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Winning a "Shoe of the Year" award and selling every single pair of Yeezys apparently wasn't enough of a statement for rapper-turned-shoe-designer Kanye West. On December 31st, Kanye closed out the year with a Nike diss track called "Facts," the hook of which goes: "Yeezy, Yeezy, Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman." Guess the long-running feud with his former business partners is still going strong — at least on Kanye's end.
The song's a riff on Drake and Future's "Jumpman," which itself is a reference to Nike's Michael-Jordan logo. The lyrics must have been written recently, since there's an allusion to Steve Harvey's Miss Universe debacle (along with mentions of Jimmy Fallon, Bill Cosby, and shopping for couches). But the Nike slams are getting the most attention; Highsnobiety even fact-checked it, lyric by lyric. David Fischer quotes Kanye, then writes:
"If Nike ain’t had Drizzy man they would have nothing. If Nike ain’t have Don C. they would have nothing." Kanye goes on saying that only Drake and Don C. saved them with their sneaker collaborations. While those were among the most hyped Jordan brand releases of the year, one has to keep in mind that Nike has had its biggest year ever, announcing plans to reach $50 billion in revenue by 2020, having hit $7.7 Billion in revenue in the last quarter already. Also Nike’s market cap of over $86 billion is just above five times the market cap of Adidas, who fell behind Sketchers in the US for biggest sportswear brands.
Nike stock hit an all-time high in December. Meanwhile, the Fashion Law wonders if lyrics like "Nike treat employees just like slaves" and Nike "can't give shit away" could count as defamation. As for the Yeezy boast, here's what Michael Jordan's son had to say about Kanye's Jordan obsession.
"Yeezy just jumped over @Jumpman23 ??" LOL I needed a good laugh to start my #2016
— Marcus Jordan (@HEIRMJ) January 2, 2016
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