Kanye West is officially a member of the three comma club, and he wants EVERYBODY to know it.
Following months of requests, Forbes says the multi-faceted entertainer finally provided documentation that is believed to be an “authentic numeric look into Kanye, Inc.”
After a full analysis of his assets, Forbes determined that Kanye is Hip-Hop’s newest billionaire.
Kanye graced the cover of Forbes last summer, and while the magazine detailed his successful Yeezy empire, they failed to declare him a billionaire at the time, only referring to him as a “centimillionaire,” much to his dismay.
While speaking on an industry panel at the 2019 Fast Company Innovation Festival, the rapper blasted Forbes, saying: “When I did Forbes, I showed them a $890 million receipt and they still didn’t say ‘billionaire.'”
Ye also said at the time that he considered legally change his name to “Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West” for a year “until y’all understand exactly what it is,” adding that Forbes was “purposely snubbing” him.
“When I did Forbes, I showed them a $890 million receipt, and they still didn’t say ‘billionaire,’” said Kanye West at an event in New York. Here's why he hasn't made our billionaires list yet: https://t.co/0CSuEoRXKF pic.twitter.com/3sIm0MihaY
— Forbes (@Forbes) November 11, 2019
Now, a year later, Forbes has crunched the numbers again, and can now say, with full confidence, that Kanye West is indeed a billionaire with an estimated $1.26 billion in cash, stocks and assets.
“There’s only one number that West cares about. A billion, as in dollars. And he cares a lot,” the magazine writes.
When Forbes released their annual billionaires list earlier this month, West was noticeably absent, which prompted him to text them: “You know what you’re doing. You’re toying with me and I’m not finna lye [sic] down and take it anymore in Jesus name.”
The rapper also claimed that Forbes was “part of a group of media” that was purposely trying to undervalue his self-made success because he’s black. The fact that his 22-year-old sister-in-law, Kylie Jenner, made their list of billionaires this year also had him peeved.
So he decided to make it official, and had his team send over a ton of paperwork to prove his billionaire status.
According to bank statements, he has about $17 million in cash and $35 million in stocks.
His largest assets are $81 million in “buildings and improvement” and $21 million in land, including the Hidden Hills mansion that he shares with wife Kim Kardashian, and two $14 million ranches in Wyoming.
The docs from Team West also reveals that the rapper’s music, which also includes publishing rights and his G.O.O.D. Music label imprint, is worth about $90 million.
Meanwhile, Forbes says a large chunk of Ye’s money comes from his highly successful Yeezy brand and its partnership with Adidas.
Per Forbes:
Our sources told us last year that West’s agreement calls for him to receive a royalty around 15% of Yeezy revenue from Adidas. Upon closer inspection, it appears some expenses are carved out of that slice, bringing his actual cut closer to 11%. At that rate, he would have received royalties of over $140 million from Yeezy sales last year …
Conservatively, as we typically are with such figures, a 10x multiple, applied to West’s Yeezy cut of $140 million makes his stake worth about $1.4 billion. But that’s a private, highly illiquid $1.4 billion—our rule-of-thumb for private assets like that is to lop off at least 10%. That’s $1.26 billion.
Kanye, however, insists that Forbes‘ numbers are far too low, and he’s actually worth more than $3 billion, which would make him richer than Oprah.
Forbes explained that they gave Kanye’s net worth “a 50% haircut” because of his assets’ liquidity and a lack of independent verification.
The magazine also took off $100 million for debts, which includes mortgages and advances, putting the rapper’s estimated net worth at just under $1.3 billion, which is about $300 million more than both Kylie Jenner and Jay-Z, the latter of whom was declared Hip-Hop’s first billionaire in 2019.
Still, Kanye disagrees with Forbes and claims that he’s worth nearly three times the amount they came up with.
“It’s not a billion,” the staunch Trump supporter texted reporters last night ahead of the article’s release. “It’s $3.3 billion since no one at Forbes knows how to count.”
As the magazine pointed out: “his famous affinity for President Trump makes a lot of sense. (And it continues unabated — one text to Forbes’ chief content officer this week ended with ‘Trump 2020’ and a raised fist emoji.)”
