Kanye West claims he was ‘two months from bankruptcy’ after anti-Semitic rants

Rapper Kanye West, whose net worth was once estimated at $3 billion, says he was on the verge of bankruptcy after his anti-Semitic rants.

He was famously dumped by Adidas in 2022, which ended its lucrative Yeezy sneakers partnership with him over his outbursts.

During one rant he stated he would be “going death con 3 on Jewish people.”

In December that year he appeared hooded on Alex Jones’s show alongside white supremacist Nick Fuentes and praised Adolf Hitler.
 

“I see good things about Hitler, also,” he said, which sparked a ban from Twitter (now X) by Elon Musk.

West, who lives with bipolar disorder, later apologised, writing a message in Hebrew translated as: “I sincerely apologise to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions, it was not my intention to hurt or disrespect, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused.”

Speaking to TMZ at LAX Airport on Monday, West claimed he was two months from declaring bankruptcy after he was “cancelled” for his anti-Semitic remarks.
 

But he’s had a change in fortunes thanks to the release of his new album Ventures, he explained.

“Number one all over the world,” he declared, as he overtook Taylor Swift on the top Daily Top Artists Global list on Spotify.

“I’m just be honest with y’all. I was two months from going bankrupt, and I put everything I had into [Ventures],” he said.

He moved to Italy as his net worth plunged

“We moved to Italy. We moved to the factories, and we survived. We survived through the cancellation. We’re back No. 1.”
 

But now Kanye says business is booming again, which could be in part due to the Yeezy Super Bowl commercial that aired on Monday.

He posted a photo yesterday which purportedly showed he had made $19.3 million ($AU29.89 million) in sales.

“If I didn’t have the various skill sets of music and clothing and the fanbase, they would have been able to destroy me,” he elaborated.

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“But because we had all those skill sets, somehow I’m here inside of this universe able to fight.”

West has both apologised, and doubled down on his anti-Semitic remarks. At one point he claimed: “The funny thing is I actually can’t be anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jew,” likely a reference to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement which claims that African-Americans are descended from ancient Israelites.

On Monday he again addressed his outbursts saying: “They got the right to their opinion - I got the right to my opinion,”