Amidst Donda Academy Buzz, Kanye Joins TikTok
New week, new Kanye content. Maybe I should say Kanye kontent. I love alliteration! Anyways, the man who prefers to be known as Ye is back on his bullshit — or perhaps he's always been on his bullshit — as he continues to make big shakeups on Instagram and his brand-new TikTok account.
That's right, the man who publicly melted down over seeing his his daughter on TikTok has joined the popular app himself. So far, it's content-free aside from a video of Kanye singing along to Jesus Is King because what do you listen to in the car if not your own music?
Does anyone else remember the insane rant Kanye went on while strolling beneath an above-ground subway in Chicago a few years back? I imagine this is the sort of direction his TikTok will be trending in once someone gets on his bad side (that shouldn't take long).
Within a day of his account being created, Kanye already has over 200,000 TikTok followers. Expect that number to multiply if he engages in any more call-out content.
Actually, speaking of, let's catch up with what all's been happening with Kanye over the past couple weeks.
Beginning in early September, Kanye began publicly beefing with business partner adidas, which still produces his YEEZY footwear line, before turning his attention to GAP, the maker of YEEZY GAP (duh).
Amazingly, the day after he hosted a NYFW party for his YEEZY GAP SHDZ, Kanye successfully terminated his contract with GAP, effectively ending the YEEZY GAP line only a few weeks after Balenciaga creative director Demna announced his departure from the project.
YEEZY GAP was initially envisioned as a multi-billion-dollar endeavor that'd last for upwards of a decade. It instead shuttered after only one year.
Kanye sorta touched on his problems in the debut episode of Alo Yoga's new podcast, which Highsnobiety premiered exclusively on September 16.
He also said that he's never read a book before because "Reading is like eating brussels sprouts for me," which is a thinly-veiled attempt to draw headlines by saying something outrageously untrue.
Ye then touched very briefly on Donda Academy, the mysterious unaccredited school that he opened earlier this year.
Parents must sign an NDA to enroll their kids in Donda Academy, according to a new report, and they'll be subjected to a curriculum that includes both worship and parkour, as you'd expect.
Donda Academy students reportedly wear uniforms designed by Kanye — though that might just be his spare YEEZY GAP stuff — and can participate in the Donda Doves basketball team, which is currently playing games around the country.
Anyways, though Kanye's GAP partnership seemed to be over, confirmed by an internal memo circulated within GAP, YEEZY isn't free from certain limitations.
Ye revealed the current state of YEEZY by uploading a screenshot of an official-looking document titled in part, "Restrictions on YEEZY Standalone Activities," to his Instagram page.
There's some context missing here but it seems like Ye's attempts to make YEEZY an independent outlet may be curtailed by the contracts he already had with GAP and adidas.
Really, it's a problem of Kanye's own doing: if you sign a multi-year deal, you're locked into a multi-year deal.
However, there may be some weird legal loophole here, as Kanye has posted some Instagram Stories suggesting that he's at the very least free from GAP, if not adidas. Again, context is lacking so take it all with a grain of salt.
The situation doesn't appear to be stopping Kanye from planning another YEEZY SEASON fashion show, though.
This would be his ninth presentation following the eighth YEEZY SEASON show, which was held in March 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down.
Interestingly, Kanye is now abbreviating YEEZY SEASON as YZY SZN, in line with his shortened way of referring to the YZY GAP SHDZ sunglasses (now just called the YZY SHDZ with GAP presumably out of the picture.
We'll have to wait until October 3, the proposed date for Ye's YEEZY SEASON show, to see if he pulls things together for a last-minute shindig during Paris Fashion Week.
Meanwhile, on September 18, Kanye and Kim Kardashian were spotted together at daughter North West's basketball game, appearing to make terse conversation before splitting. They've run into one another at prior sporting events but this brought them most clearly in contact.
Neither party has commented on the impromptu meet-up but it could've made for a good clip on Kanye's TikTok account, perhaps a duet with the Kim-managed TikTok page that caused Ye so much consternation earlier this year.
And that's the Kanye recap! For today, at least.
