Rapper, designer and rumored 2024 presidential candidate Ye returned to Instagram Thursday morning, shortly after he was escorted out of the Sketchers headquarters and amid several businesses severing ties with him over his antisemtic comments.
Ye directed his post at Ari Emanuel, the CEO of entertainment and media agency Endeavor who had earlier penned an op-ed in the Financial Times in which he stated "those who continue to do business with West are giving his misguided hate an audience."
Ye revealed he'd lost two billion dollars in a single day "and I'm still alive."
He added:
"This is love speech."
"I still love you."
"God still loves you."
"The money is not who I am."
"The people is who I am."
You can see his post below.
Earlier, Adidas announced it was ending its $1.5 billion deal with Ye. Additionally, TJX Companies, which owns department stores and TJ Maxx, and Gap said they would no longer sell Ye's apparel.
The losses were significant enough that Forbes reported this week that Ye had lost $400 million as of Wednesday, October 26, and that he'd been knocked off Forbes' billionaires list.
But no one feels particularly sorry for Ye, and his actions have continued to inspire significant criticism.
\u201cHis reaction to being introduced to the "finding out" phase is hilarious!\u201d— TheJaytheist (@TheJaytheist) 1666958309
\u201cKeep it up dude, you're on the right track....\u201d— Anna F (@Anna F) 1666953388
\u201cApparently money hasn\u2019t changed Ye. He\u2019s still the racist bigot he\u2019s always been. https://t.co/lcdH36JXUy\u201d— Ending Reproductive Rights is only the FIRST step! (@Ending Reproductive Rights is only the FIRST step!) 1666962642
\u201cAre we supposed to care?\u201d— Hank\u2019s Adventures (@Hank\u2019s Adventures) 1666903969
\u201cThat amount would make Kanye the biggest loser ever.\u201d— Neal Lachman \ud83d\ude80 Space Industry Disruptor \ud83d\ude80 (@Neal Lachman \ud83d\ude80 Space Industry Disruptor \ud83d\ude80) 1666915718
\u201c'Ye' lost 2 Billion in a day. Zuck's crashing hard. Musk was pushed by litigation into owning Twitter. Let's see what happens now.\n\nIf you ask me, I'd say the tides are turning against tactless, unethical people who can't learn to STFU.\n\nTime will tell; time is real good at that.\u201d— \ud83d\udd25\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\u9f8d DRAGON \u9f8d\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83d\udd25 (@\ud83d\udd25\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\u9f8d DRAGON \u9f8d\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83d\udd25) 1666973781
\u201cOh Big deal get over it.\u201d— RJB (@RJB) 1666889841
\u201cPlay stupid games, get stupid prizes.\u201d— Gordon Hayward's New Haircut (@Gordon Hayward's New Haircut) 1666892438
\u201cHe should have learned long ago that your words and actions have consequences but something tells me he won\u2019t learn from anything.\u201d— Cherrylann St.John (@Cherrylann St.John) 1666905593
Ye received backlash after White Lives Matter shirts—including ones worn by Ye and Candace Owens—were unveiled during his YZY Paris Fashion Week show. As a result, Ye went on several misogynoir and antisemitic rants and was accused of anti-Blackness by community activists.
Instagram locked Ye out of his account after he posted an antisemitic conspiracy theory in screenshots of text messages with Sean "Diddy" Combs.
In response, Ye returned to Twitter after a long hiatus to accuse Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of personally locking him out of his account after Instagram announced it locked him out for posts that violated its policies. Ye also tweeted he'd go "death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE," prompting media attention and further accusations of antisemitism.
News outlets later reported Ye made several conspiratorial, racist and antisemitic statements during unaired segments of an interview he had with Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, including a claim Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger created the organization “with the KKK [Ku Klux Klan] to control the Jew population.”
