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Would You Buy A Home From Kanye West?

Written by Jaymi Naciri Posted On Wednesday, 09 May 2018 13:15

Among the controversial rapper/artist/fashion designer/pop culture phenom's recent flurry of eyebrow-raising tweets comes this gem: So would you buy a home from Kanye West? You might soon be able to.

The announcement of Yeezy Home was met with a lot of "Huh?" and "What?" and "Why?!" but also a fair amount of "Hmmm" and "Wow" and "More info, please." So…not unlike almost everything else Kanye West does. And that's especially true of his most recent behavior.

He has courted controversy on Twitter yet again with his take about slavery…namely that it was a choice. The post-tweet backlash was swift as people quickly came out to condemn the idea. Huffington Post said he was "schooled on history" and one longtime fan spoke for many with his emotional letter to Kanye, which was printed by Variety, explaining why he was putting the artist's music "on pause" because of the pain his words have inflicted. Kanye also supposedly lost nine million followers in the immediate aftermath, although Twitter says that was "a glitch."

Either way, he still has his fans, his followers, and, certainly, his apologists, and he may soon have a team of architects and industrial designers working with/for him and, presumably, buyers who love the idea of a Kanye-created home.


people.com

Why architecture?

But, who are they? And, why architecture? For now, we can more easily answer the second question.

"West first mentioned his interest in pursuing architecture and design in a 2013 interview with the BBC, said Architectural Digest. "'I want to do product, I am a product person,' he said. ‘Not just clothing but water bottle design, architecture...I make music but I shouldn't be limited to once place of creativity.' He went on to explain that he was working with ‘five architects at a time' to figure out exactly what he wanted. Later that year, he spoke to students at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, telling students, ‘I really do believe that the world can be saved through design, and everything needs to actually be architected...I believe that utopia is actually possible - but we're led by the least noble, the least dignified, the least tasteful, the dumbest, and the most political."

That Kanye arrogance is nothing new; some might say it's even part of his charm. And, he does have an eye. His footwear and apparel brand, Yeezy, will reach $1 billion this year—this according to another tweet from Kanye during this most recent blitz. And, while that number is being disputed, the success of the line remains impressive. (It's also worth noting that, "The Yeezy brand, which sells apparel and sneakers created in collaboration with Adidas, is facing a backlash online with customers threatening to burn or sell their Yeezy sneakers and celebrities including Rihanna and Drake reportedly have stopped following West on Twitter," according to Business Insider.)


people.com

Who are the potential buyers?

Which brings us back to the "Who are they?" question. With so much emotion tied up in the homebuying purchase, anyway, does a home associated with such a polarizing figure crate a barrier right out of the gate? Perhaps not for fans, if they can even afford it. Kanye has expensive taste - his Hidden Hills, CA home with wife Kim Kardashian is said to be worth $60 million, and, although another one of his recent tweets said that the clothing line would be "working with the most genius-level talents and creating product at an affordable price," ArchDaily countered that, "Given the current three-figure price of West's product line, the tweets are a difficult knot to untie."

Style file

So, while not much detail is known at this point about Yeezy Home, one can presume, given his taste in homes, that price points could reach sky-high levels. Which would leave many a fan on the outside.

Kanye and Kim's home is gorgeous, if you like minimalism, all-white spaces, and an almost "cathedral-like quality. "The couple worked with renowned Belgian architect Axel Vervoordt, whose clients include Robert DeNiro and Calvin Klein, to transform the property," said People. The publication also noted that, "West was nominated for a prestigious design award in 2017 for his fashion line, Yeezy, and even pitched a furniture collaboration to IKEA in 2016, though so far nothing has come of the proposition."

His love or brutalism could also offer stylistic clues and design inspiration for Yeezy Home. "West also seems to have a penchant for Brutalism - the heavy-handed, much-contested architectural style that architects love to defend," said Curbed. "A feature on PIN-UP recently offered an look inside the Yeezy studio, an all-concrete-everything kind of space in a '70s office building in Calabasas, California. And let's not forget his $110,000 Le Corbusier concrete lamp, which he once called his ‘greatest inspiration.'"

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