Music Business

Kanye West Doesn’t Just Need Cosigns For His Genius. He Needs Money For DONDA!

Zappos-gear-shitKanye West may actually be the hardest working ego in show business today. And he also may be building to a gigantic meltdown cause he's been giving off lots of business-related sparks of late and I'm seeing despair and depression ahead. Louis Vuitton still won't meet with him. Silicon Valley wants to meet but won't date. And everybody he attacks seems to slay him so easily with dumb humor you just have to wonder how much longer this can go on.

Kanye West has really tried for a long time to break into the fashion industry beyond the Kanye-branded products for popular brands which he's also approached seriously. But it just hasn't gone well as he's regularly reminded us.

Years of boiling rage and frustration finally caused him to lash out at Sway who started out the show laying on the superlatives so thick one wondered when Sway would start passing the plate for a We Worship Kanye Fund. Seriously, if Sway makes you angry, then you've got problems, Son.

Kanye West's Failed Search for DONDA Funding

But maybe Kanye's starting to melt cause Silicon Valley's also turned down his courtship, according to Valleywag.

Apparently Kanye West invited all these digital overlords to a proposal ceremony or something? You probably know more about it than I do.

And he's been meeting with them and asking for advice and investments related to DONDA which he hopes will "become a trillion-dollar company that completely disrupts the fashion industry."

His pitching style is getting poor reviews:

"If you see his behavior, it's so erratic, he's not focused and kind of all over the place."

Supposedly he's also telling people in the Valley:

"I'm the next Steve Jobs."

To cap things off, he didn't like Tony Hsieh's advice and started talking smack about Zappos selling "shit product." So Zappos served him with a toilet joke and a multilayered reference to "Paris" that even managed to skewer the avant garde pretentions of current pop stars (R.Mutt will tell you).

That little episode nicely connects his rejection in the high fashion world with what will turn out to be his rejection in the tech investor community. Those VCs and tech ceos love to give advice even when they don't know anything about what you do. Why would they want to meet with Kanye now?

So now his only friends in Silicon Valley are people like Ben Horowitz, who's still posting rap lyric intros on his VC blog like that was cool, and people that are out to take advantage of Kanye or seek easy publicity.

Looks like tough times for Kanye's dreams of DONDA.

[Thumbnail image via Zappos.com.]

More:

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Twitter/Facebook) is building a writing hub at Flux Research. To suggest topics about music tech, DIY music biz or music marketing for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Share on:

8 Comments

  1. Why don’t all of the superstars take a note out of the Book of Prince and take the DIY approach. He’s a millionaire with a loyal fan base of millions. What does he need a label or investor for?

  2. He actually gets into that a little bit on Sway’s show but I don’t really know the details.
    It seems like he wants to start at the top in fashion to some degree since he’s at the top of what he does in music.
    And he actually is serious about design and fashion, there’s lots to show that. It’s too bad that he’s so over the top because if he could find the right people and keep certain tendencies in check he could accomplish a great deal.

  3. Simply having money isn’t enough, even the money he has isn’t enough to operate and be successful for the brand he is. Not to say he won’t be successful, but he will not be satisfied. Also, Kanye opening up shop with no partners, means Kanye vs. LVMH & Everybody Else. Very bad odds.
    There’s a thing America is built on, OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. All these startups look for funding, backing. It’s the process. If Kanye was to put all of his money into DONDA, like Elon Musk did with Tesla & SpaceX (who still seek backing today), then he’d be risking every dime and still hit a wall when his money can’t fund expansion.

  4. It’s interesting that every time Kanye West is passionate or honest about something he is “heading for a meltdown.”
    Each time he gives a 45 minute interview, 10 second clips of him are extracted to sway the viewer and make one dimensional headlines like these.
    He is the only star on that level who is taking chances, not playing the game, making music that provokes his audience rather than panders to them.
    Money is not enough to start a fashion empire just as someone with money isn’t guaranteed success in music without the help of a major label and the systems that they have in place for radio/promo etc.
    FYI Zappos do sell shit product. Them giving fashion advice is like Geri Halliwell telling someone they can’t sing.

  5. Silly.
    The music business is very used to putting up with headcases in order to help boost their bottom lines.
    VCs and Silicon Valley don’t need to put up with that bullshit.
    Provoking music listeners is one thing – making yourself look/sound like a whack-job in interviews is another.
    FYI Zappos is kind of awesome.

  6. Too bad he can’t sing and was unwilling to spend more than $50 on his latest video. FYI, Kanye talks a good game but has yet to really put anything good out there. BTW, he ‘is’ a meltdown…

  7. If you watch a full interview with Kanye he is very well spoken and intelligent. If you read a news story about it like the 99% of people weighing in on these arguments i can see why you would come to that conclusion.
    Music and art are about making your product for the 1% of people who want excitement, passion and are prepared to listen to an album a few times before dismissing it. Or hear someone one before calling them a “whackjob.”
    Judging by your comments and the fact that you shop at Zappos with the rest of the 99%, that isn’t you.

  8. His last video was supposed to look like white trash, that was the whole point. I’m glad i don’t have your one dimensional view of art.
    Spin – album of the year
    Rolling Stone #2 album of the year.
    And then you have the internet trolls who switched it off after 30 seconds because it wasn’t instantly accessible. And then decide to give an armchair verdict on someone’s mental state.
    Good call.

Comments are closed.