Last Sunday, rapper Kanye West shared a 30-minute YouTube video titled LAST WEEK. Featuring four minutes of a Grand Theft Auto-inspired recreation shot in Japan, along with references to Kanye’s fashion ventures, the video ended with a 26-minute recording of Kanye’s meeting with two Adidas’ executives — one that quickly went off-rails for the unsuspecting sports goods representatives. 

Last Week

After showcasing some fun visuals and callbacks to the videogame classic, viewers were shown fisheye-lens footage of Kanye’s meetings and business dealings, with everyone’s faces except for Ye’s blurred out. Joined by two of his own crew, Kanye kicks off the footage right at the start — showing his phone to the man closest to the camera. 

“Is this a porn movie?”  

West replied, “Yeah.” “Jesus Christ,” one of them let out. 

In 2013, after the release of the Red October Air Yeezy 2s, Kanye West officially left Nike — his second big footwear partner. Although West described this break as “heartbreaking”, he claimed that Nike would not pay him royalties for his shoe designs, instead offering to pay some of the proceeds to a charity of West’s choice.  

This ultimately led West to reach out to Adidas for a deal. Adidas agreed to give him royalties, and West described the CEO of Adidas as “someone who allowed [him] to build something”. Under the partnership with Adidas, West retains 100% ownership of his brand while having full creative control over the products released. 

This clearly wasn’t enough, though. 11 minutes into the video, we can see Kanye shoving the phone into the Adidas teams’ faces, clearly making them uncomfortable. “Come on, man. Come on,” one of them said, moving the rapper’s arm away from himself. 

“I’m only gonna work with Adidas if he’s the CEO,” West said, pointing to one of his team members. “You guys have done wrong by the company, by the business, and by the partnership,” he went on. “The whole concept of this video is that the guy had cheated, so then the girl was like, ‘Well then I’m going to do the thing that’s your worst nightmare.’” 

“This is your worst nightmare,” he said, looking directly at the execs. “Your worst nightmare is not me hitting you. Your worst nightmare is not me playing the porn. Your worst nightmare is not me screaming. We’ve done all his.” 

“That’s your worst nightmare,” said Kanye, pointing at one of his men. Pointing to his other team member, he added, “And then worst nightmare No. 2.” 

“Is it your dream, or is it a nightmare? What are we doing?” one of the Adidas execs asked, clearly confused. 

Ultimately, the issue seemed to boil down to infringement on Kanye’s designs as intellectual property — which apparently Adidas had committed by ‘stealing’ Ye’s ideas. 

“What you’re feeling right now is extreme discomfort, and that is exactly the point because when someone steals this man’s ideas, his creations, it’s like you’re stealing a child. These are all children of his mind, and you’ve kidnapped them,” added one of Kanye’s cohorts. 

“There are Yeezy-inspired derivatives that are making significant revenue because people can’t tell the difference because it’s so inspired. … He’s angry, and he’s right.” 

One of the execs agreed, admitting that he and his partner can “certainly do a lot better in the way [they] work with [West and his team].” 

“I want to make sure that there’s a win, win, win situation going on here, and it starts with somebody feeling very highly disrespected. And there’s grounds for that, in my opinion,” said Kanye’s CEO candidate, before the rapper went on a self-aggrandizing spiel. 

“Adidas has to come and be like … ‘Ye, what do you want?’” he continued. “I’m not talking to you guys. I’m not arguing about money with people broker than me. I’m not arguing about ideas with people with lesser ideas than me,” he said, before leaving the area. 

Kanye’s clashes with Adidas are nothing new, especially in 2022. According to Kanye, the brand “brought back older styles,” “picked colors and named them,” “hired people that worked for [him],” “stole [his] colorways [and] styles,” — all without consulting him first. 

Adidas, on their part, is keen to maneuver around Kanye. The brand recently announced that its partnership with him was under review after the musician wore a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt at a performance — a term considered by some as a white supremacist. The shirt caused considerable uproar against West, who saw faces such as Jaden Smith walk out of the concert. 

Kanye’s response?  

“’F**K ADIDAS I AM ADIDAS ADIDAS RAPED AND STOLE MY DESIGNS,” shared the rapper on Instagram.  

Stay classy, Ye. 

Lead Image: Kanye West/YouTube