Kanye West

GAP CEO Confirms That Yeezy GAP Partnership Has Ended

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Earlier today, it was reported that Kanye’s lawyers had sent a notice of termination letter to GAP executives, effectively ending the partnership between Ye and the clothing giant. Now, executives at GAP have responded to the notice, agreeing to end their partnership with Kanye.

GAP President Mark Breitbard reportedly wrote, “While we share a vision of bringing high-quality, trend-forward, utilitarian design to all people through unique omni experiences with Yeezy Gap, how we work together to deliver this vision is not aligned. And we are deciding to wind down the partnership.”

Kanye had interviewed with CNBC earlier today after it was reported that GAP’s stock was declining after the announcement of the split.

“It was always a dream of mine to be at the GAP and to bring the best product possible to the masses, and I always talked to them about doing products for $20, that are designed at the same level of the top fashion houses of the world,” Kanye said when asked why he’s leaving GAP. Ye went on to say how GAP set price points way above what he wanted them to be, copied his designs, did not release any clothing from the partnership in stores, and did not open up Yeezy GAP retail stores.

This is a developing story.

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Kanye West Says He’s The ‘One Individual On The Planet Who Could Save The Gap’

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After declaring that he wants out of his deal with Gap Inc. in a letter to the clothing retailer earlier today, Kanye West appeared on CNBC — a contrast to his prior interview with Fox News — to offer an edgy interview about the proposed split. An irascible interview subject at the best of times, this time, a standoffish Kanye appeared in mirrored sunglasses and sporting a 1970s beard — think Black Macho Man Randy Savage — and didn’t provide much illumination on the deal, taking the opportunity to take more potshots at Gap, as he’s been doing for the past few weeks.

As the CNBC correspondent notes, Gap and Adidas’ stocks have taken a hit due to Kanye’s grumbling. Pointing out that he was once a huge proponent of Gap, even name-checking the stores in his early songs, she asks whether he believes Gap could recover. “They only have one opportunity to be able to be a big player,” he shoots back. “What do you think it is? They have one individual on the planet who could say the Gap… Sometimes, the answer’s sitting right in front of you… Don’t bring a leader in and have him not lead. I’m not going to argue with people that are broker than me about money.”

In addition, he promises that the Macho Man-esque glasses he’s wearing in the interview will “be out soon,” although, with his current retail partnership in shambles, it’s unclear how. Kanye says that Gap violated the conditions of his contract with them, but it remains to be seen whether the deal will actually be terminated before its planned expiration in 2026. You can watch Kanye’s prickly interview above.

Kanye Cuts Ties With Gap, Stock Shares Goes Down By 3.5 %, + The Power Of The Black Dollar

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Kanye Leaves Gap

Kanye’s recent stance against popular American retail brand Gap speaks to the larger issue of corporations exploiting black artists’ influence for the Black dollar’s contribution. How Corporations Become Richer With The Help Of The Black Dollar Kanye recently expressed his frustration with fashion companies Gap and Adidas publicly. He has since made a swift move to […]

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Yeezy GAP Partnership Is Over! Kanye Sends Notice Of Termination Letter To GAP Executives

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Ye Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga

Earlier this week, in an interview with Bloomberg, Kanye shared plans of ending his partnerships with Adidas and Gap when the contracts expired in 2026 and 2030, respectively. In his interview he noted that there would be “No more companies standing in between me and the audience.”

Well, it seems as if Kanye is taking the initiative and not waiting for his contracts to expire. One of West’s attorneys told the Associated Press earlier this morning that a notice of termination was sent to GAP executives, effectively ending the Yeezy x GAP partnership after only two years.

The termination letter stated that GAP had failed to uphold their end of the agreement, which included launching Yeezy GAP merchandise in retail stores and eventually opening up Yeezy GAP retail stores by next year. “Gap left Ye no choice but to terminate their collaboration agreement because of Gap’s substantial noncompliance,” one of Ye’s lawyers, Nicholas Gravante Jr, said in an email to the AP.

While the Yeezy GAP Engineeered By Balenciaga collection was made available in stores, the notice of termination letter says that the collection was a part of a separate agreement and does not fulfill GAP’s contractual obligations.

When the partnership between Ye and the clothing giant was announced 2 years ago, many were excited that Yeezy apparel would finally be available to the masses. It was a full circle event for Kanye who used to work at the GAP and famously rapped about his experience on The College Dropout. His partnership also would help him fulfill his vision of creating egalitarian clothing for the masses.

However, since the partnership was announced 2 years ago, it has been marred by inconsistency. Pre orders for the Yeezy “round jacket” first dropped after the first of three DONDA listening parties and in September of last year, the “perfect hoodies” were made available online. However, none of these drops were put in retail stores.

Now, Ye is destined to move on from relying on corporate partnerships and will take matters into his own hands.

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Kanye West Claims He’s Terminating His Deal With Gap For Violating Their Contract

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Kanye West has spent the past several weeks agitating against his business partners at Gap and now accuses the company of violating their contract with him in a letter sent to the company by his lawyer. According to CNBC, Kanye now wants to terminate the deal altogether, despite having four years left to go on the original term of the partnership. The main sticking point, according to West’s lawyer Nicholas Gravante, is the distribution of Yeezy products by the second half of 2021 and the creation of dedicated Yeezy Gap stores.

Per the original deal, Yeezy would be solely owned by Kanye, who would receive royalties and equity based on the sales. Pending the sales meeting certain targets, Yeezy stood to earn up to 8.5 million shares, with some sources valuing the partnership at nearly $1 billion. Although some Yeezy products were made available in Gap’s Times Square store in New York, Ye’s lawyers claim that they don’t count toward the terms of the partnership because they were a collaboration with Balenciaga — a separate deal altogether.

When the deal was signed with Yeezy back in 2020, Gap believed that the famous rap star’s cosign would boost slumping sales, but the quarterly earnings report released this August revealed disappointing results for the first half of 2022. Earlier this month, Kanye said he planned to continue the Yeezy apparel brand without Gap once the contract expired, but now it appears he’s trying to force that to happen sooner rather than later.

Drake, Kendrick Lamar, And Latto Are Nominated For The 2022 BET Hip-Hop Awards Album Of The Year

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It’s almost time for the BET Hip-Hop Awards, the only awards show dedicated specifically to the world’s most popular genre. A week after announcing the host of this year’s show, Fat Joe, BET has announced the nominees for the awards on Twitter and Instagram. Drake leads the way with 14 nominations, Kanye West has 10, and Kendrick Lamar has nine. The show will air on October 9 at 9 pm ET.

Album Of The Year

Drake — Certified Lover Boy
Future — I Never Liked You
Kanye West — Donda
Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Latto — 777
Nas — King’s Disease II
Pusha T — It’s Almost Dry

Hip-Hop Artist Of The Year

Cardi B
Doja Cat
Drake
Future
Kanye West
Kendrick Lamar
Megan Thee Stallion

Song Of The Year

Cardi B — “Hot Sh*t” Feat. Kanye West & Lil Durk
Drake — “Way 2 Sexy” Feat. Future & Young Thug
GloRilla & Hitkidd — “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)”
Future — “Wait For U” Feat. Drake & Tems
Jack Harlow — “First Class”
Kodak Black — “Super Gremlin”
Latto — “Big Energy”

Lyricist Of The Year

Baby Keem
Benny The Butcher
Drake
J. Cole
Jack Harlow
Jay-Z
Kendrick Lamar

Best Hip-Hop Video Of The Year

ASAP Rocky — “D.M.B”
Baby Keem — “Family Ties” Feat. Kendrick Lamar
BIA — “London” Feat. J. Cole
Cardi B — “Hot Sh*t” Feat. Kanye West & Lil Durk
City Girls — “Good Love” Feat. Usher
Drake — “Way 2 Sexy” Feat. Future & Young Thug
Future — “Wait For U” Feat. Drake & Tems

Best Collaboration

Baby Keem — “Family Ties” Feat. Kendrick Lamar
Benny The Butcher — “Johnny P’s Caddy” Feat. J. Cole
Cardi B — “Hot Shit” Feat. Kanye West & Lil Durk
City Girls — “Good Love” Feat. Usher
Drake — “Jimmy Cooks” Feat. 21 Savage
Drake — “Way 2 Sexy Feat. Future & Young Thug
Future — “Wait For U” Feat. Drake & Tems

Sweet 16: Best Featured Verse

Drake — “Churchill Downs” (Jack Harlow Feat. Drake)
J. Cole -– “Poke It Out” (Wale Feat. J. Cole)
J. Cole –- “London” (Bia & J. Cole)
Lil Baby — “Girls Want Girls” (Drake Feat. Lil Baby)
Kanye West- – “City Of Gods” (Fivio Foreign, Kanye West & Alicia Keys)
Drake –- “Wait For U” (Future Feat. Drake & Tems)
Jadakiss -– “Black Illuminati” (Freddie Gibbs Feat. Jadakiss)

Best Duo Or Group

42 Dugg & Est Gee
Big Sean & Hit-Boy
Birdman & Youngboy Never Broke Again
Blxst & Bino Rideaux
DaBaby & YoungBoy Never Broke Again
Earthgang
Styles P & Havoc

Best Live Performer

Cardi B
Doja Cat
Drake
J. Cole
Kanye West
Kendrick Lamar
Tyler The Creator

Producer Of The Year

ATL Jacob
Baby Keem
Hit-Boy
Hitmaka
Kanye West
Metro Boomin
Pharrell Williams

Best Breakthrough Hip-Hop Artist

Baby Keem
Blxst
Doechii
Fivio Foreign
GloRilla
Nardo Wick
Saucy Santana

Video Director Of The Year

Benny Boom
Burna Boy
Cole Bennett
Colin Tilley
Director X
Kendrick Lamar & Dave Free
Teyana Taylor

DJ Of The Year

D-Nice
DJ Cassidy
DJ Drama
DJ Kay Slay
DJ Premier
Kaytranada
Mustard
Nyla Symone
LA Leakers: DJ Sourmilk And Justin Incredible

Best Hip-Hop Platform

Big Boy’s Neighborhood
Breakfast Club
Caresha Please
Complex
Drink Champs
HipHopDX
Million Dollaz Worth Of Game
NPR Tiny Desk
Verzuz

Hustler Of The Year

50 Cent
Cardi B
DJ Khaled
Drake
Jay-Z
Kanye West
Megan Thee Stallion

Impact Track

Lizzo — “About Damn Time”
Fivio Foreign, Kanye West & Alicia Keys — “City Of Gods”
Baby Keem — “Family Ties” Feat. Kendrick Lamar
Nas — “Nobody” Feat. Ms. Lauryn Hill

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kanye West Plans To Leave Adidas And Gap Once Their Contracts Expire: ‘No More Companies Standing In Between’

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Kanye West’s grievances with Adidas and Gap have been made readily apparent on social media by Kanye himself, and now he wants to “go it alone,” according to a new interview with Bloomberg. After accusing both companies of falling short in their obligations and stealing designs while making odd demands and stonewalling on product approvals, Kanye now apparently believes that he can fund his Yeezy apparel and footwear design, manufacture, and marketing himself.

Among his demands to his business partners are opening brick-and-mortar Yeezy stores (at a time when retail is moving more and more online), a 20% royalty from all the shoes bearing his name from Adidas (he already receives around $200 million in annual royalties and does not front the cost of research, development, or manufacture of the shoes), and chairs on both companies’ boards of directors.

While he acknowledges that both deals have been quite lucrative for him — his “billionaire” status is based largely on the long-term health of those deals and the royalties he receives from them — he is adamant that he can do just as well on his own. He also recognizes that these contracts both have long remaining terms; his Adidas deal expires in 2026, while his Gap one will remain in effect until 2030.

“It’s time for me to go it alone,” he told Bloomberg. “It’s fine. I made the companies money. The companies made me money. We created ideas that will change apparel forever. Like the round jacket, the foam runner, the slides that have changed the shoe industry. Now it’s time for Ye to make the new industry. No more companies standing in between me and the audience… They my new baby mamas. I guess we’re just going to have to co-parent those 350s.”

50 Cent “Calls Out” Kanye West For Obnoxious IG Post; Ye Clears The Air

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50 Cent took to Instagram to call out Kanye West for posting an obnoxious message about estranged wife Kim Kardashian. However, Ye immediately set the record straight. 50 Cent doesn’t hesitate to call out his fellow hip-hop peers on social media.  Recently, the rapper turned television producer took to Instagram to call out Kanye West […]

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