Rapper-slash-fashion designer Kanye West is presently the wealthiest Black American ever, as per an estimate from Bloomberg News that places his net worth at well beyond $6 billion.
Kanye West formally became a billionaire a year ago. Presently, he’s a billionaire 6 times over. The 43-year-old rapper turned fashion and athletic shoe mogul is currently worth $6.6 billion, as indicated by Bloomberg.
That figure incorporates West’s Yeezy clothing and shoe deal with Adidas and Gap, which investment bank UBS esteemed at $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion. Bloomberg likewise assessed that West has $122 million in cash or stock, alongside a $110 million music catalog and $1.7 billion in different investments.
Sales of Yeezy’s Adidas sneakers grew 31% during the Covid pandemic to annual revenue of almost $1.7 billion a year ago, netting West $191 million in royalties, Bloomberg said in refering to UBS.
West’s status as a billionaire is a far cry from where the Chicago-born college dropout got himself five years prior. West, 43, revealed to BET News that he was $53 million in debt in 2016. About $16 million of that came from attempting to get Yeezy up-and-running, West said.
His fortunes at long last turned after Yeezy launched. Forbes announced that West arranged an 11% royalty on his Adidas Yeezy shoes. He eventually produced $150 million in income during Yeezy’s initial year of existence, as indicated by Forbes. West signed a 10-year deal with Gap for Yeezy clothes and shoes.
As Yeezy kept on acquiring steam, its prosperity caught the attention of West’s then-wife Kim Kardashian. Kardashian tweeted about how proud she was of West turning around his fortune. Forbes proclaimed West a billionaire last April, listing his net worth at $1.3 billion.
West joins a small crowd of Black U.S. billionaires, a list that incorporates movie producer Tyler Perry, rapper-turned-entrepreneur Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter), Charlotte Hornets proprietor and basketball legend Michael Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey.
In its most recent assessments, Forbes put Winfrey’s net worth at $2.5 billion. Previous Goldman Sachs executive Robert Smith has a $5.2 billion net worth and World Wide Technology founder David Steward merits an expected $3.7 billion, Forbes said.