The reasons Kanye West axed his Yeezy collaboration with Nicki Minaj

Although Nicki Minaj and Kanye West are best known for their musical partnerships, they also worked together on fashion. Despite his reputation for bridging high fashion and hip-hop, Kanye West declined Nicki Minaj’s offer to partner on his Yeezy trainer. What then was the cause? Nicki disclosed in an interview with Joe Budden that Kanye declined to collaborate on a fashion project due to his (ex-)wife, Kim Kardashian.

In the interview, she disclosed, “I informed Kanye about [my influence on Fendi’s sales].” I have a lot of respect for him, so I was like, “Hey look, I’m about to do something and I just wаnted to make sure I spoke to you first.” He said, “Well, I think my wife would probably not love that idea because I should be giving that to my wife instead.” My wife should probably receive it if I were to create a female version of the Yeezys or something similar.She noted in “Chun-Li” that her 2019 Fendi deal had increased the brand’s sales, so she was surprised that Kanye had rejected her proposal so quickly. She mentioned in particular the difficulties Black designer Kanye encountered in the fashion industry.

Kanye was once very vocal about the fashion industry not allowing him in, so if a Black female rapper who you know has just proven herself to be marketable, she clarified. Therefore, as a Black man who looks up to you, I come to you because you inspired me and said that even though we are so influential, the fashion industry didn’t want to let us in.

Additionally, Nicki said, “And then we didn’t really talk about it much more after I did ask, just to put it on his radar, and he said how he thought his wife would feel about it. While I’m not claiming that [Kim Kardashian] said it, that was his assumption regarding her reaction. We have to exercise caution to make sure that we do figure out a way to have another Black face there in that space when we put those things out there and when a door is opened.