Is Kanye West Making a Commercial Comeback?

Kanye West has been a controversy magnet for years, but when the rapper/mogul made a string of antisemitic comments last October, the backlash against him reached a new level. Brands from Adidas to Balenciaga to The Gap — which removed all Yeezy products from its stores — severed ties; his agency and lawyers dropped him; his Twitter and Instagram accounts were suspended; and radio stations ceased playing his music.

Instead of backtracking, West doubled down on his comments. In December, during an appearance on Alex Jones’ InfoWars talk show on Dec. 1, the rapper praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, drawing further condemnation and leading to additional fallout, including a second suspension of his Twitter account under CEO Elon Musk, who wrote: “I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.” 

And yet for all the corporate blowback, many consumers — though they may not agree with his social and political beliefs — are still buying and streaming his music and spending money on his Yeezy fashion line.

While West’s music has fallen out of favor with some U.S. listeners since he first courted controversy in October, sales and streams have since leveled out — and have even seen some gains more recently. In the four weeks ended May 25, weekly consumption of West’s music — in equivalent album units [EAUs] that combine album purchases with track purchases and streams — was 17.1% lower than the week before West wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt at a Yeezy fashion show in Paris on Oct. 3. West’s weekly EAUs dropped 20.1% in the first six weeks of the controversy but has remained fairly steady ever since. In fact, West’s EAU for the week ended May 25 was his best in 30 weeks. 

On the fashion front, consumers also seem eager to purchase Yeezy products. According to a new report released by an analyst at investment manager Wedbush, after Adidas began selling some of its leftover Yeezy inventory (including new colorways of popular styles) for the first time in seven months on May 31, demand for the product was high. During the first two days of the sale — May 31 and June 1 — all 12 different Yeezy styles sold out and are “selling for premiums in the resale market,” the Wedbush analyst reports, with the caveat that the number of pairs sold during this period “was probably very low.”

Despite this renewed surge of fan interest in his music and products, West has taken a major financial hit from the corporate backlash. According to Forbes, the October termination of the Adidas partnership alone caused West to lose his billionaire status. Just three days after Adidas ended that deal, Apple Music removed its Kanye West Essentials playlist; U.S. radio stations, where the interests of advertisers and corporate owners intersect, also started losing their appetite for West around the same time: West’s radio spins and audience declined 23.2% and 20%, respectively, from the weeks ended Oct. 20 to Dec. 1 and have not yet recovered.

West could be making a significant chunk of money on the recent Adidas sale of Yeezy products; as Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden put it in March, West would earn royalties on any sales. The company doesn’t want Yeezy money, however: At its May 11 annual meeting, Gulden said Adidas would donate the proceeds from the Yeezy back inventory sale to “organizations that help us and were harmed by what [West] said.” Wedbush analysts guess Adidas will donate the profits, not the revenue, meaning the Yeezy sale will be “net-neutral” to Adidas’ earnings.

West’s earnings, meanwhile, will remain severely diminished — though thanks to fans’ continued interest in his music, he’ll continue to make millions in royalties each year.