Photo Credit: Kanye West/Twitter
Kanye West is a success story that defies odds and mostly because he’s been himself and remained so throughout his career. That remains true even when Forbes decided to report that he was now a billionaire. He texted them saying, “It’s not a billion. It’s $3.3 billion since no one at Forbes knows how to count.” If there’s anything Kanye is going to do, he’s going to make sure you cover him correctly and give him the respect he deserves.
His wealth comes largely from his Yeezy brand. It was on track to make $1.3 billion in revenue last year according to a Bank of America document Bloomberg reviewed. He has around $200 million in other assets including real estate and his music catalog. The catalog, ranging from The College Dropout to Jesus is King was valuated by the Valentiam Group is worth about $110.5 million.
Kanye’s personal accountant David Choi shared an unaudited balance sheet with Bloomberg showing Kanye’s net worth at $3.15 billion. This is a big difference from 2016 when he went on Twitter talking about the $53 million of debt he was in. People laughed when he asked Mark Zuckerberg for $1 billion investment. Fastforward a few years and he’s clearly getting the last laugh.
To add insult to injury, Kanye says he should have been counted a billionaire on the Forbes’ Hip-Hop Cash Kings list last year during an appearance at the 2019 Fast Company Innovation Festival when he said “When I did Forbes, I showed them a $890 million receipt and they still didn’t say ‘billionaire.’” As for why he didn’t get credited with the full $3 billion he said he’s worth, Forbes senior editor Zack O’Malley Greenburg said “For years, Forbes had an informal ‘Trump rule’ — take whatever the [then] future president insisted he was worth, divide by three, and start honing from there. Like mentor, like mentee.” Welp, there you have it folks.
We get it Kanye. Unlike Nene Leakes, you really are rich, b*tch. Maybe just sit back and bask in it for now. And sidebar: he beat Beyonce to becoming a billionaire so that’s an accomplishment in and of itself.
