Who is Kanye West, what is his net worth and why did Elon Musk suspend him from Twitter?

The rapper, songwriter, record producer and fashion designer, now legally known as Ye, has been at the forefront of numerous controversies since 2005 when he claimed that then-US President, George Bush, ‘doesn’t care about Black people’ during a benefit concert. His controversies have divided his fans, with some standing by his comments and others strongly condemning his views.

He is thought to be one of the most influential and controversial hip hop artists and producers of the early 21st century. Since social media was introduced, he has become more outspoken and his views are seen by many as racist and anti-semetic.

Ye famously married Kim Kardashian in an elaborate wedding broadcast on Keeping Up With The Kardashians in 2014 and the two have four children: North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm. In February 2021, Kim filed for divorce and it was finalised in November 2022.

Who is Kanye West?

He was born in Atlanta on June 8, 1977 and following his parents’ divorce when he was three-years old, he moved with his mother, Donda, to Chicago, Illinois.

His father, Ray, was a Black Panther, a Black power Marxist-Leninist political organisation founded by Oakland, California university students in October 1966. He was also one of the first Black photojournalists at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and later became a Christian counsellor.

Ye’s mother was a professor of English at Clark Atlanta University and the chair of the English department at Chicago State University before she retired to serve as his manager.

He was raised in a middle-class family, attended Polaris School for individual Education in Oak Lawn, Illinois after living in Chicago.

When he was 10 years old, he and his mother moved to Nanjing, China, where she taught at Nanjing University as a Fulbright Scholar.

His interest in the arts started from as young as five years old when he began writing poetry; he started rapping in year four at school and began making musical compositions three years later, eventually selling them on to other artists.

After crossing paths with producer and DJ No ID, they developed a close friendship and the producer ended up becoming his mentor. He received a scholarship to attend Chicago’s American Academy of Art in 1997 but ended up dropping out to pursue a career in music, thus was the start of his international success as a rapper and producer and his relationship with other musicians.

What is Kanye West’s net worth?

Ye has been dropped by brands following antisemetic comments he has made and stood by on social media and in interviews.

Brands which have dropped him are: Parlor, Peloton, Balenciaga, Anna Wintour/Vogue, Creative Artists Agency, United Talent Agency, Camille Vasquez and the most lucrative brand that has recently cut ties with him is Adidas.

His updated net worth, according to Forbes, is around $400 million (£346 million), down from £2 billion (£1.7 billion), having been dropped from Forbes’ billionaires list.

Why has Elon Musk suspended Kanye West from Twitter?

For the second time, Ye’s controversial tweets resulted in a Twitter ban.

He was kicked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts following a series of antisemetic messages he posted in October this year, which have since been deleted. Recently his antisemetic and racist remarks have resulted in international sport clothing brand Adidas dropping him.

On Thursday, December 1, 2022, Ye had praised dictator Adolf Hitler, who massacred millions of Jewish people during the Holocaust, on InfoWars.

Following on from that, he had posted various tweets, one seemed to show a symbol mixing a swastika with the Star of David. On Friday, December 2, Elon Musk was asked by a Twitter user to ‘fix Kanye’, to which he replied: “I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”