Diddy, Swizz Beatz back Kanye West in Adidas dispute

Diddy and Swizz Beatz back Ye in skirmish with Adidas, call for boycott

By Nardine SaadStaff Writer

Sept. 7, 2022 1:34 PM PT

Diddy and Swizz Beatz are backing fellow hip-hop star-turned-mogul Kanye West in his public skirmish with Adidas, the sportswear brand that manufactures the rapper’s Yeezy footwear.

They’re calling for a boycott of Adidas until the brand “make[s] this right” and Ye’s work is “respected and not stolen,” they said Tuesday in a pair of Instagram posts.

The recording artist, legally known as Ye, has kept busy on social media over the past few weeks after calling out Adidas earlier this summer over its Adilette 22 slide sandals, which he believed to be an imitation of his Yeezy Slides, High Snobiety reported.

In his post-and-delete Instagram style, the “Heartless” and “Gold Digger” rapper also claimed that the German label has been designing Yeezy products without his participation, asserted that Yeezy Day in August progressed without his consent, accused Adidas of releasing a series of sneakers that he didn’t approve and announced that the company allegedly offered him $1 billion to buy out his namesake brand that reportedly made the rapper a billionaire.

The Grammy Award winner said that he wants out of his deal with Adidas, even though he’s under contract until 2026, claiming that Adidas breached the contract, according to Business of Fashion. (The “Facts” rapper’s creative partnership with Nike similarly devolved a decade ago with a contentious feud that ended once he struck a deal with Adidas in 2013.)

Ye’s unrelenting Instagram onslaught also took aim at the brand’s managers — including Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted, senior vice president Daniel Cherry and creative director Alasdair Willis, among others — fashion giant and Yeezy apparel manufacturer Gap, JP Morgan execs and rival artist Kid Cudi along the way.

But he also found powerful allies, including Diddy, who encouraged his followers on Tuesday to join him in a boycott of the iconic three-striped label.

“Since the era of Run-DMC, @Adidas has always used Hip Hop to build its brand and make billions off of our culture. BUT WE ARE MORE THAN JUST CONSUMERS NOW, WE’RE THE OWNERS. @KanyeWest and YEEZY are the reason Adidas is relevant to culture. WE KNOW OUR VALUE!” the Bad Boy Records founder wrote Tuesday, sharing a screenshot of an apparent text exchange with Ye.

“I’m done wearing Adidas products until they make this right!! We have to support each other!! Everybody repost this please!!” he added, taking a similar position as last month when he weighed in on the Triller-Verzuz dispute.

Swizz Beatz, who said that he and Verzuz co-creator Timbaland are owed money by video-sharing service Triller, also endorsed Kanye by posting a picture Tuesday on Instagram of a pair of the rapper’s Yeezy sneakers with a large X superimposed on them.

“I usually mind my business but this is DEAD WRONG! If we let them do this to @kanyewest it will happen to us also!” Swizz Beatz wrote. “This man created this groundbreaking innovation and it should be respected as a creative !

“YE is only asking for his work to be respected and not stolen that’s not crazy to me !! We not buying these !!!!!!!!!!!!” he continued. “@adidas you’re supposed to be original do the correct thing please !!!”

Both Diddy and Swizz Beatz’s comments section were filled with verified users backing their directive.

As of press time, a solitary post on Ye’s Instagram grid showed a picture of him hugging his children with ex-wife and reality star Kim Kardashian.

“Some things are bigger than money,” he wrote. “My kids have no idea what daddy has gone through this [sic] past few days alone to secure the brand that will one day be handed down to them.

“God Willing These future leaders will never back down be stolen from and forced to compromise who they are for the check,” he added.