Kanye West Dared Adidas To Drop Him For 'Anti-Semitic Sh*t' & They Finally Did It
"Adidas can't drop me," he said.
Kanye West basically dared Adidas last week to drop him for all the “anti-Semitic sh*t” he’s been saying lately, and the brand just called him on it.
Adidas announced early Tuesday that it has terminated its partnership with Ye after he repeatedly doubled down on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on social media and in interviews over the last few weeks. The move is expected to cost Adidas roughly €250 million (US $246 million) this year alone, the company said.
"Adidas does not tolerate anti-Semitism and any other sort of hate speech," the brand said in a statement. "Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness."
Anti-hate groups and many people online have been calling for Adidas to cut ties with the rapper for several days.
Things really came to a head last week, when video circulated online of Ye basically daring Adidas to punish him for his comments.
“The thing about it being Adidas is like, I can literally say anti-Semitic sh*t and they can't drop me,” he said.
"The longer Adidas is silent on Ye's anti-semitism, the more his racist rhetoric becomes normalized," the Anti-Defamation League tweeted on Monday, before Adidas' announcement.
Kanye has become a radioactive figure in recent weeks, dating back to his Paris Fashion Week show where he wore a "White Lives Matter" shirt. Followers and celebs widely criticized him for it, and he responded by attacking them and then lashing out with various conspiracy theory-inspired claims about Hollywood and Jewish people.
At one point he declared that he would go "death con 3 on Jewish people."
Instagram and Twitter locked his accounts over his posts and he then declared that he would buy Parler, the conservative Twitter-style platform, as a new avenue for expressing himself.
Balenciaga cut ties with Ye last week and his talent agency, CAA, dropped him on Monday. The studio MRC also announced that it would not release a fully completed documentary about him.
West's ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, also joined other celebs in denouncing anti-Semitism on Monday, though she didn't mention Ye by name.
"Hate speech is never OK or excusable," she wrote.
"I stand with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric toward them to come to an immediate end."