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Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

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Re: Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

#21

Post by Barrin92 »

whatshisface wrote: post #15
Barrin92 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most cynical things about his entire persona is that a few months ago he was ranting on about black people being brainwashed and that they'd need to make economically sensible choices and pretty much the entire 'bootstrap' speech, and then he's out there selling overpriced sneakers to kids calling it the next frontier for humanity.

Those two don't contradict, he probably thinks that people who can't afford sneakers shouldn't buy them whereas those who can should buy his.

You don't seriously believe that right? If only people would buy those shoes who are in a position to buy luxury vanity sneakers then he'd not market them the way he does, and probably not make any money with them.

He just doesn't care and panders to everyone at the same time because nobody bothers to keep this kind of cynical celebrity culture in check.

Re: Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

#22

Post by loeg »

adamiscool8 wrote: post #11
ashtonkem wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kanye is both a cultural icon, and also regularly sounds unhinged. That’s not a value statement, just an observation.

A corollary observation would be that many very pivotal figures in history regularly sounded "unhinged".

Sure. John Wilkes Booth, Timothy McVeigh, and the 9/11 hijackers were all, in some sense, pivotal.

Re: Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

#24

Post by sybarita »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #4
mardifoufs wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but Kanye is actually generating billions in revenue and is one of the biggest cultural icons right now which imo gives him more of a pass to be weird. Neumann was more of a conman that was only good at turning billions of dollars into...billions of dollars of debt. And don't forget his weird cultish entourage.

How do artists actually collect this kind of cash these days, now that no one buys CDs? Wouldn't he need a trillion or so streaming listeners to generate a billion dollars? Edit: never mind, looks like he's selling sneakers.

Live music industry is also bigger than it's ever been. Obviously not so much this year but booking fees for big artists run into the millions. They also get paid to feature in other peoples' music/content, and then again for access to their built-in promotional/marketing networks. They're selling hype. Anyone focused on milking profit out of the actual recordings themselves is stuck in the past, for the most part.

The modern model is to share the music freely as it serves primarily as a sales pitch for the artists brand. Young people want something of "value" for their money and they don't see a recording itself as having even $0.99 of value (even though they've mostly forgotten how to actually pirate media), like shitty overpriced merch and miserable "live music experiences" and "meet and greets".

Really what they're selling is hype. Which explains why an extreme manic depressive like Kanye has been so successful in this context. It's a system that directly rewards con men and effectively punishes any kind of caution or prudence. It also rewards drug addiction as many of these con men rely on drugs to maintain the illusions of their existence.

It's particularly sad because this system exploits the earnest passions of both the artists and the fans to manipulate them into participating.

Re: Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

#25

Post by loeg »

kgraves wrote: post #13
sfblah wrote: post #8

I can’t even begin to understand what would cause someone to buy a pair of “Yeezy” shoes.

Other rich people, (Million|Billion)aires, it's a status thing.

Vast majority of "sneaker culture" participants are not even close to millionaire/billionaire wealth.

Re: Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

#26

Post by derision »

whatshisface wrote: post #18
luhn wrote: post #17

Kanye has long had quite extreme ambitions. A few years ago he Tweeted an org chart for a company he called "Donda." It ranges from what you would reasonably expect ("Music Production", "Merchandising," "Web Music Store") to the absurd ("Cancer Research," "Hovercrafts", "Luxury Cloud Service") https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/v1/articles/2016/...

Hey, if he wants to fund cancer research and alternative energy, he can be my guest... On the other hand some of those are silly. "Emoticon Autocorrect" Well, not every crazy billionaire can be as good as Musk.

I mean it sounds crazy but honestly I would use it. There's been more than a few times I've typed a message in haste and hit the wrong emoji. My keyboard already ranks them by recently used and somehow does some context matching, so current technology isn't even too far off from that idea.

Re: Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

#27

Post by RickJWagner »

loeg wrote: post #22
adamiscool8 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A corollary observation would be that many very pivotal figures in history regularly sounded "unhinged".

Sure. John Wilkes Booth, Timothy McVeigh, and the 9/11 hijackers were all, in some sense, pivotal.

Well, let's see.

West has billions, is a recognized musical genius, is now setting fashion trends and will go to bed tonight with Kim K.

I'd say he's doing pretty well, compared to most.

Re: Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

#28

Post by ashtonkem »

adamiscool8 wrote: post #11
ashtonkem wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kanye is both a cultural icon, and also regularly sounds unhinged. That’s not a value statement, just an observation.

A corollary observation would be that many very pivotal figures in history regularly sounded "unhinged".

Howard Hughes comes to mind.

Re: Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

#29

Post by dreammakr »

Barrin92 wrote: post #9
Ozzie_osman wrote: post #2

> He calls it the “next frontier of living for humanity.” Sounds like something Adam Neumann would say.

One of the most cynical things about his entire persona is that a few months ago he was ranting on about black people being brainwashed and that they'd need to make economically sensible choices and pretty much the entire 'bootstrap' speech, and then he's out there selling overpriced sneakers to kids calling it the next frontier for humanity.

He doesn't control pricing, Adidas does. He called CEO of Payless to make a deal at one point and was turned away.

Re: Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand

#30

Post by ashtonkem »

RickJWagner wrote: post #27
loeg wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. John Wilkes Booth, Timothy McVeigh, and the 9/11 hijackers were all, in some sense, pivotal.

Well, let's see. West has billions, is a recognized musical genius, is now setting fashion trends and will go to bed tonight with Kim K. I'd say he's doing pretty well, compared to most.

This is an extremely weird argument to get into.
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