Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand • Hacker News Board

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

#31

Post by stonogo » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 3:36 AM UTC

dreammakr wrote: post #29

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.

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

I have never been convinced by the "helpless billionaire" argument.

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

#32

Post by adamiscool8 » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 4:05 AM UTC

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.

The quotes around "unhinged" were to imply positively pivotal figures — like Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, or Steve Jobs — not categorical terrorists.

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

#33

Post by trav4225 » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 5:42 AM UTC

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.

ew. :)

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

#34

Post by loeg » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:19 AM UTC

adamiscool8 wrote: post #32

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.

The quotes around "unhinged" were to imply positively pivotal figures — like Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, or Steve Jobs — not categorical terrorists.

Clearly it was intended to convey a positive association. I think it's totally fallacious to imply that unhinged is a positive attribute; hence the rebuttal. Unhinged is just unhinged.

Sure, the crazy people who made a bunch of money (or the terrorists) are the ones you've heard of. The majority of "unhinged" people are probably not better off for it.

Steve Jobs is kind of a great example. On HN people fawn over him, but he was "unhinged:" he was a giant asshole to everyone, by all accounts, and he opted for snake oil over medicine during the earliest part of his cancer treatment.

Plenty of people get lucky and strike it rich or contribute meaningfully to society without being unhinged. There is no meaningful correlation here.

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

#35

Post by WheelsAtLarge » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:36 AM UTC

Kanye was broke when he married into the Kardashians. I suspect he gained a lot of marketing knowledge from them. Good for him.

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

#36

Post by ashtonkem » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 9:44 AM UTC

jhwang5 wrote: post #16

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.

Perhaps it's marketing. Observable reality !== reality

Always a possibility; it’s not like I know him personally or anything.