Kanye West: Now A Fashion Designer

Kanye West has partnered with M/M (Paris) to create a signature line of silk scarves. The designers previously collaborated with Kanye to provide the artwork on his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and are releasing a collection of five full colour scarves made of 100% silk twill. Each piece features one of the five album covers designed for Kanye and is produced in a limited edition of 100 units. The range is on sale online now and prices start at €250.

They’re not really to our taste and some of the imagery is bound to feed the Illuminati stories buzzing around the web but we applaud him for adding another string to his bow.

Last year he only (only!) made $12 million compared to $25 million the year before (fallout from the Taylor Swift debacle perhaps?) so this will no doubt turn into a nice money spinner for him.

Olivier Rousteing - New Designer at Balmain

The speculation can finally end, Olivier Rousteing is the new head designer at Balmain.

Olivier Rousteing

Since Christophe Decarnin left earlier this month over strategic disputes with chairman Alain Hivelin and amid rumours over his mental state, many a name has been banded about as his replacement. But Balmain have confirmed that  25 year old Rousteing, currently in charge of womenwear at the label, is to step into Decarnin’s formidable shoes.

Decarnin took Balmain from a creaky, aging label into a white hot brand loved by models, fashionistas and celebrities. His ripped jeans sell around the £1000 mark and his exaggerated shoulder jackets have been copied from runway to the high street. 

Olivier Rousteing has a large shadow to step out from and we wish him all the best!

Hip Hop’s High Earners

Forbes magazine released their annual list of the 20 top earners in Hip Hop last year. With combined earnings of over $220 million in the top ten alone, it’s plain to see that the global economic meltdown and the changes in the way we purchase our music (why buy an album when you can download the few tracks you actually like) did little to stifle their ability to rake in the almighty dollar.

As we reported in this post on high earning supermodels, the key to longevity is simple. Diversify! Why do one thing when you can do 5?



1. Jay Z

Shawn Carter brought home $63 million last year thanks to his album The Blueprint 3 and subsequent tour, investment in nightclub 40/40 and his stake in the New Jersey Nets basketball team. He boasted in hit Oh My God ‘What you call money, I pay more in taxes’ – he wasn’t kidding! Only our number 2 earned more than his tax bill! Still, he can’t get too big for his boots – wifey Beyonce earned more than him with $87 million.
Their joint income is just more than the GDP of Kiribati, a small island in the Pacific.

2. Diddy (or Puffy or P Diddy or whichever moniker he’s using now)

Sean John made a respectable $30 million thanks to his clothing line, Bad Boy Records and album Last Train to Paris. Movie appearances mean that figure stands to rise in 2011.

3. Akon - $21M

Senegalese-American Aliuane Thiam pulled in $21m from Konvict Clothing, his Pepsi soccer ad campaign and record label Kon Live which is home to cash cow Lady Gaga. Touring was a money spinner as will be new album Stadium Music.

4. Lil Wayne

Not even prison could stop Dwayne Carter. Before being sentenced in March he released album Rebirth, toured and made various guest appearances. Will be able to spend his $20 million soon.

5. Dr Dre

Despite not putting out any new material in 2010, Andre Young still earned $17 million from rights to classics like The Chronic, his Beats by Dr Dre headphones and executive producing Eminem’s The Recovery.







Looks like hip hop is one area that brown skinned men are successfully monopolising. And monetising!

See the full list here.

US Chart Roundup: The Results Of The Britney Vs. Avril Lavigne Vs. Kanye & Jay-Z Battle

We've already gone through this twice this week, so no need to ramble on about Britney Spears debuting at #1 with "Hold It Against Me," thereby giving her a fourth chart-topping single and producer/God Max Martin his 10th, etc. So let's move ahead...

Avril Lavigne's "What The Hell" enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #13, which shows the power of radio airplay—something Britney's single was aided by, but Avril clearly was not. For a few days after being released, "What The Hell" was just beneath Britney at #2 on iTunes. But then she flip-flopped with Kanye West and Jay-Z's "H.A.M." (which enters at #23). In the end, both of those singles got barreled over at radio in lieu of Britney and slid down the digital store's song chart.

Now that the holiday craziness has settled for good, Edward Maya's "Stereo Love" is able to jump back up to its previous peak position of #16. Another climber: Pink's "Fuckin' Perfect," which moves up 27 positions to #30 and is the Hot 100's "airplay gainer" this week. If we're to include the collaborative 2001 cover of "Lady Marmalade," this now gives Pink a total of 17 Top 40 singles in the U.S.

One of my guilty pleasure jams from last year, Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson's "Don't You Wanna Stay," is at #43 this week. That's just a good old-fashioned duet, like something you'd expect Peter Cetera to have cranked out with some broad in the '80s.

On a final note, album sales really appear to be in the dumpster (more so than usual) in 2011. Cake's Showroom Of Compassion debuts at #1, but has posted the worst returns (44,000 copies) for a top album in Nielsen SoundScan history. It seems like only yesterday when the Dreamgirls soundtrack set the record low, with 60,000 copies. Alas, folks, that was exactly four years ago this month.

Meanwhile, Cake...

The U.S. Top 10:

1. "Hold It Against Me" - Britney Spears *new* *1 week*
2. "Grenade" - Bruno Mars  
3. "Firework" - Katy Perry
4. "What's My Name" - Rihanna feat. Drake
5. "Black And Yellow" - Wiz Khalifa
6. "Tonight (I'm Lovin' You)" - Enrique Iglesias ft. Ludacris & DJ Frank E 
7. "We R Who We R" - Ke$ha 
8. "Raise Your Glass" - Pink  
9. "The Time (Dirty Bit)" - The Black Eyed Peas
10. "Just The Way You Are" - Bruno Mars