Kanye West has a history of publicly feuding with former collaborators, including Jay-Z and Kid Cudi. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he made comments about Gap that indicated he's upset with the company that releases collections designed with the rapper.
"Gap held a meeting about me without me?" West wrote in the caption of a photo he posted on his official Instagram account of oversized sunglasses and clothes.
West—who now goes by Ye—signed a 10-year design deal with Gap in 2020, and the items he's released through the company, such as $200 puffer jackets, have found instant success among shoppers.
The Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga collection was unveiled this year, but on Wednesday the rap superstar insinuated Gap is drawing too much inspiration from his designs for the Balenciaga collaboration for its standard collection.
West detailed his issues with Gap in a Wednesday Instagram post where he shared a screenshot of a text from someone who said Gap was "copying" from the Yeezy x Gap x Balenciaga line for a T-shirt design.
"Exactly," West wrote in response to the person's message.
West also added in the post, "But they canceled the photo shoot with my kids in Japan without me knowing."
Eager fans have lined up at stores to buy items from the Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga collection, but many have also expressed mixed feelings about its presentation: The collection is displayed in stores in large plastic sacks that resemble garbage bags.
On Instagram, West said he took inspiration from "the homeless" for the unusual presentation, and he recently defended the choice in an interview with Fox News.
"I'm an innovator, and I'm not here to sit up and apologize for my ideas. That's exactly what the media tries to do: make us apologize for any idea that doesn't fall under exactly the way they want us to think," he said.
West also courted controversy this month when he posted a mock death notice on Instagram for Pete Davidson after news broke that the comedian's romance with the rapper's ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, had ended.
The fake image about Davidson was designed to resemble a front page of The New York Times. At the bottom of the faux newspaper was an announcement that read: "Kid Cudi meant to play funeral but fearful of bottle throwers."
West and Cudi have been feuding in recent months after the latter reportedly remained friends with Davidson. In a recent interview with Esquire, Cudi said it would take a "miracle" for the estranged friends to reconcile.
"He gon' have to become a monk," Cudi told the magazine.
Newsweek has reached out to West for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
