Kanye West Joins Nike’s Arch Rival: “I Am Going To Be The 2Pac Of Product” [Video]

Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West has kept true to making a big announcement this week after revealing his relationship with Nike has ended in him joining forces with its arch nemesis, Adidas.

Despite trying to stay with Nike, Mr. West credited Adidas for allowing him to collect royalties to provide for his family.

“I gotta get my money up to another level because it ain’t on Jay Z level,” Kanye said in an interview. “It ain’t on Diddy level yet. … The old me, without a daughter, might have taken the Nike deal because I just love Nike so much, blah blah blah. But the new me, with a daughter, takes the Adidas deal because I have royalties and I have to provide for my family. Whatever’s official, non-official, what y’all are gonna see is I am going to be the Tupac of product. It ain’t no Tupac of rap except for Tupac. … My designs are based on what I grew up on in hip-hop. My references be like, ‘Girl shaped like Kim.’ Not these skinny, trying to look like a boy-type models that they try to put on the runway in fashion. My reference is Nas and Mobb Deep. … I’m gonna be the first hip-hop designer and because of that, I’m going to be bigger than Wal-Mart.” (“The Angie Martinez Show”)

In Ye’s weekend rant, he dug into Nike’s politics and admitted being looked down upon by its executives.

Just a few days removed from calling out Nike CEO Mark Parker, Kanye West is back it again. This time, during an open dialogue at the Madison Square Garden stop of the Yeezus tour this weekend, Kanye showed signs of a deeper rift between him and the Swoosh, as well as hinted at a new deal to be announced as early as Monday. “They try to act like people ain’t line up for the Yeezys,” he said, going on to drop names like designer Hedi Slimane, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, and Kering Corporation head Francois Pinault. “Mark Parker tried to son me. Yes. Son me because I am the sun and I will shine bright. And when I don’t have as much money as a billionaire and when I don’t have the factories that, that dude has over there, what I do have is my voice. Ain’t no corporation that can take me away from my voice and I’m going to scream at the top of my motherfucking mountain as loud as I want. Anything I want. Whenever I want. Is that crazy? So I’m going to make the announcement on Monday with the corporation that finally let me get an opportunity to create.” (Complex)

To make matters worse, Mr. West even admitted he had no idea when his Red October Air Yeezy II’s would finally land in store shelves.

Kanye even admitted that he, the designer of the hyped “Red October” Air Yeezy II’s, might not even know when, or if, the kicks would drop. “I asked Nike when the Red Octobers supposed to drop, and they said, ‘We don’t know.’,” he said. With the recent rants, or what Kanye likes to call, “visual streams of consciousness”, a permanent departure from the brand seems to already be in the books. When’s the last time Ye was actually spotted rocking Red Octobers? (Complex)

Recently, Kanye suggested he did not receive fair treatment from releasing his limited edition Air Yeezy sneakers through Nike.

“Man, just not making decisions for myself and making sure I made decisions for my family,” said Kanye. “Like if it’s for myself, I would have been cool just sitting in Nike not getting no royalties. Letting people line up for the Yeezys and not–you know. When I’m having negotiations and then I go and look in my daughter’s eyes and when I go and negotiate after that I’m like ‘Oh y’all ain’t finna talk to me like that. We finna get this money right.'” (WKYS FM)

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Check out Kanye West’s interview: