Kanye West: Yeezy wants to run for president in 2024 and change his name to show wealth

Kanye West, the self-proclaimed “greatest artist of all time”, has revealed to a crowd at a business festival that he will run for president in 2024, and wants to change his name to show off his wealth.

At a surprise appearance at the fifth annual Fast Company Innovation festival in New York, he told the crowd how Forbes magazine, which produces an annual rich list, would not call him a “billionaire”, despite having records to show it.

He now wants to change his name to show people that it is not bad to call yourself rich.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, he told the crowd: “When people say it’s crass to call yourself a billionaire, I say I might legally change my name to Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West for a year until y’all understand exactly what it is.”

West added: “When I did Forbes, I showed them a $890m (£695m) receipt and they still didn’t say ‘billionaire’. They don’t want us to know that we can buy land, they don’t want us to have the 100% ownership [that] I have at Yeezy.”

Yeezy is the name of the rapper’s shoe brand, as well as his nickname, and he was at the event to launch his new trainers.

Forbes reportedly failed to include West’s Yeezy earnings in its rich list – something the rapper takes exception to.

As well as adding fashion designer to his CV, alongside his rapping credentials, it appears West now wants to add politician to his skill set.

West, alongside his wife Kim Kardashian, has been spending time with President Donald Trump at the White House, talking about issues close to them.

It had long been joked that West had been planning a run for office, but at the event, he said wanted to run for president in five years’ time.

He said: “When I run for president in 2024.”

West was immediately halted by laughter from the crowd.

He responded by saying: “What y’all laughing at? We would create so many jobs.

“I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk.

“When you see headlines saying ‘Kanye’s crazy’, one in three African Americans are in jail and all the celebrities are in jail also because they can’t say nothing, they got no opinion, they’re so scared!”

West’s appearance at the event comes a day after he told NBC News that his wife’s work ethic keeps him active, and would rest knowing he was the greatest artist of all time if it was not for her, during a New York Times conference.

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He said: “I think if my family wasn’t so – that they didn’t work so hard and weren’t so omnipresent maybe I’d just rest on my laurels.”

He recently made the decision to stop making mainstream rap and turn his hand to the Christian market, and released the album Jesus Is King last week – which went to the top of the Christian music charts in the US.

He now spends his weekends touring the US with his Sunday Service band, performing at church congregations.

(c) Sky News 2019: Kanye West: Yeezy wants to run for president in 2024 and change his name to show wealth