Earlier this month, Kanye West made headlines as ‘The Richest Black Person In America’. The news came after 

 reported that thanks to his clothing and sneaker line Yeezy and new deal with GAP the rapper’s net worth was valued at $6.6 billion by UBS.

However, not everyone is convinced. Following the news, Forbes released its 

, arguing that the rapper, 43, was in fact worth $1.8 billion as of March 18th 2021. And, while this figures are still representative of immense wealth, it is less than a third of Bloomberg’s estimation. So why do the numbers differ?

“Forbes’s number is based on that old fashioned idea of current revenues, not theoretical future expectations,” Forbes explains in 

 on the topic which goes on to explain how the UBS report “made some assumptions based on [West’s] projected future earnings.”

The Forbes analysis points out that a significant part of West’s estimated earnings came from the recently announced Yeezy x GAP collaboration which, while rumoured to be worth $4.7 billion, is yet to sell a single item as it has not yet launched.

As such, Forbes hasn’t included the GAP partnership in West’s net worth, which it breaks down as follows: Yeezy (of which West owns 100 percent) is worth $1.5 billion; $160 million in cash and other assets including property, artwork and livestock; his music catalogue is worth $90 million; West gets $64 million from his soon-to-be ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s shape wear company Skims.

With the totals totted up, Forbes argues that Vista Equity’s Robert F. Smith remains the richest Black person in the U.S. with an estimated net worth of $6 billion. Nigerian business magnate Aliko Dangote, meanwhile, remains the richest Black person in the world with $11.8 billion in his pocket.

So, Kanye’s wealth may have been exaggerated, and the headlines premature. But the story isn’t that Kanye West isn’t quite as rich as everyone thought he was for a moment, but that Kanye West, with an estimated worth of almost $2 billion, is still an incredibly wealthy individual and one of few rappers to cross the billion dollar threshold, hot on the heels of one time BFF Jay-Z.

It’s all the more astounding after Kanye tweeted in 2016 that he was $56 million in debt after pouring money into his fashion company Yeezy. (He followed the admission by tweeting Mark Zuckerberg to ask for a $1 million investment in his ideas. Zuckerberg is yet to arrange the bank transfer).

With West’s billionaire status arriving amidst his divorce from his wife of seven year and following years’ worth of increasingly erratic public announcements and denouncements that have raised very real fears for his mental health, not to mention a laughable 2020 presidential campaign and a pandemic that shut down the fashion and entertainment industries, the question we should be asking is ‘How on earth has he done it?”

West’s rise to prominence is well documented. An outspoken advocate of Chicago (but actually born in Atlanta, in 1977), West started out as a super-producer for the likes of Jay-Z (“Kanyeezy you did it again, you a genius!” Jay shouts on the 2003 West-produced 

Despite this success, West was open about his ambitions to succeed as an artist in his own right from the start.

"West remains one of the most vital forces in modern music..."

There’s a joke in the music industry that goes Q. ‘What was the last thing the drummer said to the band before he got fired?’ A. ‘Hey guys, I’ve got a great idea for a song!’.

In the hip-hop world, a producer transitioning to a bona fide artist in their own right is the equivalent of a drummer stepping out from behind the skins to take centre stage; it just doesn’t happen.

Except, for Kanye West, it did. Stepping back from production, West released his first album 

in 2004 to immediate commercial success. Eight albums and 22 Grammys later, West remains one of the most vital forces in modern music.

Fashion, too, has always been a passion with West collaborating first with Louis Vuitton (earning him the early moniker ‘The Louis Vuitton Don’) before working with A.P.C and then launching his Yeezy sneaker brand with Nike before publicly falling out with the brand and going over to its main rival, Adidas.

(“Yeezy, Yeezy, Yeezy, just jumped over Jumpman” West rapped on the 2015 track ‘Facts’, elaborating how his Adidas collaboration was outselling anything Nike had to offer – see also: “I ain’t dropped the album, but the shoes went triple platinum”.)

While Yeezy has branched out into apparel, 

 wrote in 2020 that “the sneakers are the engine that keeps the brand humming” with shoe revenues then on track to increase by 50 percent since 2019, earning West $147 million in that fiscal year alone.

In his deal with Adidas, West retains creative control while the shoe company handles manufacturing and distribution. With the current deal set to end in 2026 but sales remaining high, there is every hint that this will continue to be a lucrative revenue stream for the rapper.

As for how much money West is likely to earn from his divorce from Kim Kardashian-West (herself a bona fide businesswoman with a net worth of $750 million) the famous advocate of the prenup may find divorce proceedings relatively straight forward.

“Though the Kardashians are known for drama, dividing the wealth may be surprisingly easy,” writes Madeline Berg for 

. “The couple likely has a prenup, given the money at stake and considering it’s Kardashian West’s third marriage. Plus their biggest assets are independently owned and operated businesses, and the pair have had separate income streams since their 2014 nuptials.”

Berg points out that just $70 million of the couple’s assets – including artwork and property – is likely to be co-owned, totalling less than 5 percent of their combined worth. In other words, both parties will likely emerge with their personal fortunes unscathed, keeping Kanye’s hard-won billionaire status intact.

The future looks set to pose more questions than it answers

Of course, Kanye’s divorce isn’t the only tumultuous event in his life right now. His 2020 presidential campaign garnered just 60,000 votes, while his prior endorsements of Donald Trump shocked some fans to say the least. Although, judging by West’s recent wealth evaluation (whichever one you buy into) it seems that controversy has not hurt his brand.

"His endorsements of Donald Trump shocked fans..."

As for the future, West has promised the follow-up album to 2019’s 

after his late mother, for some time now.

But, perhaps the most interesting thing on the West horizon – yes even more exciting that Kanye designing for the GAP – is his touted Yeezy Campus, which the rapper is developing on his 12,000 acre ranch in Wyoming.

about the project, West said it will be an environmentally-friendly, extremely skateable compound which may produce wool from its $300,000 worth of sheep.

 about the project, West elaborated that “We’re building farms… developing our own fabrics from farm to factory.”

 as somewhere that will “allow humans to maximize our potential” and will be “a paradigm shift for humanity.” Got it? No, us neither.

Whatever Yeezy Campus turns out to be, however much the GAP collaboration brings in, and whatever the fall out from his impending divorce one thing is all but certain: there’s no one quite like Kanye West. And he isn’t finished yet.

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