As pressure mounts for brands to cut ties with Kanye West, the rapper’sbiggest corporate partner remains awfully quiet: Adidas. But West’s formerpartner, Kim Kardashian, (sort of) broke her silence on Monday as CAA droppedWest as a client.
Adidas started working with West in 2013, but after his “White Live Matter”stunt earlier this month, the company issued a statement saying it isreviewing the relationship. However, in the days that followed, the musicianwent on to spew antisemitic remarks and even taunted the company that it can’tsever ties with him. The Adidas-Yeezy partnership is one of the mostsuccessful fashion collaborations in recent years.
“I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what? Now what?”West declared on the Drink Champs podcast. (It’s the same podcast where heerroneously claimed George Floyd died from fentanyl, not police brutality.Floyd’s daughter plans to sue West for $250 million.)
West’s hateful rhetoric is landing with antisemitic groups as one ralliedsupport for the Grammy winner and displayed the following sign on the busy LosAngeles 405 freeway on Saturday: “Kanye is right about the Jews.”
The Anti-Defamation League urged Adidas to end its relationship with west.
“In light of Kanye West’s increasingly strident antisemitic remarks over thepast few weeks, we were disturbed to learn that Adidas plans to continue torelease new products from his Yeezy brand without any seeming acknowledgmentof the controversy surrounding his most recent remarks,” the group said in astatement.”We urge Adidas to reconsider supporting the Ye product line and toissue a statement making clear that the Adidas company and community has notolerance whatsoever for antisemitism.”
David Schwimmer, Kat Dennings, Josh Gad and Valerie Bertinelli are among thestars publicly calling out Adidas to end the relationship. A Change.orgpetition has over 80,000 signatures and counting.
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Adidas did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment on Monday.
Kim Kardashian has publicly remained silent about the controversial past threeweeks. That changed on Monday, and while she didn’t call out the father of herfour children directly, she posted a statement in support of the Jewishcommunity.
Khloé Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kris Jenner posted similar messages onsocial media that read: “I support my Jewish friends and the Jewish people.”
CAA dropped West as a client, variety confirmed on Monday. A completeddocumentary about the entrepreneur will be shelved in light of thecontroversy.
“This morning, after discussion with our filmmakers and distribution partners,we made the decision not to proceed with any distribution for our recentlycompleted documentary about Kanye West. We cannot support any content thatamplifies his platform,” MRC studio executives Modi Wiczyk, Asif Satchu andScott Tenley announced in a memo Monday.
“Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed aclassic tune that has charted for over 3,000 years — the lie that Jews areevil and conspire to control the world for their own gain,” they add. “Thesilence from leaders and corporations when it comes to Kanye or antisemitismin general is dismaying but not surprising. What is new and sad, is the fearJews have about speaking out in their own defense.”
Last week, Balenciaga became the first major company to drop West in the wakeof the controversy. JPMorgan Chase ended his banking relationship with thefashion designer. Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, one of the most influential peoplein Hollywood, wrote an op-ed for Financial Times __ and urged companies —like list includes Apple, Spotify and Adidas — not to do business with West.Emanuel’s rivals came together in a show of unity.
Bob Gersh, head of Gersh Agency, spoke to variety and supported Emanuel’smessage.
“This is as low as it can get,” Gersh said of West’s recent comments. “This isthe most blatant form of hatred and antisemitism one could imagine. It doesn’tget any worse than this. People really need to hammer these companies inbusiness with him to impress upon them how wrong it is to support somebodylike this. “
UTA co-founder and CEO Jeremy Zimmer followed suit, and in company-wide memo,said the company supports “the boycott of Kanye West. Powerful voices spewinghatred have frequently driven people to do hateful things.”