When Kanye West was a producer wanting desperately to be heard as a rapper, his ambitions weren't taken very seriously.
In 2004 he released his debut album The College Dropout. Eighteen years on, people are taking him very seriously. But the attention he's getting today has very little to do with his music.
Now legally known as Ye, the recording artist and fashion designer reshared a meme on Thursday with photos of himself and the headline: "Ye has reportedly cut ties with Kanye West."
In the caption he wrote: "Had to cut ties bro".
It attracted more than 2.2 million likes before he deleted it.
Ye, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, had only just regained control of his Instagram account after being restricted on the platform. His Twitter account was also frozen over anti-Semitic posts the social media networks said violated their policies.
He had also appeared in a rambling but edited interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson. But it was an unedited three-and-a-half-hour interview he did for the Drink Champs podcast, in which he repeatedly targeted Jewish people and spread conspiracy theories, that sparked a fierce backlash and prompted host N.O.R.E. to apologise for releasing it.
But the damage was done. Companies started deserting him. His ex-wife Kim Kardashian — who had previously called for "compassion and empathy" for Ye because of his bipolar disorder — took to social media to say hate speech is "never OK". And Forbes announced he was a billionaire no more. He has had some public support – from a neo-Nazi group backing his conspiracy theories about Jewish people.
Just when you think Ye has hit rock bottom, things get even worse
Ye had boasted on the Drink Champs podcast that Adidas couldn't drop him. But that's exactly what happened. The sportswear giant tore up its contract with him, saying it was willing to wear the resulting 250 million euros ($380m) short-term hit to its profits.
Adidas said it would immediately stop production of its Yeezy products and cease payments to Ye and his companies.
Apparently seeking a new home for his sneakers brand, Ye then turned up at a Skechers office in Los Angeles. Skechers said its executives escorted him out of the building after he "showed up unannounced and uninvited".
Ye's talent agency, CAA, also dropped him.
When explaining its decision not to distribute a recently completed documentary about Ye, leaders of the independent entertainment studio MRC put out a statement that read in part:
"Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3,000 years – the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain. This song was performed acapella in the time of the Pharaohs, Babylon and Rome, went acoustic with The Spanish Inquisition and Russia's Pale of Settlement, and Hitler took the song electric.
"Kanye has now helped mainstream it in the modern era."
Ye has 51 million listeners on Spotify, which condemned his comments but said it would only remove his music if his label asked for it to be removed. Ye's music was distributed through Universal Music Group's Def Jam label. It said in a statement this week that Ye's music and merchandise contracts ended last year.
Ye has also been in the headlines in Australia after he started legal proceedings against the Melbourne-based College Dropout Burgers.
Ye hinted he still had ambitions to make a tilt for the White House in his Drink Champs interview, in which he was wearing a hat with 2024 emblazoned across it. Whether that's a delusion, or a goal he will try to make a reality, just as he did when he set out to become the best-known rapper of his generation, only time will tell.
