Yeezy’s portfolio takes another blow as the company who hosted Kanye’s exclusive DONDA 2 album has severed ties with the Chicago mogul as well.
With an already released new version of the device, dubbed “The Stem Player” Kano co-founder and CEO Alex Klein said “I asked Kanye not to take the path he’s on. We’ve told him that we’re unable to work together while he’s putting out racial conspiracy theories. There’s no deal in place.”
When Kanye originally announced that he would not be releasing his 11th studio album through traditional major streaming platforms, Apple was the first to terminate a sponsorship deal they had with Ye at the time. DONDA 2 pre releases sold a 100,000 units which retailed for $200. Kano says fans have remixed over a billion songs with the device with about 10% of that attributed to DONDA 2.
Klein also expresses there has been friction with Kanye since the very beginning of the deal.
“Unfortunately, Kanye didn’t want to allow other musical artists onto the platform,” he explained. “This was a disagreement that we had trouble resolving.” Kanye even offered to buy the tech company at one point in frustration of not being able to reach an agreement.
The antisemitic comments apparently were the deciding factor in parting ways with Ye in a follow the leader type fashion of cancel culture. Led by companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase, GAP, Adidas, Balenciaga and his talent agency Creative Artists Agency.
As much as the tech company would like to separate from Ye, the two are named in to copyright lawsuits they must appear in court for.
One claim, filed on behalf of artist Marshall Jefferson, alleges that Ye’s “Flowers” includes an unauthorized sample of the 1986 house music hit “Move Your Body.” The other lawsuit was filed by Phase One Network — which oversees the Boogie Down Productions catalog — over the unlicensed use of “South Bronx” byKRS-One and DJ Scott La Rock.
The sample of the Hip Hop classic appears on “Life of the Party” featuring Andre 3000
The song more prominently samples The Dramatics’ 1975 song “I Was the Life of the Party,” as well as snippets of Biggie’s “Hypnotize,” Herb & the Spices’ “Cannibal Cutie” and a viral video of DMX comforting his daughter while on an amusement park ride.
With Forbes estimating $1.5 billion of Ye’s net worth coming from the adidas deal alone, the loss of these recent deals cost the Chicago rapper his status as a billionaire. He is now worth an estimated $400 million which may drop again pending the results of the two cases.