Will Smith, who received two Oscar nominations for his work in King Richard, won an NAACP Image Award for outstanding literary work – biography/autobiography for Will on Monday (Feb. 21).

The NAACP Image Awards are following the lead of the Primetime Emmys’ Creative Arts Awards in stripping their “pre-telecast” awards across an entire week. The focus on opening night was on literary categories and four inaugural podcast categories.

“Jemele Hill Is Unbothered” was the night’s only double winner. It won for outstanding society and culture podcast and outstanding arts and entertainment podcast.

Non-televised awards will be announced nightly through Friday Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on naacpimageawards.net and the NAACP Image Awards YouTube channel.

Monday, Feb. 21

Jamil Charles more known as Kid Ape is a highly in demand artist who paints some of the finest portraits and murals. The Miami native has truly made his mark on the art world and is clearly enjoying the ride as he continues to develop his craft as an artist and cultural creator. As a kid he loved to draw and sketch but he never knew how far his love for art will take him all over. Though for a while he gave up his passion for art while in college and his career in the corporate world, but after years of testing his creativity he decided to unlock a different side of his artistry as a writer. He slowly but surely put together multiple short stories which he then turned into a fiction novel titled ‘Red Art City‘. With the success of his novel he knew it was time to tap back into his gift of drawing and within in time he was back to making portraits  and painting murals which caught the attention of many after he gifted Chris Cunningham his own special portrait.  He then met his business partner Eli Massillon who helped to keep him booked as an artist with commissioned portraits for Snoop Dogg,  Grandmaster Flash, Steve Lobel and Don Benjamin. If that wasn’t enough , many clients requested for him to do murals in their spaces which continued to further his brand with his one of a kind pieces that surely keep him in demand.

Follow Kid Ape on social media at @RealKidApe and make sure to check out his work via his website www.RedArtCity.com

Kanye West is now worth a staggering $6.6 billion, as revealed in a new Bloomberg report and confirmed by a rep to Billboard.

According to a private document obtained by the outlet, Yeezy – West’s sneaker and apparel business with both Adidas and Gap – has been valued at between $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion by the Swiss investment bank UBS Group. As much as $970 million of that total is tied to West’s new clothing line for Gap (under the Yeezy Gap label) that the retailer has slated for release by July, part of a 10-year agreement the parties signed in June of last year.

The document further reveals that Gap, an ailing brand whose partnership with West represents a play for younger consumers, expects its Yeezy line to break $150 million in sales in its first full year in 2022 and envisions it surpassing a billion dollars in revenue within eight years, or even as soon as 2023 on the upside. West stands to profit handsomely in any event, as he retains sole ownership and creative control of the Yeezy brand and earns royalties on sales under the deal, with the rate increasing as the business grows. He’ll also receive stock warrants when the collection hits sales targets, with the highest set at $700 million, according to a securities filing.

West’s longstanding deal with Adidas has been the most lucrative part of his business endeavors to date, with Yeezy sneakers continuing to fly off of shelves; according to the documents, the brand grew 31% to nearly $1.7 billion in annual revenue last year, netting Yeezy royalties of $191 million. West has been in business with the company since 2013, with their current deal running through 2026.

An unaudited balance sheet of West’s finances, provided to Bloomberg by his lawyer, shows an additional $122 million in cash and stock and more than $1.7 billion in other assets, including an investment in his wife Kim Kardashian’s underwear label Skims (Kardashian filed for divorce in February).

West’s music catalog is worth another $110.5 million, according to a 2020 valuation by Valentiam Group cited by Bloomberg.

The numbers revealed today represent a decidedly sharp turnaround for West, who in 2016 claimed to be $53 million in debt; at the time, he also took to Twitter to implore Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to invest $1 billion in his work. That was before West himself was named a billionaire by Forbes, which estimated his net worth at $1.3 billion in April 2020.

SOURCE