WHAT’S BEING CLAIMED:
- Forbes finally added Kanye West to their list of billionaires.
- West wasn’t happy with the mag’s published $1.3 billion estimates of his net worth.
- According to the publication’s editors, West argued with staffers through text, saying they didn’t know “how to count,” insisting that his numeric value is closer to $3.3 billion.
Finally, Forbes confirmed Kanye West’s status as a billionaire. However, the rapper argues that the money mag shorted him. Forbes published West’s net worth at an estimate of $1.3 billion while the musician insists that his numeric value is closer to $3.3 billion.
According to Forbes’ Zack O’Malley Greenburg, West insisted: “It’s not a billion. It’s $3.3 billion since no one at Forbes knows how to count.”
After the rapper lodged a number of complaints to Forbes when he wasn’t featured on their billionaires’ list, the company started re-assessing West’s net-worth. Kylie Jenner, West’s sister-in-law, was featured in the magazine, named the world’s youngest self-made billionaire for the second time in a row.
West stated in an appearance at the 2019 Fast Company Innovation Festival that Forbes should have listed him as a billionaire on their Hip-Hop Cash Kings list. He told the crowd that showing Forbes an $890 million receipt and still, they “didn’t say ‘billionaire’.”
Kanye also accused the publication that they were “a part of a group of media” that was trying to “suppress his self-made narrative because of his race.”
Forbes revealed that they stuck by an informal “Trump rule”, inspired by West’s hero President Trump- “take whatever the [then] future president insisted he was worth, divide by three, and start honing from there.”
West’s own staff was instructed to send the paperwork that Forbes would deem an “authentic numeric look into Kanye, Inc.” After the company crunched the numbers, assessing the rapper’s assets and debts, they came out with a number that dismayed the rapper- an estimate of $1.3 billion.
Source: Page Six