Turns out Yeezus may be one of “the kids” after all.
Between hosting a multi-million dollar fashion-show-turned-album-debut and launching the #Kanye2020 textbook initiative via Twitter, self-proclaimed creative genius and Nike adversary Kanye West revealed that he’s $53 million in debt.
I write this to you my brothers while still 53 million dollars in personal debt… Please pray we overcome… This is my true heart…
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 14, 2016
Yep, the man whose two-year-old daughter regularly sports couture costing more than my college education may be more FKD than all of us. Celebrities: They’re just like us.
Now I Ain’t Sayin’ He a Gold Digger…
True to form, West chose to unveil his financial troubles amid one of his infamous Twitter rants, following up with a personalized tweet to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg pleading him to invest in “Kanye West ideas,” because “for anyone that has money they know the first rule is to use other people’s money.”
West’s petition for financial support comes after personally funding a string of allegedly unprofitable business ventures, namely in the fashion industry, which have since landed the rapper deep in the red.
According to West’s tweets, he is faced with the typical artist’s plight: Continue to express himself creatively or support his family. Because the wealthiest woman in the northern hemisphere would obviously be on welfare without Kanye’s financial support. Looks like North may have to weather the harsh California cold without her six-figure collection of luxury fur coats to protect her.
If I spent my money on my ideas I could not afford to take care of my family. I am in a place that so many artist end up.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016
While we doubt that West’s ideas will garner any substantial funding via Twitter, Kanye fans have gone full Kanye and started a gofundme page to help the poverty-stricken rapper. One can surmise that the cause, creatively titled “Get Kanye Out of Debt,” was started in deafening absence of any real perspective or purpose in life.
Our Take
Opinions aside, Kanye’s financial struggle is a wake-up call for all entrepreneurs and a nod to debt-stricken college students taking out thousands of dollars in loans just to earn their diplomas. Debt doesn’t discriminate based on wealth, celebrity or industry and it certainly doesn’t disappear after a Twitter tirade.
Kanye’s plight reminds us that even Yeezus himself isn’t immune to failure, financial recklessness and short-sighted leaps of faith. If anything, Kanye’s financial misgivings speak to his passionate – albeit arguably delusional – temperament as an artist. Excuse me, the “greatest living artist and greatest artist of all time.”
When you envision Kanye West, raptly Twitter-ranting about his personal debt from the comfort of Kris Jenner’s basement, you may realize that you and Yeezus have something in common after all.