Kanye West is so much more than a rapper. He has numerous other initiatives, ranging from his apparel line ‘Yeezy’ to his Christian choir group ‘Sunday Service’. Having rapped, produced, designed, and inspired throughout his career, many fans wonder how much money he has made in the process, and whether or not he is a billionaire.
Kanye West is worth $1.3 Billion according to Forbes. Kanye has been claiming that he is a billionaire for years, but Forbes only agreed with him in April 2020. While Kanye claims that the documents turned in by him showed his net worth at around $3 Billion, Forbes only put him a few hundred million above the three-comma mark.
Let’s take a look at how Kanye makes his money.
Kanye’s Net Worth Comes Mainly from Yeezy
You might think that someone who has been in the music business as long as Kanye has would have made most of his money from music, but that is not true at all. While Kanye has definitely made a lot of money from music, he has also spent most of it.
Forbes currently estimates Kanye’s 100% Yeezy stake at $1.26 Billion. The remaining $40 million comes from his assets, cash, and stock holdings. Do remember that it is quite difficult to value Kanye’s stake in Yeezy as it is a private company and none of it has ever been sold.
It is also important to note that the brand is currently managed by Adidas, and Kanye receives a 10% royalty from all of its sales. However, Kanye does own the underlying brand, and it will be given to him completely once his contract with Adidas runs out.
An interesting thing to note is that Kanye has been designing sneakers since his school days. Considering how Kanye’s ego works, it is possible that it was the reprimands that he received from his teachers that caused him to get into the show business.
Kanye Believes His Net Worth to be Over $3 Billion
We stated earlier that valuing Kanye’s brand Yeezy can be quite difficult due to it being a private company. As such, Kanye values his net worth quite differently.
According to the Forbes article that officially accepted Kanye as a billionaire, Kanye has been calling them out for years complaining that they do not value his portfolio accurately. According to Kanye, Forbes ‘Do not know how to count’ and the documents that he has provided show his net worth to be over twice as much as Forbes accepts.
If you take a closer look at the Forbes article, you will see that Kanye has gone as far as to suggest racism as an excuse for why Forbes would not officially recognize him as a billionaire earlier. It is obvious there is no love lost between the two, and it will be interesting to see how Forbes reacts as more information about Yeezy becomes public.
How Kanye Spends his Money
Kanye would be a lot richer if he hadn’t extravagantly spent his money. Right now, Kanye is in a relatively stable financial position, having over $1 Billion in assets at the very least and only $100 million of debt. However, Kanye was under huge debt due to his extravagant lifestyle just a few years ago.
If you want to summarize the way Kanye lives, it is possible to do so in a single sentence: Kanye West owns a freaking tank!
Apart from this, he owns a luxurious mansion, along with two ranches in Wyoming. A lot of his assets are also shared with his wife Kim Kardashian West, whose net worth is a cool $350 million. Other assets include his label, as well as a myriad of rare possessions that he has acquired over the years.