trial last March, Tony Saxon was awarded $140,000 for injuries he suffered while working at Ye’s $57 million Malibu beach house.

“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial, we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” Ye said in the announcement.

Ye announced he would buy Parler, the “uncancelable free speech platform” favored by conservatives and extremists, just days after he’d been restricted by Meta and Twitter. Parler was identified as one of the apps used by white supremacists and far-right extremists to coordinate the Capitol insurrection and spread content that glorified the violence that took place.

Ye told Piers Morgan that he is headed for a “top power position” and could “empathize” with straight white men, who he believes have the least room to speak in public life nowadays.

Ye appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored for a two-hour interview in which he likened himself to a “straight white male” and delivered a half-assed apology for his antisemitic tweets, but not for his other offensive remarks.

After previously criticizing celebrities for not speaking out about Balenciaga’s controversial campaign featuring children with BDSM gear and unsettling court documents, Ye appeared to rally for the brand, which abandoned him only weeks earlier for his antisemitic comments.

French fashion brand Balenciaga, the clothing and imagery that have been intrinsically linked to Ye and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian for years, announced it had cut ties with Ye. The news came less than a month after he debuted on the runway at its summer 2023 show at Paris Fashion Week.

Balenciaga confirmed to WWD that it “no longer [has] any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.”

“I stand by Balenciaga and denounce all witch hunts and I cancel cancel culture Jesus is King Ending trafficking doesn’t start or end with a fashion campaign for Christ Sake,” he said on Twitter.

“We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform,” CEO Modi Wiczyk, CEO Asif Satchu, and COO Scott Tenley wrote in a joint statement.

Yeezy Apparel LLC and Yeezy LLC must pay $950,000 to settle the civil lawsuit after allegedly engaging in "unlawful business practices and false advertising," the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office announced Monday.

Parents whose children attend Ye’s $15,000-a-year Donda Academy in Southern California received an urgent email announcing that it will close for the remainder of the 2022–23 academic year “effective immediately.”

In a now-deleted Instagram post, the rapper mocked Washington in a photo and suggested that the $250 million lawsuit against him was being orchestrated by other entities or was motivated by greed.

Meanwhile, the family of George Floyd responded to Ye’s false remarks about his death by saying they will file a $250 million lawsuit against the rapper for “harassment, misappropriation, defamation” and “infliction of emotional distress.”

"Within the next two years our goal is to bring the manufacturing back to America. South America, North America. Bring it back stateside, and also to present jobs for people back here."

Kanye West is doing his part to reduce the carbon footprint of his Yeezy production and has found a way to make shoes that are partially made from pond-sourced algae. The "Jesus Is King" rapper revealed the Yeezy Foam Runners last week at the Fast Company Innovation Festival. Ye was joined by Yeezy head designer Steven Smith to introduce the eco-friendly footwear and speak on the future plans of the company.

“Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3,000 years — the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain,” the statement said.

After the offensive shirts were criticized by Vogue fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, Ye proceeded to bully her by mocking her style to his millions of followers.

In recent years, the rapper turned designer, whose legal name is now Ye, has suggested that 400 years of chattel slavery was “a choice” and sported the confederate flag as a fashion statement. He defended the likes of Bill Cosby and R. Kelly; aligned himself with controversial figures like DaBaby, Marilyn Manson, and former president Donald Trump; and spoke out in support of the MAGA movement during the height of tensions in the country.

Rapper Ye and his company Yeezy LLC each owe $176,153 for infringing the copyright of music by DJ Khalil and others with a pre-album version of his song “Hurricane” from his “Donda” album, a California federal jury held.

Multiple California tax liens have been filed against Ye's Yeezy Apparel in the past two years, remaining active as the company's future remains unclear.

The Trump Organization isn't the only one in tax trouble. On Wednesday, reports surfaced that the Yeezy Apparel brand, one of five Yeezy limited liability corporations based in California and owned by fellow MAGA enthusiast Kanye "Ye" West, owes over $600,000 in unpaid taxes. Yeezy Apparel's six-figure debt adds to the rapper/designer/entrepreneur's mounting woes amid backlash for his ongoing anti-Black and antisemitic rhetoric, which has included the recent finalization of lucrative brand partnerships with Adidas and Gap.

Yeezy Apparel LLC, owned by Ye, the rapper and controversy-courting celebrity formerly known as Kanye West, has four outstanding tax liens in California, one of which dates back to 2021.

“YE24. LOVE EVERYONE #LOVESPEECH,” Ye wrote alongside the image, referring to his plans to run for the presidency in the next election.

Ye has his account suspended from Twitter for “incitement to violence,” Elon Musk confirmed. The artist had his account restricted after posting a photo of a Jewish Star of David with a swastika in the middle.

Just days later, Ye appeared to break his fast to talk with paparazzi, declaring that he “can’t be controlled,” and suggested that his mother Donda West, who died in 2007 after complications from surgery, had been “sacrificed.”

Ye appeared on the red carpet alongside Candace Owens for the premiere screening of her documentary, The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM.

Some employees have worried that Gulden might explore a renewed partnership with Ye: Last September, the CEO set off alarm bells within Adidas when he said on a sports podcast that he didn’t think Ye meant what he said about Jews. A public and internal backlash forced the CEO to walk back the comment.

Maverick Carter, the CEO of the SpringHill Company, creators of The Shop, issued an apology to guests and crew.

A day after being dropped by Adidas, Ye appeared to be on the lookout for a new partner and showed up “unannounced and without invitation” at the Skechers corporate offices in Los Angeles.

Young athletes enrolled in Donda Academy’s sports program were also burned by Ye’s behavior after its boys basketball team was dropped from two prestigious sporting tournaments.