Ye vs. the People.
Kanye West has responded to the furore over his antisemitic comments by posting a Quinn Emanuel lawyer's advice on Instagram, using it to joke that he hasn't had sex with any supermodels recently.
The rapper was suspended from Instagram earlier this month after he posted a screenshot of a text conversation with Sean 'Diddy' Combs in which he implied that Combs was controlled by Jewish people, telling Combs he would use him "as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me".
West, also known as Yeezy and Ye, later tweeted he was going "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE", which resulted in Twitter locking his account.
The backlash prompted companies to distance themselves from West, who called on heavy-hitting legal representation from US law firms Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Quinn Emanuel to manage his exit from various joint ventures.
When Gap dropped the unpredictable entrepreneur as a partner last month, Nick Gravante, the co-chair of Cadwalder's litigation group, took to LinkedIn to thank the lawyers on Team West from Cadwalader and Quinn Emanuel "for their tireless work for Ye and Yeezy" and their "incredible collaboration and team effort".
All Falls Down.
But despite the good times, the ongoing storm over West's outbursts led Cadwalader to dump the mogul as well. A Cadwalader spokesman said, "We are not presently providing any representation and have no intention of providing any future representation".
West appeared unmoved by the threat his behaviour posed to his remaining commercial interests and his legal representation.
Doubling-down on his repetition of antisemitic tropes, West said, "I can say antisemitic shit and Adidas cannot drop me", on a podcast earlier this month. His lucrative tie-up with the German footwear company is estimated to comprise between 4% to 8% of Adidas’s total annual sales, and the income from its Yeezy line of products is estimated to account for $1.5 billion of West's net worth.
On Tuesday, Adidas did drop him, necessitating the emergency involvement of Quinn Emanuel to once again untangle its spiralling client's contractual position.
West repaid Quinn’s Michael Fazio for all the late nights he put in at the firm’s Los Angeles office by posting the contractual disputes lawyer's texts on Instagram this week.
The two texts showed Fazio, identifiable by his 'MF' initials, advising West, "As to adidas, you can start to make new designs for footwear, apparel and accessories immediately. As to Gap, the non-compete expires December 15, 2022", and adding that "You own the Yeezy name and all trademarks associated with Yeezy".
In case more evidence was needed to show how impossible West must be as a client, the rapper commented beneath his screenshot of Fazio's advice: "I haven't got any supermodel pu**y in over a month Please send help".
So Appalled.
In much the same way Fazio did not respond to Yeezy’s request to send help, the Quinn lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did the firm.
As well as his antisemitic remarks, West has taken increasingly right-wing stances on hot-button social justice issues which have upset many commentators. He was criticised for wearing a T-shirt during Paris Fashion Week that read 'white lives matter', which he told Fox News host Tucker Carlson he wore because he thought it was "funny". He was also attacked for espousing a pro-life stance on Carlson's show, where he hung an ultrasound around his neck to illustrate his theory that "fifty percent of black death in America is abortion".
West also brought up singer Lizzo's obesity, saying that being overweight was the "genocide of the black race". And although he later apologised on Piers Morgan's show to "the families of the people that had nothing to do with the trauma that I have been through", he said he did not regret his antisemitic remarks.
Ye, who has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, added that Joe Biden’s decision to reject Elon Musk’s offer of advice was "fucking retarded", a term West said he could use because he also has "mental health issues".
Comments
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He wanted to call his recent album 'Hitler', apparently until advisors persuaded him 'Ye' was preferable.
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Ye vs the People would be a great album name
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Ye v the People is a Kanye track. As is So Appalled, All Falls Down, and the subheadline, Yikes.
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Couldn't happen to a nicer firm. If the Devil was looking for representation tomorrow AM, Quinn's goons would be lining up in their finest double-breasted suits with beaming smiles.
Odious firm and a total sweatshop.
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I’m Jewish and like Kanye West. Where is the actual Jewish outrage about what some well-known mental rapper has to say about anything political.
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Man is mentally unstable, is going to meet an unfortunate and all too soon demise, and in 15 years there will be a Netflix documentary where everyone exploiting him today will sit around and cry about how unfair his life was.
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Would we really be this outraged about Ye's comments if he wasn't Black?
Can a Black man who may or may not have had ancestors who were oppressed by slavers, but who has nevertheless made billions in the present day, really oppress Jewish people (whose victimisation was worse and more recent, but forget about that because it doesn't square so well with the rest of this BLM pamphlet, and they look kind of white to me and we all know that white people have privilege)?
Think about the intersectional power dynamics. Let that sink in.
So, who are the real racists here?
Us, or the billionaire hip hoppers saying clearly anti-Semitic things in broad daylight?
He's black, you are white, BLM, you are the racist.
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@Anonymous 12:24 this kind of truly insane rant is why there has been such a backlash against wokeness
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Anonymous 12.24: your use of the current empty, "look how aware I am" word "intersectional" pretty much renders your entire comment meaningless.
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All went wrong for Yeezy after his ma passed. Feel kind of sorry for the guy.
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He's a wild one, but his back catalogue contains a number of classics.
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O, Ye of little faith!
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Someone above purports to have worked at QE, and criticised it. They may or may not be genuine, but I certainly am. I worked at QE in London for several years and thought it was great.
US law firms have a mystique about them which now seems amusing, but which can be unhelpful for associates looking in from the outside. I’ve worked in several challenging places in the past, but even so I remember how intimidating applying to QE felt, almost 4 years ago. In fact:
• The work we did was almost identical to the Magic Circle firm at which I trained, but with leaner teams, far fewer overhead costs, earlier responsibility and slightly longer hours;
• QE was the least bureaucratic place I have ever worked in my life;
• Commercial disputes (litigation/arbitration)-only firms remove distractions and conflicts created by transactional departments;
• While QE’s reputation for ‘intelligently aggressive litigation’ is what attracts many clients, and leads to so many successes, that’s not reflected within the firm: everyone is very friendly! and
• I only left QE because it didn’t have an office where I wanted to work overseas.
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I also vouch that QE is an amazing and completely non toxic enterprise where people are happy to work. It is quite possibly the best place anyone can possibly work, and by “quite possibly”, I mean definitely.
I am shocked and disappointed that anyone could say anything different ever. And if you want to continue to badmouth QE, I’ll sue you under CPR; which actually means I’ll being typing the claim form over your lifeless body while a paramedic is attempting to resuscitate you via mouth to mouth.
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Hi Quinn HR, nice of ya to join us here.
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@Also used to work at QE’s London office
“QE’s reputation for ‘intelligently aggressive litigation’.”
You ’avin a laugh?
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Honestly incredible how many commenters seem oblivious to the fact that Annonymous @12.24 is very clearly taking the piss in the form of a takedown of modern day wokeness.