Bo Weber
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Kanye West, more recently known as Yeezy or “Ye,” is the epitome of what it means to be a polarizing celebrity. The rapper, fashion designer, and producer has gained momentum and wealth in the entertainment industry for nearly two decades. Yet, the dark cloud of controversy that has followed him in recent years has created quite a dent in his overall riches.
Kanye West’s Net Worth
How much wealth does Kanye have after many years of success and fame? What factors contribute to his fortune? Find out that and more about Kanye West’s net worth below.
As of September 2023, Kanye West’s net worth is estimated to be around $500 million.
From that $500 million net worth, West is believed to have an estimated annual income of approximately $200 million per year.
Both of these numbers are actually a significant dip in Kanye West’s wealth, as just two years ago, Forbes estimated that he had a net worth of approximately $1.8 billion. His net worth dropped the following year after he cut ties with Adidas. While that dropped Kanye West’s net worth to only $400 million in 2022, he is obviously beginning to recover those lost riches this year. We can also attribute the dip in his net worth to his divorce from reality star Kim Kardashian as part of the divorce settlement said he had to pay $200,000 in monthly child support for their four children. He is also required to pay for half of their children’s educational, medical, and security expenses.
Related: Who Is Kanye West?
How Did Kanye West Get Rich?
Kanye West has been able to thank his growing wealth and riches on many avenues, including his music, business, and marriage to his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian. Let’s face it: he probably made a little bit off Kim Kardashian’s shapewear collection.
As an example of how these things added to Kanye West’s net worth, how much does Kanye make in music royalties?
According to Billboard, $5 million of Kanye West’s annual salary comes from the yearly publishing royalties of his songs.
As far as business ventures are concerned, West broke into the fashion and apparel business in 2009 when he partnered with Louis Vuitton to release his first line of shoes. This was before his famous Yeezy sneakers line on Adidas.
The Louis Vuitton line was a major hit, inspiring a partnership with Nike later that year. This new partnership led to the release of the YZY Nike Airs line of shoes.
West continued working with Nike for another Air Series, though it’s unknown how much money this brought in. It was at least enough to inspire a 10-million-dollar deal with the German sportswear brand Adidas a few years later in 2013.
His partnership with Adidas is what truly allowed West to take off in his fashion business endeavors, and he barely had to lift a finger. Adidas made, marketed, and distributed the line for him, giving West the extra push to get his shoes on a similar level to Jordans.
During this, West used this momentum to link his music and shoe brand together, debuting an album and his Yeezy brand together at a joint show in 2015.
West and the Adidas brands cut ties officially in October 2022. He had plenty of other partnerships to fall back on, however.
More recently, in 2021, Kanye signed a multi-year deal with Gap, which turned out to be the best of both worlds for both brands.
Gap’s sales have been falling in recent years, and it needed a partnership with a company popular with the new generation to save it, while West wanted a way to get his shoes out to his fans at a reasonable, non-luxury price.
Despite receiving media hate for being selfish, the “I Wonder” singer has stated that he believes his fashion and apparel should be affordable, at the price of an outlet like H&M. This clearly proves that he wants to fight against the narrative that fashion and shoes and clothing have to be expensive and exclusive.
Kanye West’s Cars
There are many ways to describe Kanye West’s massive car collection, which includes sports cars, tanks, and even armored trucks – eclectic.
His nine luxury vehicles are quickly adding to Kanye West’s net worth, considering they are collectively worth between 7 million and 10 million dollars.
To start with, West is clearly into high-end cars, with a 2019 Lamborghini Urus, a 2012 Lamborghini Aventador, and a 2012 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder to kick things off. Let’s not forget his 2011 Aston Martin DBS that can reach 60 miles in four seconds.
West also has a 2004 Maybach 57 that was featured in his music video “Otis” with fellow hip-hop artist Jay-Z.
If you really want to get into a luxury vehicle with West, look no further than his 2006 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and his 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR Sterling Moss. From there, his collection rounds out with a 2010 Prombron Red Diamond, a 2008 Bugatti Veyron, and multiple “big trucks.”
Kanye West’s House
Kanye West’s net worth and salary aren’t going to waste as he’s the proud owner of several multi-million-dollar pieces of real estate. He made the biggest headlines in 2021 when he paid 57.3 million dollars for an estate in Malibu through an off-market deal. He reportedly secured the property thanks to his Shore Driving Holdings company.
The “concrete bunker” is a 3,665-square-foot home designed by Tadao Ando, satisfying West’s reported obsession with Naoshima, better known as “art island” in Japan.
In recent months, however, West has been settling in, hanging at the luxurious Nobu Ryokan hotel with his new wife, Biana Censori, an Australian architect, while the bunker is being renovated.
“They hang out, work together, and play board games,” according to The Sun. Censori reportedly “handles Ye’s daily logistics from Yeezy clothing management to construction of the new Yeezy headquarters, Donda Academy.”
West also owns land in Wyoming and Los Angeles that has been dubbed “abandoned” in recent years. Much of this concerns Kanye West’s dwindling net worth, thanks to multiple partnership losses. This was caused by his seemingly erratic and controversial behavior in recent years, from outbursts to antisemitic remarks.
Further, his dreams of building a Star Wars-inspired “city” of dome houses, based on the film franchises’ fictitious planet, Tatooine, were also left to the wayside.
During his divorce from Kim Kardashian, West reportedly split much of his time between these two luxurious ranches that seem to be no more in his life. Much of his time was spent in Hidden Hills during that time as well. In December 2021, not long after the announcement was made about the couple’s intent to divorce, West purchased the Hidden Hills estate for $4.5 million.
It’s assumed he bought this property to remain closer to his children, but many fans believe he did it in denial about his divorce and Kim’s choice to date Pete Davidson. Considering he’s supposedly happily moved on with his new wife, we will stick with the former reason.
How Much Does Kanye West Make Per Show?
If we’re going by Kanye West himself, then we’d find out that the rapper makes approximately $8 million per concert. Considering his tendency to exaggerate as far as what he earns and the fact that things can vary for many unforeseeable factors, experts have adjusted that number to be around $1 million per show. That’s still a significant revenue whether West wants to think so or not.
How Much are Kanye West Tickets?
We have to hand it to him. Just like Kanye West likes to make his clothing and shoes available at an affordable price for fans, he wants to do the same thing with his concerts. Although the cost of tickets changes based on the venue, fans don’t have to shell out a lot of money to see him perform live.
Ticket prices have been known to be as low as $88, with an average of approximately $146 to $300 depending on the location.
How Much Does Kanye West Charge for a Feature?
We’ve got to hand it to him. Even if Kanye West’s net worth has been shaky over the years, and he’s not always been the most likable person for what he says, he knows how to take care of his fans and fellow artists.
While you can see fellow rappers like Drake charging $1 million, Eminem charging $3 million for a feature, or even J Cole charging $2,000 per word, West doesn’t charge a thing. Why?
According to Music Industry, “He only does features on songs with artists that impress him or with artists that can boost his image. That’s why you normally see Kanye working with up-and-coming rappers or rappers signed to his label.”
OK, so there’s a slightly selfish angle, and we know he gets plenty of money in other ways, but you have to admit that it’s nice to see him also helping out other rappers. He and his buddy Jay-Z have that in common.
For Jay-Z, “he said he doesn’t need any more money. Instead, he wants to build relationships with younger artists so they stay on the right path and continue pursuing music.”
Related: 15 Interesting Facts About Jay Z
Career
Kanye West started his career in the early 2000s, briefly attending Chicago State University before quickly dropping out to pursue his musical dreams.
West truly began to blossom and realize the challenges of his new chosen career in New York City. Although he couldn’t get a break initially, he eventually landed a job producing at Roc-A-Fella record label in NYC.
While there, he contributed to Jay-Z’s Blueprints album, for which he has since been credited with producing almost the entire album.
In 2004, he released his debut album, College Dropout, symbolizing his challenging journey across the country and career paths. Although this was his first album, it was loved by both critics and the masses, as he won a Grammy for his song “Jesus Walks.” This album and award swiftly catapulted West into fame.
It didn’t take long for the “No More Parties in LA” singer to release his second album, Late Registration, which was another hit among fans and critics and earned him two more Grammys for two songs off of the album. “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” won Best Rap Song, while “Gold Digger” featuring Jamie Foxx earned the Record of the Year title.
After his second studio album, West used his musical momentum to start his own record label, “GOOD,” as a subsidiary of Roc-A-Fella, owned by Universal Music Group. The label featured Black artists and up-and-coming rappers in the local scene.
After starting his label, West released his third album, Graduation, in 2007, his first on his new label. The album continued to rake in the Grammy Awards with two more award-winning songs, “Southside” for Best Rap Solo Performance and “Good Life” featuring T-Pain for Best Rap Song.
On his fourth album, 808s and Heartbreak, Kanye took a turn from his rapping roots and sang on the album. This album was far more personal than his previous three, as he began to talk about loss, heartbreak, and his inner emotions.
He also popularized a movement towards autotune and singing in rap songs, which continues to be a trend we see more than 15 years later.
West’s 808s and Heartbreak was a revolutionary album for the time as he changed the way rappers believed they could express themselves and catapulted true expression and creativity in both rapping and hip-hop music.
West didn’t waste time burgeoning the success, releasing several more albums over the next decade, including My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), Yeezus (2013), The Life of Pablo (2016), Ye (2018), and Jesus is King (2019),
In 2021, West released his ninth and most recent studio album, Donda, named after his late mother, Donda West, who passed away in 2007. West has stated that his mother has inspired much of his more emotional music, including his 808s and Heartbreak album.
Following the release, the album quickly went platinum and gained immense traction among fans.
Despite his many controversies, Donda continues to shoot West back into the light of musical fame, whether for good or bad reasons.
Alongside Donda, he privately released Donda 2 in 2022, which is only available through West’s streaming site, Stem Player, with the purchase of a $200 device by Yeezy.
Donda 2 has had some issues because of this. Billboard even went as far as to exclude Donda 2 from ratings because of its entanglement with merchandise.
Despite these setbacks, the album has still done incredibly well. In the first 24 hours alone, West made more than 2.2 million dollars in album sales alone.
It seems as though Kanye West’s net worth will be on the rise again soon after all.
Related: Minnesota Governor Declares August 8th “Beyoncé and Jay-Z Day”
Who is Richer Jay-Z or Kanye West?
We’ve always known that Jay-Z and Kanye West are good buddies in the industry, but how does Kanye West’s net worth compare to the latter? While Kanye West’s net worth has fallen from the billionaire list, Jay-Z remains one of Forbes’ newest.
The rapper-turned-businessman was the only rapper featured on the 2023 World’s Billionaires list, with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion.
Is Taylor Swift More Successful Than Kanye?
Kanye West may have publicly embarrassed and, some would say, “lashed out” at Taylor Swift during the 2009 VMA Awards when he interrupted her acceptance speech for winning Best Female Video for “You Belong With Me” to proclaim that “Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.”
Fourteen years later, Swift has gotten the last laugh, as she is raking in a net worth of $740 million that’s headed towards a billion thanks to her highly successful two-year Eras World Tour that is expected to revenue more than $1 billion just on its own.
While this incident started Kanye West’s media drama, it wasn’t his last time in a controversial media spotlight.
Most recently, West has come out with several controversial statements and Twitter posts, including a campaign for president in 2024, comments about slavery, and aggressive remarks toward friends and other celebrities.
The controversy has both negatively and positively affected Kanye West’s net worth. On the one hand, he gains more popularity with each new headline. Every time he appears on the news, it reminds fans and followers of both West’s music and his shoe lines.
On the other hand, the rapper loses followers and fans each time he gets canceled.
Related: Taylor Swift’s Net Worth
What is Kanye’s Most Sold Album?
Of Kanye West’s multiple studio albums, his third album, Graduation, is his most significant by far, with over 13 million sales worldwide. His first and second albums, The College Dropout (2004) and Late Registration (2005), tie for second with approximately 10 million sales each.
What is Kanye’s Highest Charting Song?
While Kanye West has multiple number-one hits in his pocket, “Gold Digger,” his smash hit from 2005, has got to be deemed his most successful as it remained in the coveted spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 10 weeks.
How Many Diamond Albums Does Kanye Have?
While none of Kanye West’s albums have ever reached diamond status, several have been certified platinum, including Late Registration (2005), Ye (2018), and Donda (2021).
How Many Diamond Songs Does Kanye Have?
Kanye West has two diamond-certified tracks to add to his list of accolades.
His first diamond song was earned from “Stronger” off his 2007 album, Graduation. That announcement was made on October 6, 2021.
Earlier this year, he earned his second platinum recognition with his 2011 duet with Jay-Z, “N***** In Paris.”
Conclusion
So, the story of Kanye West’s net worth has been a bumpy one, to say the least. To go from a billionaire to bringing in less than half of that in just two years is a hard blow, especially for someone with as big of an ego as the “Flashing Light” singer seems to have.
It does seem, however, that he is beginning to build things back up again, so who knows, maybe he’ll show up on the Forbes billionaires list again someday. Only time will tell. May we suggest that he hold his tongue on the antisemitic comments and other controversial outbursts because that will probably help a lot.
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