A bombshell new report from the New York Times also discusses how the rapper (now known as Ye) would throw shoes and make staffers watch porn during meetings


Last October, Adidas finally dropped their long-term partner Kanye West after the rapper made a slew of antisemitic comments (among other things). This was despite the fact that Yeezy, their sneaker partnership, was netting the company over $1 billion annually. For many staffers, it was too little, too late. While Adidas employees have come forward with allegations of exceedingly bad behavior from the rapper (now known as Ye) in the past, a lengthy new report from The New York Times delves deeper into the decade-long collaboration than any have before. What it found is stomach-churning.

Apparently, employees were confronted with West’s rampant antisemitism as soon as their very first pitch meeting with the rapper. After reviewing a number of unsatisfactory fabric swatches and shoe designs, West allegedly grabbed one of the sketches and drew a swastika on the toe to convey his dislike of the sneaker. It only got worse from there.

As Ye ramped up his antisemitism in public last fall, he also doubled down behind the scenes. Employees reported that West repeatedly commended Hitler for his use of propaganda, calling the genocidal dictator a “marketing master” and saying he planned to name his next album after him. (It was eventually titled Ye.) Most egregiously, West apparently told TMZ that “it was important to love everyone, including Nazis” in the same interview in which he infamously said that slavery “sounds like a choice.” Back in the office, West stood by that statement, telling Jon Wexler, a Jewish Adidas executive, to “hang a photo of Hitler in his kitchen and kiss it every day to practice unconditional love.”

read more: https://www.avclub.com/kanye-west-adidas-yeezy-new-york-time-report-1850968306

archive link: https://archive.ph/RWHHH

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1761 year ago

    Remember, these businesses only dropped him once it wasn’t profitable to keep him around. Has nothing to do with his actual speech.

    • wrath_of_grunge
      link
      fedilink
      931 year ago

      that’s kind of the funny thing about this story. do you know how much of a colossal dickbag you gotta be for a company to say no to making a billion dollars? they will put up with so much shit for that kind of money. but West was a dickbag of such monumental proportions that the company is like, ‘nah, fuck it, it’s not worth it’, to a billion fucking dollars.

      on top of that we see later in the article

      Still, throughout all of this, the company’s C-suite consistently “sought not to rein him in but to appease him,” with an eye to their bottom line. After the slavery comment, for example, Kasper Rorsted, Adidas’ CEO at the time, brushed it off, saying “Kanye has helped us have a great comeback in the U.S.” He only doubled down months later, adding: “We’re not signing up to his statements; we’re signing up to what he brings to the brand and the products he’s bringing out.”

      and we learn once again, ironically, that appeasement doesn’t work.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      61 year ago

      im sure most people wanted him kicked out instantly it was probably just the goobers that didn’t have to deal with him that kicked him after profits dwindled (and a bunch of complaints i assume).

      surely the average person doesnt care about the company they work for as to suffer for the ceos profit.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    941 year ago

    (now known as Ye)

    When I was younger, if a kid tried to give themselves a cool nickname, everyone would do their absolute best to call them anything but that and make up the worst possible names to call them instead.

    We should bring that back. I even went to school with a guy called Dungboy

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      91
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Untreated mental illness supplemented by fame-induced yes-men syndrome.

      What he needs is a good slap and a kick to the groin.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        931 year ago

        I always hear this excuse. I’m bipolar and went without medication for a very long time. Never turned me into a fucking Nazi.

        He is just a horrible person who also happens to be bipolar.

        • flicker
          link
          fedilink
          391 year ago

          Reminds me of when Ambien said the same thing.

          And the above poster who says they need treatment should read this. We are out here. We are mentally ill. Our mental illness, even at its most untreated, doesn’t make us fucking nazis so trying to be “kind” to nazis who happen to be mentally ill makes you an apologist.

          Dude does need treatment. He also deserves a punch for the nazi bullshit. The one doesn’t absolve the other.

          • moosetwin
            link
            fedilink
            English
            11
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I don’t care if they’re a sick child or hitler, everyone deserves treatment, no matter who they are or what they have done.

            Geneva Convention 1, article 6

            Wounded or sick soldiers shall be entertained and taken care of, to whatever nation they may belong.

            Commanders-in-chief shall have the power to deliver immediately to the outposts of the enemy soldiers who have been wounded in an engagement, when circumstances permit this to be done, and with the consent of both parties.

            Those who are recognized, after their wounds are healed, as incapable of serving, shall be sent back to their country.

            The others may also be sent back, on condition of not again bearing arms during the continuance of the war.

            Evacuations, together with the persons under whose directions they take place, shall be protected by an absolute neutrality.

            The Hippocratic Oath, Paragraphs 4-7

            I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

            I will not be ashamed to say “I know not”, nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.

            I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

            I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

            Note: I am not against locking them up in prisons, but while they are in prison they still have a right to treatment.

            • flicker
              link
              fedilink
              111 year ago

              I will reiterate that I agreed upon treatment as a necessity. I also believe he deserves a punch. Not a single illness out there makes you a nazi. Not one.

              • livus
                link
                fedilink
                8
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                @flicker I know it’s probably comforting to think to yourself that your entire personality and belief systems are baked into your core and could never be affected by any kind of illness.

                Unfortunately it’s not quite true, there are serious mental illnesses that could make you think you are a nazi or that you want to kill someone or whatever. This is one of the heartbreaking things about mental illnesses like schizophrenia.

                If you’ve never seen it you wouldn’t know what it’s like of course, but it’s like a great big chunk of the person you used to know and love has been replaced by a stranger in their body. When they start saying abberent shit it can be hard for people to remember it’s the illness talking. To remember they are still “in there” somewhere.

                • flicker
                  link
                  fedilink
                  31 year ago

                  I’m not going to get into my history here but I’ve spent years in and out of institutions. If you want to make the argument that this is schizoaffective disorder I won’t stop you, but I assure you that even if that is the case, we are still completely responsible for what we say, and I would argue even moreso because there is zero excuse for him not to be seeking care and treatment.

                  When grandma has dementia, and spits and bites, she is still responsible for the consequences of her actions. We will treat her with kindness and compassion and health care, but she isn’t absolved of her part in hurting someone. That is the notion I rebel against. You are still responsible for your racism. You are not given a consequence free card because of your illness. Advocating for a consequence free environment is why people can claim Kanye should be forgiven and should not be treated as an intelligent, thinking, feeling human being. I will not allow someone to say he should be. That is dehumanizing and ultimately the opposite of kindness.

        • Maeve
          link
          fedilink
          91 year ago

          And your illness and demeanor, as well as your upbringing are exactly like everyone else’s. Please.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                31 year ago

                I’m honestly not sure what you mean by that. We know he is bipolar. We know people sometimes tend to use that as an excuse for his words and actions. And people with bipolar like myself tend to dislike that because our disorder does not turn us into neo-Nazis.

      • livus
        link
        fedilink
        4
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Well that comment took an unexpectedly medieval turn.

        What people with untreated mental illness need is appropriate treatment for mental illness, even if their delusions are disturbing to us.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          21 year ago

          As I said elsewhere in this thread, I’m bipolar and went without medication for long time just like Kanye.

          He 100% needs to have the bear jew let lose on him.

          • livus
            link
            fedilink
            1
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            @EdibleFriend sorry but no. There’s a history in my country of locking mentally ill people up in asylums and beating them up. I have seen the results, it’s not a good thing, it solves nothing.

            The people that do need the crap kicked out of them are the producers etc who exploit the racist hate-filled ramblings of Mr West in order to make money for themselves. And those among the consumers who lap it up.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              51 year ago

              Ok or we could punish the naziism and treat the mental illness at the same time and if they go away together we’ll know

              • livus
                link
                fedilink
                01 year ago

                @captainlezbian why would you punish someone for the content of mental delusions?

                I don’t care if its alien abduction or nazism or gangstalking.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  -11 year ago

                  Being bipolar doesn’t turn you into a Nazi. That’s an excuse.

                  He is a Nazi and all Nazis deserve to be beaten to death.

      • ZeroCool
        link
        fedilink
        English
        91 year ago

        Yep, that’s exactly why he pals around with Nick Fuentes and Milo Yiannopoulos.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          71 year ago

          It’s genuinely surprising that West managed to shove his head so far up his own ass that he couldn’t see himself reflected in Milo’s face; a token minority kept around for plausible deniability, whose pedestal will be kicked out from under them the moment they’re no longer useful to the far right.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      3
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I wonder if he has people in his ear telling him this shit and he’s easy to fool, or if it is just a terrible internet rabbit hole he got himself into. It could also be that he’s in ultimate contrarian mode and just wants to provoke.

      It just seems weird for a black man to literally turn into a person who supports Nazis on his own. Like, he has to know what Hitler and the Nazis would have thought of him and his family, right?

      I get that he has untreated mental illness, but I feel as if maybe someone is putting these ideas in his head. I could be wrong, though.

  • @21Cabbage
    link
    English
    361 year ago

    “Employees reported that West repeatedly commended Hitler for his use of propaganda, calling the genocidal dictator a “marketing master” and saying he planned to name his next album after him. (It was eventually titled Ye.)” Wow, whole thing just reads like a bad joke made at his expense. He always manages to be stranger than fiction.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      -81 year ago

      It’s because he has a mental illness.

      And people prefer getting outraged than understanding.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        201 year ago

        Mental illness that he refuses to do anything about.

        Also is your argument here that he is antisimetic because he has a mental illness? I’ve never heard of an illness that just suddenly makes you a nazi. Those two things are independent of one another, the mental illness just makes it more blatant

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        151 year ago

        That doesn’t excuse it entirely, I’m understanding but fuck his shit he has it better than most my compassion is limited for the rich.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    211 year ago

    He’d make them watch porn?

    “Come on guys, l know we do it every morning, but my wife’s sex tape is hot, let’s watch it again!!”

  • Sagrotan
    link
    fedilink
    English
    21
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Come and see, people, have a look into the future of Elon Musk, admission free, see the incredible cringy Kanye W.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      61 year ago

      The main problem imo is that he’s surrounded by yes-men who probably also somehow make money off of his behaviour. His self destructive tendencies are already quite dangerous to everyone around him, but it’s even more dangerous if everyone in your personal sphere affirms this behaviour. At some point you’ll start to believe that you’re in the right.

      He needs good therapy and meds, but maybe it’s already too late for that if he’s not willing to accept help.

  • Annoyed_🦀
    link
    fedilink
    English
    91 year ago

    A bombshell new report from the New York Times also discusses how the rapper (now known as Ye) would throw shoes and make staffers watch porn during meetings

    Shit, he’s here to ruin another word.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    31 year ago

    You aren’t surrounded by enablers. That changes everything. You still have to deal with the consequences of your actions.

  • SokathHisEyesOpen
    link
    fedilink
    English
    11 year ago

    There’s nothing bombshell about this. The title should read “man desperate for attention cries for attention yet again”.

  • Maiznieks
    link
    fedilink
    English
    -51 year ago

    I hate it that my adidas trainers get more and more expensive constantly :/

    • BruceTwarzen
      link
      fedilink
      171 year ago

      Don’t worry, the children making them don’t see any of that money