As he publicly struggles with his apparel partners, rapper-turned-businessman Kanye West has firm instructions for his daughter about maintaining the multi-billion-dollar empire she will one day inherit from her mother and father. He is clear, “never let anyone take our company.”
The Chicago native recently shared the private conversation he had with North West, his 9-year-old daughter with the soon-to-be lawyer, reality star, and Skims founder Kim Kardashian during an interview with ABC News’ Linsey Davis. The Yeezy founder used basketball to frame a life lesson for her— building her confidence because one day she will take the reins of the family’s many enterprises.
Protect the Family Business
He spoke to Davis about his instructions to North, saying, “I’m saying stuff to her like, ‘Never let anyone take anything from you. Protect your little brothers and sisters. Protect the family. Never let anyone take our company.'”
“I’m literally saying this to her because I realize she’s one of the people in the family that will make sure that no one ever takes our company, no one ever takes what me and Kim have built with both of our brands and the brands that we’re building now, ” he added.
While both Kanye West ($2 billion) and Kim Kardashian ($1.8 billion) are not wealthy enough to make The Forbes 400 List, the two have created many successful businesses for the young heiress to protect.
Ye’s Empire
Many are familiar with the termination of the Yeezy Gap partnership with the retailer Gap, his collaboration for Yeezy apparel with Adidas, and his extensive music publishing catalog, but there are other ventures in his portfolio that North will be safeguarding.
Kanye also owns KW Foods LLC, an entity that owns and manages a chain of Fatburger restaurants, a creative content company named DONDA, and owns an estimated 3 percent share in the streaming app Tidal, according to Life and Style.
He also has started investing in real estate, acquiring property in Hidden Hills, California, for $23 million, which is now $60 million. He also owns a 300-acre estate on Stokes Canyon Road in Calabasas, California, where he hosts his religious ceremony, Sunday Services.
The artist also owns properties in Wyoming that include two ranches: Bighorn Mountain (6,700 acres) and The Monster Lake (1,400 acres).
According to some documents, he owns almost $4 million in vehicles and close to $300,000 in livestock (believed to all live on his Cowboy State ranches).
As an entertainer, he is a songwriter, producer, and label owner, he is responsible for millions of hit records sold, from his own pen and by working with other artists, claiming once that in addition to his $35 million in socks, he also has $17 million in cash.
Kim’s Empire
Kardashian has her hands in a lot of businesses. At the beginning of September, she launched a private equity firm called SKKY Partners with Jay Sammons, the former partner at the Carlyle Group.
Originally starting her career as a fashion stylist and tastemaker, she opened her first business with her sisters, a high-end clothing boutique called Dash. The store received a lot of cross-promotion from the family hit show, “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.”
In 2017, Kim started KKW Beauty and Fragrance companies, which did well before she shut it down in 2021, following the initiation of her divorce proceedings.
Following this effort is her bodywear company SKIMS, which is said to be “one of the top shapewear brands in the world,” according to L’Officiel USA.
Her most recent effort, outside of the new Hulu show “The Kardashians and the equity firm, she has launched a skin and beauty brand called SKKN, replacing the discontinued KKW brand.
The Next West Generation
The parents are set to leave a substantial inheritance for their children and/or estates, and according to Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business, the preservation of family businesses is very important to the American economy.
Kanye may not be thinking about this, but by giving his daughter notice of his expectations of her taking up the family business he is preparing her to be an owner.
The study projects that North will be amongst the 48.1 percent of entrepreneurs that can boast they grew up in a family business, and in the future possibly, if her dad gets his way, fall into the 24 percent of family businesses led by a female CEO or president.
By Kanye dubbing North the protector of their collective wealth, both his and Kardashian’s businesses will be among the 31.3 percent of family businesses surveyed indicating that the next successor is a female.
She is already allegedly making money, despite her father’s disapproval, through social media. And in 2016, at the age of 3, she started her own lemonade stand, where she and her partners made $100 for one glass of juice.
If she was wheeling and dealing like that before she started kindergarten, maybe Ye is right to put his eggs in her basket.
