Five Astonishing Things That Happened to Kanye West Before Missing Reports

For the past year or so, Kanye West, now known as Ye, has been in and out of headlines and on and off social media.

Since early December 2022, West has been out of the spotlight which, judging by his recent behavior, does seem a little out of character.

Speculation about West's whereabouts has been the subject of much chatter on social media, after his former business manager, Thomas St. John, said the rapper was nowhere to be found.

The U.S. Sun obtained a December 19, 2022, court filing which revealed St. John is looking for more time, at least till the end of March 2023, to find West to serve him with a $4.5 million lawsuit.

St. John and his attorneys have attempted to serve West via mail at his home and at other multiple addresses, according to the legal documents. They also contacted a law group listed as a contact for West. However, the firm named has since stated they have no affiliation with West, reported The Daily Beast.

The lawsuit, filed by St. John, alleges West failed to pay him during an 18-month contracted post as his senior financial advisor.

The lawsuit is just one of the issues West is currently facing. Newsweek has taken a look back at some of the astonishing things that have happened to the Grammy-winning rapper this year before the "missing" reports surfaced.

Newsweek has also contacted West for comment.

The 5 Astonishing Things That Happened to Kanye West Before Missing Reports

1. West Lost Billionaire Status

At the end of October 2022, Forbes revised its estimate of West's net worth. He was removed from its billionaire's list and his net worth was stated as $400 million.

His new net worth of $400 million comes from real estate, cash, his music career and a 5 percent stake in Kim Kardashian's shapewear brand Skims, according to Forbes.

West had made his fortune from his award-winning music and ventures into fashion, especially the Yeezy brand. After a spate of controversies, however, several apparel companies have dropped West and Yeezy.

West's deal with Adidas accounted for a reported $1.5 billion of his net worth but the sportswear giant cut ties with him on October 25 after he posted antisemitic rants on social media and wore a White Lives Matter T-shirt at Paris Fashion Week.

Other companies that also severed ties with West include Balenciaga and Gap, as well as CAA, JP Morgan, Peloton, and Foot Locker.

2. Kim Kardashian Opened Up on Co-Parenting

Kardashian and West reached a divorce settlement in November 2022, nearly two years after she filed for divorce.

Kardashian had cited "irreconcilable differences" in her filing on February 19, 2021, after eight years of marriage. In March this year, Kardashian and West were declared legally single and she dropped "West" from her surname.

As part of their divorce settlement, West and Kardashian share joint custody of their children North, 9, Saint, 6, Chicago, 4, and Psalm, 3. The children will live mainly with Kardashian, with West paying $200,000 a month to her for child support.

Kardashian recently opened up on co-parenting with West with Angie Martinez, host of the Angie Martinez IRL podcast.

Visibly holding back tears, Kardashian said: "I'll do anything to keep their life as normal as possible.

"I definitely protected him, and I still will in the eyes of my kids. For my kids. So, in my home, my kids don't know anything that goes on [in] the outside world."

She continued: "No matter what we are going through, I have to have that smile on my face and blast his music and sing along with my kids.

"[I can] act like nothing is wrong and as soon as I drop them off, I can have a good cry.

"I am holding on by a thread. I know that I am so close to that not happening, but while it is still that way, I will protect that to the end of the Earth as long as I can. My kids don't know anything."

3. Antisemitic Remarks and White Lives Matter

In October 2022, West posted a series of antisemitic messages on Instagram, accusing rapper Diddy of being controlled by Jewish people, leading to his suspension from the social media platform.

West then took to Twitter saying he would go "death con 3 On Jewish people," leading to another Twitter ban for violating the platform's policies on hate speech.

His use of the term "death con 3" was believed to be in reference to the U.S. military state of alert scale "DEFCON," between 1 and 5, with DEFCON 1 signaling the outbreak of nuclear warfare and DEFCON 5 being the lowest level of severity.

His comments also led to Adidas officially dropping West, announcing they would no longer produce or sell Yeezy products.

In a statement, Adidas told Newsweek that it "does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness."

"After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products, and stop all payments to Ye and his companies," the statement continued. "Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect."

Ye later referenced his antisemitic remarks in the song "Someday We'll All Be Free," rapping: "Jackson if you're nasty/ Tweeted Death Con now we passed three/ Tweeted Death Con now we passed three."

West also participated in an interview with alt-right political figure Alex Jones, who questioned him on his antisemitic views and said: "I've done a lot of studies. I think Hitler was a really bad guy and I repudiate what Hitler did." To which West responded "there's a lot of things that I love about Hitler."

On December 11, 2022, West was named "Antisemite of the Year" by the watchdog organization, StopAntitesmitism.

4. West Banned From Twitter...Again

Just two months after having his Twitter account reinstated by new Twitter CEO Elon Musk, it was quickly suspended once again after West shared an image of a swastika over the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism, with the caption: "YE24 LOVE EVERYONE."

Confirming West's suspension, Musk tweeted West had "violated" Twitter rules against "incitement to violence."

5. YE24 and Trump

In late November 2022, West announced he would be running for president in the 2024 election.

West has made no secret of his ambitions to run for president of the United States, announcing a campaign for the 2020 election via Twitter on Independence Day.

He announced he would be running in 2024 by video of what may be his campaign logo, a white ball of dots, twisting and spinning with the words "YE 24" printed alongside it.

Ye simply captioned the video, "#YE24."

He has enlisted the help of far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos to run his campaign. In a video posted to the X17 YouTube Channel on November 20, he said: "This is Milo right here, working on the campaign."

In the same video, when Ye is asked if he is running for president, he responds: "Yes. It's simple 'cause ain't nobody can tell me, you know, 'you should say this, you shouldn't say that,' you know? It's just we're moving towards the future."

West was criticized for having dinner with former President Donald Trump, and known Holocaust denier and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, at Mar-a-Lago in November. At that meeting, West claimed in a follow-up video posted to Twitter that he had asked Trump to be his running mate.

Trump was also criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for the meeting, leading Trump to explain to New York Magazine the meeting was arranged after West contacted him for "advice."

Trump said: "I like helping people that have difficulties in life. And I think, you know, from that standpoint, I did the right thing."

"I am overly generous," he added.

Trump also claimed he didn't know who Fuentes was. He stated: "He brought some people that I didn't—Nick Fuentes—who I didn't know at all. We sat down, we had a very quick meal. It wasn't two hours, as somebody said. It was a very quick meal, it went very fast. It was pleasant.

"There was nothing said of any great import. And that was the end of that. All of a sudden, the press made a fake story out of it."