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Rapper Kanye West is no stranger to controversy. The 45-year-old rapper recently released new footage of a disturbing meeting with Adidas. Ye can be seen in a room with two of his representatives and two Adidas executives, showing them an explicit video. He is seen shoving a phone in an executive’s face in what appears to be an apparent attempt to intimidate the man. All the faces in the video were blurred, except for his own.
The video was posted by the rapper himself on YouTube - one of the few social media platforms he is not yet restricted from.
The internet criticized Ye for creating an uncomfortable situation and claimed that if a similar action had been performed by someone else, they would have been kicked out of the room. Some even took a jab at the controversial rapper's recent claims of being a man of God, saying that this is inappropriate behavior for someone who claims to be godly.
The meeting with the five men was filmed and included in a 30-minute-long documentary titled Last Week on Kanye's YouTube page, which has over 8.6 million subscribers. The meeting was shot through a fish eye lens, set in a blank, white room, with the men seated on long black bar stools.
Kanye West's Adidas meeting explained
In the video, to Kanye's right is venture capitalist Shervin Pishervar, who recently partnered with Ye. In the middle is former Adidas brand president Eric Liedtke. Also present is senior vice president of Adidas Torben Schumacher and chief creative officer Alasdhair Willis, who is also the husband of designer Stella McCartney.
The video starts with the Donda rapper holding a phone towards the execs, showing them an explicit video. Following this, he accused the sneaker brand of stealing his designs from Yeezy. He said:
“You guys have done wrong by the company, by the business, and by the partnership.”
His statements were corroborated by Pishevar, who said that the team was making a significant amount in revenue through "Yeezy-inspired derivatives." He admonishes the executives, claiming they know they're in the wrong for having stolen his partner's brainchild.
The sneaker company had recently moved the status of their long-standing partnership with Ye to "under review" following the "White Lives Matter" t-shirt debacle. Kanye West hit back with an explicit Instagram post saying,
"F*** Adidas. I am Adidas."
The company has stated that this collaboration was perhaps their most successful, however, after reportedly attempting to resolve the issue privately, they will be placing the contract under review, while still co-managing the current products during this period.
The meeting seems to have taken place last month, just one day after GAP terminated their contract with Kanye West prematurely. The meeting was set up so that the rapper could convince Adidas to make Eric Liedtke the new CEO, succeeding outgoing CEO Kasper Rorsted, who was also subject to some of Kanye West's internet rants.
Even as the execs claimed that they could have done a better job with the way they worked with Ye's team, the rapper seemed despondent and angered. His choice of CEO, Eric, spoke up about seeking a "win, win, win" situation without any feeling of disrespect going around.
The Yeezy CEO then stood up to ramble on about how he was the "king of culture" and threatened to incite a "different level of nuclear activity no one will recover from." He proclaimed that he would not want to argue with people "broker" than he was and with people who had "lesser ideas" than he did before storming out.
Netizens blast Kanye West for inappropriate behavior
Considering that Kanye West was attending a business meeting, his showing of an explicit film was considered highly inappropriate by the executives present in the meeting, and also by the internet. Some even went so far as to call him "unstable," and urged Adidas to drop him as a collaborator and client.
The Adidas team felt that it was imperative that their brand's collaborations be built on "mutual respect and shared values" which they felt Kanye West had not delivered on over the past few months through his Twitter rants and hate speeches. It is unclear how much longer the partnership will be tenable.
Kanye West has been courting controversy over the last few days, starting with Paris Fashion Week with his 'White Lives Matter' t-shirt and posting antisemitic comments on social media.
