Kanye West joins the Billionaire Club but he ain’t happy with Forbes’ counting

He is a Hip-Hop star, an American idol and footwear mogul. He is now formally a ‘billionaire’.

Kanye West, 42, joins his 22-year-old sister-in-law and youngest self-made billionaire, Kylie Jenner, after Forbes finally attested to his claims, although substantially overblown, of him having stepped inside the haloed halls of the Richie Rich in the world.

The report by Forbes is revealing of the star’s reluctance to initially part with the financial records that place him in the league of the super rich. The office of the popular American icon, however, shared his records and his stake in the Yeezy sneaker empire, to reveal his total ownership of the brand which he is producing with the assistance of Adidas.

Forbes says, West’s sharing of the financial statements proves three things:

• His sneaker brand is challenging Nike’s Air Jordan brand within a few years of its inception.
• “West, who claims both in words and in this paperwork that he’s worth more than $3 billion, is as overtly boastful as his political idol, President Donald Trump.”  
• His stake in Yeezy does make him a billionaire.

West who is married to popular reality TV star Kim Kardashian has taken to brandishing his proximity to President Donald Trump creating a divide among the African-American community. West has complained in the past of him being sidetracked for a seat in the Billionaire-club. According to Forbes, West even went to the extent of accusing Forbes of omitting his name from the last list of Billionaires, which happened to feature his sister-in-law Kylie, because of his race.    

West, who claims both in words and in this paperwork that he’s worth more than $3 billion, is as overtly boastful as his political idol, President Donald Trump  

Forbes

But West isn’t happy. “It’s not a billion,” he allegedly texted the Forbes team before they were going to print with their findings and story. “It’s $3.3 billion since no one at Forbes knows how to count.”

Some asides about West

• West who lives life king-size, flies private jets and has invested in ranches, owns a tank
• West’s success in shoe business is not a fluke. He has been drawing sneakers in his class as a student
• In 2016, West went public with his personal debt on Twitter and made a public plea to FB owner Mark Zukerberg to invest 1 billion dollars in him (USA Today)
• West has been actively campaigning to get himself pronounced as billionaire. Besides Forbes, he also reached out to Bloomberg with the financial details
• West owns 100% of his footwear brand Yeezy but is in a revenue-sharing arrangement with Adidas that produces and retails his label
• West produced songs for American rapper Jay-Z, hip-hop’s first billionaire before he graduated to solo act