Talent agency CAA drops Ye after antisemitic posts

Authored by cbsnews.com and submitted by GoodSamaritan_
image for Talent agency CAA drops Ye after antisemitic posts

Hollywood talent powerhouse Creative Artists Agency has cut ties with Kanye West, now legally known as Ye, following a series of antisemitic remarks by the artist.

The agency has officially dropped the rapper as a client, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS MoneyWatch.

On Monday, film and television studio MRC Entertainment also said it would scrap a completed documentary about the rapper.

"Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3000 years — the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain," MRC said in a statement on its website.

Companies and fashion brands have faced mounting pressure to stop doing business with West, despite his legions of fans and the lucrative nature of the commercial partnerships. The calls for companies to distance themselves from Ye come on the heels of his social media posts about Jews, including a tweet saying he wanted to go "death con 3" on Jewish people. Twitter and Instagram suspended Ye from the platform following the posts.

After the incident, Ye announced he would buy right-leaning social network Parler.

"In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves," he said in a statement.

French fashion house Balenciaga recently ended its partnership with Ye, while Adidas is taking heat for not severing its ties with the rapper. Ari Emmanuel, CEO of talent firm Endeavor, last week penned an op-ed in the Financial Times urging all enterprises to stop working with Ye over his antisemitism.

JPMorgan Chase has also ended its business relationship with Ye, but did not say the breakup was a result of Ye's recent hateful outbursts.

Gap also no longer has a relationship with Ye, after he terminated the lucrative partnership early.

"Ye had diligently tried to work through these issues with Gap both directly and through counsel (but) he has gotten nowhere," his lawyer, Nicholas Gravante Jr. told CBS MoneyWatch last month. "Gap left him no choice but to terminate their agreement."

Here is a list of businesses no longer working with Ye:

local_eclectic on October 25th, 2022 at 03:26 UTC »

My 2 cents as someone who worked at CAA for 5 years:

Agents at CAA aren't really like employees at other companies. The company is basically built around the agents and hires a big network of staff to support them. It's not easy for even a high level executive to just tell an agent to drop a client.

It has to be agreed upon by all parties, or the agent might just dip and take the rest of their clients with them. That can mean literally hundreds of millions of dollars that CAA no longer gets their percentage of anymore. That agent might take other agents with them too, which creates an even bigger dent. And then it strengthens the position of UTA or WME (the other 2 major agencies) if that's where they go to next.

So for everyone involved to agree to drop one of the highest grossing performers of all time is fucking MASSIVE. Some people may even lose their jobs at CAA because of the sheer amount of lost revenue.

Is it worth it? Yeah, he needs to go. But it's going to be hard to fill his void. He's literally insane and it gets him more free publicity than pretty much any other celebrity.

Believe it or not, most of the folks at CAA are actually decent people. They care about integrity, diverse representation, and supporting great entertainers. But sometimes dark shit comes out and you have to deal with it the best way you know how while moving forward and hurting as few people as possible.

zomgbratto on October 25th, 2022 at 00:42 UTC »

Kanye have only option left: go to the sea and live wild and free with the fishes

GoodSamaritan_ on October 25th, 2022 at 00:24 UTC »

Balenciaga, Vogue, and MRC have dropped Kanye as well. Adidas have not yet done so though despite him going on TV and bragging outright "I can say antisemitic shit and Adidas can't drop me."

His lawyer Camille Vasquez (the same one that represents Johnny Depp) also quit.