Kanye West claims he was “two months away” from declaring bankruptcy.
The 46-year-old rapper lost a number of lucrative deals over the last few years after a number of antisemitic outbursts and outrage over his decision to promote White Lives Matter T-shirts at his Paris Fashion Week show prompted several major brands to cut ties with him — and now West has revealed his antics took a toll on his finances and left him close to going broke.
“I’mma just be honest with y’all. I was two months from going bankrupt, and I put everything I had into it [the album and the Super Bowl ad]. We moved to Italy. We moved to the factories, and we survived. We survived through the cancellation. We’re back number one,” West claimed he’s now back on top with his fashion projects and new album Vultures in an interview with TMZ.com.
“It wasn’t about the controversy. It was about being able to say how you felt out loud. If I didn’t have the various skill sets of music and clothing and the fan base, they would have been able to destroy me. But because we had all those skill sets, somehow I’m here inside of this universe able to fight,” West replied when he was asked if he felt the controversy “helped” him.
“They got the right to their opinion — I got the right to my opinion,” West declared about voicing his antisemitic views in the past.
It comes after West returned to the spotlight on Feb. 11 when he aired a bizarre commercial for his fashion brand during the Super Bowl which was filmed with his mobile phone in the back of his car.
During the promo, he joked his team had splashed so much cash on the Super Bowl 2024 spot — which is said to run to $7 million for 30 seconds — they didn’t have any budget left to produce a commercial.
“Hey y’all, this is Ye and this is my commercial … [my team] spent all the money on the commercial spot [so we] actually didn’t spend any money on the actual commercial,” he said.
“But the idea is I want you to go to Yeezy.com. I’mma write it at the bottom of the screen … and I got some shoes, and ummmm … that’s it,” he added.
