Kanye West and the most spectacular self-destruction of an American icon

I don't think a board of directors in a million months of Sundays would ever touch him again'

- Andrew Lawrence

In 2009, Kanye West was riding high. 808s & Heartbreak – his fourth studio album and a marked departure from his soul-based, hip-hop sound – proved a resounding critical and commercial triumph.

A foray into clothing design had culminated in a Paris fashion week sneaker show with Louis Vuitton and a shoe line with Nike, the first for a non-athlete.

No longer was West the dorky producer-turned-rapper agitating to break out of Jay-Z’s shadow. He had become something even bigger: a true star . The only person who could stop Kanye was Kanye – or Ye, as he’s preferred to be known of late.

Today his empire lies in a smouldering heap in the wake of the 45-year-old artist’s media blitz. West himself says he lost $2bn (£1.7bn) in a single day this week.

First there was the smear campaign against his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, then the White Lives Matter fashion statement in Paris, and then his complete transformation into an alt-right puppet.

And it escalated with West’s fusillade of unprompted anti semitic commentary, starting with him needling the Kushner family during an hourlong sitdown with [the Fox News talkshow host] Tucker Carlson in early October, that cost West his diverse portfolio.

The Gap, JP Morgan and Creative Artists Agency are among a raft of partners that quickly cut ties. All the while West dug in, claiming on a podcast appearance that Adidas – with whom West teamed up after leaving Nike – would never leave him, regardless of how many more anti semitic assertions he made.