How can a world-famous rapper be millions of dollars in the hole? That's the question many were asking when Kanye West took to Twitter in 2016 to reveal (via CNN) that he was "53 million dollars in personal debt" and ask Mark Zuckerberg to "invest 1 billion dollars into Kanye West ideas."
Breaking down the numbers, TMZ noted that the losses likely came from investments in his music career and fashion, including shelling out $40 million for three seasons of his clothing line, Yeezy. Vanity Fair agreed, noting that most of his money woes likely stemmed from a number of failed undertakings in the fashion world, like his first clothing line, Pastelle, which never saw the light of day, a 2013 collaboration with A.P.C. that cost him $30 million, and the fact that Nike reportedly didn't share any of the revenue from the Nike Air Yeezy with him.
West then teamed up with adidas to launch Yeezy Season 1, which, as he told BET (via VIBE), put him $16 million in the red. "I was trying to play a sport that's a billionaire sport," he said, adding, "It's not a millionaire sport and I'm proud of the debt ... I care about my vision." West's collab with adidas turned out to be a smart move, however, as his Yeezy sneakers reportedly brought in $1.3 billion in 2019 and, in 2020, Forbes reported that West had officially become a billionaire.
