What a time to be alive. With brands supporting the BLM movement and starting initiatives to fight COVID-19, 2020 has been hectic. But now that we’re starting the second half of the year, things are definitely getting weirder. Especially on the Kanye West end of things! His latest ambition is to take over the presidency of the United States. And if he’s really serious about it, we’ve got some questions before we call Kanye West President!
ICYMI: This whole Kanye West president thing ended faster than a Yeezy drop! Missing the registration deadline may be one of the reasons he dropped out. However, managing to register in the remaining states was no easy feat either. Here’s the full rundown of his short-lived presidential run. But let’s hope he gets his campaign ready by 2024, we’d love to see “The Birthday Party”.
Now that Kanye dropped the political bomb, we need to take a look at some milestones of his career. What happened on the way leading him to run for president?
It all started at the VMAs, during Taylor Swift’s award acceptance speech for the best female music video. However, Kanye had a different opinion about the award, and boyyyy does he like making his opinions known! He interrupted her speech to say that Queen Bey deserved the award instead. However, that triggered a series of Tay vs Ye incidents spanning several years! But the one we’re interested in is Taylor’s 2015 Instagram post. In it, she used the hashtag #KanTay2020, supporting his presidential run! What a love/hate relationship these two have. Check out the full feud timeline here.
Controversy follows Kanye like a moth follows light! We won’t get into details about this, but if you want them you’ll find them here. What you need to know, is that Kanye left Nike in 2013 because he wasn’t getting any royalties and had no control over the production. Since then, he’s been in a prosperous partnership with Adidas! In 2020, Kanye became officially a billionaire, with most of his fortune coming from Yeezys!
It wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies from the start! Back in 2009, he called Kanye’s move in the VAs “disgusting”. However, five years later that all changed. Their bromance kickstarted in 2014 when he complimented the West and Kardashian wedding. Since then, it was all courteous and friendly among both men. In 2018 though, Kanye dropped the red bomb when he wore Trump’s MAGA hat for a visit to the oval office. That earned him a great deal of backlash from his fans across all industries. Finally, the Kanye West president talk dropped on the 4th of July, 2020. He also said that he’s done supporting Trump. Here, you can find a detailed run of the Kanye-Trump relationship.
It may not be directly related to his career, but Kanye and Kim got married in 2014. Now being a part of the Kardashian clan is no small feat. The extra exposure alone is worth a lot! Kim Kardashian West is currently pursuing a legal career, like her late father Robert Kardashian. Which might be a great help to the Kanye west president run too! But despite their very busy schedule, both celebrities manage to make a lot of time and give attention to their 4 kids.
In 2018, Kim Kardashian went for an appeal for a 63-year-old woman who was to spend life in prison for cocaine trafficking. After Kim’s meeting with the president, Trump granted Alice Marie Johnson clemency. So, if the Kanye West president run is successful, should we expect more of Kim’s legal activity?
Is it an illusion of grandeur? Or just stating simple facts? Kanye is arguably one of the most influential artists of our times, we gotta give him that. However, his new-found Christianity gave him extra confidence to make that statement about himself in 2019! He considers himself to be “the greatest artist that God has ever created”. Well, we certainly wish we had his confidence!
This one is the sequel to the previous point. Kanye managed to switch his music from mere entertainment to gospel music and Sunday services. According to Jason White, the choir director of the Sunday Service Choir, Kanye wanted to change some of his older works’ lyrics and they were ready to go! One of these works was “Ghost Town” from his album “Ye”. His latest album “Jesus Is King” dropped in October 2019, after a long time of waiting. And some people received the album with mixed feelings, to say the least.
Running for president has been on Kanye West’s mind for a while now. So let’s check out the times this topic was brought up! The first time was in 2015 during his VMA acceptance speech. He said he’s going to go for the presidency in 2020! The second time was in 2016 when he decided to postpone his presidential endeavor by 4 years (2024). This statement was right after his meeting with Donald Trump in Trump Tower! Fast forward to 2020 and Kanye turned the table over with his Kanye West president tweet. Although he previously stated that he’ll vote for Trump, the BLM incidents seem to have struck a nerve.
There could be a thousand reasons as to why Kanye is boarding the presidential run train now. But one thing that we know could have sparked the flame would be the BLM movement following the tragic events caused by police brutality in the US. Another reason could be that Kanye lost faith in Trump after everything that happened in 2020. And maybe, just maybe, Kanye thinks he’s a better fit to run the country. To get a deeper feel of his perception of all the important matters, check this interview out!
Now to what matters most to us. Sneakers. And particularly Yeezys! What will be the fate of the brand and the whole line if we were to call Kanye West president in November 2020?
Here are some questions sneakerheads should be asking after the presidential announcement.
Will the OG Yeezy have time for the creative process and brainstorming? We all know that being a president takes a lot of time and effort. And in regards to the business part, there are no laws prohibiting the president from having his own business. However, because being the president is a very demanding job, having a second one is not wise. But maybe, John Wexler is there to take over the responsibility. After all, he’s been appointed as head of Yeezy at Adidas in December 2019! So we’ll wait and see what happens to the fashion side of things.
Well, it’s a possibility. After all, Kim Kardashian is a successful businesswoman. However, she might be busy with her own studies and brands. But maybe she’ll make time when the Yeezy production moves to the US! And we know for a fact that the move would go much smoother if Kanye was the president!
If the Yeezy production ever pauses during Kanye’s rule, the resale values of Yeezys will go higher. In the meantime though, nothing changed on reselling platforms like GOAT and StockX. There are no drops, no spikes in Yeezy’s aftermarket values. So if you wanted Yeezy drops to stop, be careful what you wish for! Because these 350s will be worth quite a lot after announcing Kanye West president! And you don’t always get to flex sneakers designed by the president of the US my friend! That’s a kinda big deal!
It could you know. After all, West is not the only celebrity to become president of the US. Donald Trump was the business genius/host of The Apprentice and Ronald Reagan was a Hollywood actor! Moreover, the famous Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was the Governor of California too.
However, it seems Kanye still has a long way to go in terms of paperwork. Would he make it on time with all these upcoming Yeezy release dates? We just gotta wait to find out.
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