Kanye West may soon be known by a much longer name, according to the rapper himself. West participated in a panel discussion at the Fast Company Innovation Festival on Thursday, where he participated in a panel discussion along with Yeezy head footwear designer Steven Smith.
Last month, Forbes estimated that Yeezy will bring in over $1.5 billion in sales in 2019 and has referred to West as a billionaire and he was ranked as the world’s highest-paid hip-hop artist with a pre-tax income of $150 million. In June, the publication ranked him as the fourth wealthiest hip-hop artist in the world with an estimated net worth of $240 million.
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“Martin Luther King didn’t get killed because he had a dream; he had something else he was gong to talk about. He talked about black empowerment, economic empowerment,” West said during the panel, via The Hollywood Reporter. “When I did Forbes, I showed them a $890 million receipt and they still didn’t say ‘billionaire.’ They don’t want us to know that we can buy land; they don’t want us to have the 100 percent ownership [that] I have at Yeezy. […] When people say it’s crass to call yourself a billionaire, I say I might legally change my name to Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West for a year until y’all understand exactly what it is.”
West also claimed that he will be running for president in 2024, beginning, “When I run for President in 2024” before the crowd laughed.
“What y’all laughing at? We would create so many jobs!” he told them. “I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk. When you see headlines saying Kanye’s crazy — one in three African Americans are in jail and all the celebrities are in jail also because they can’t say nothing, they got no opinion, they’re so scared!”
The 42-year-old further shared his commitment to American jobs when discussing his Yeezy sneakers with Smith.
“These are the future of Yeezy,” Smith said in reference to the latest iteration of Yeezy sneakers. “These were just made in Atlanta yesterday in the U.S., pre-production. … We’re going to bring jobs back here and we’re going to make Yeezys in America.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Gotham
