Kanye West makes bizarre claim about the 'YZY' brand being part of Apple

In a series of seemingly unprompted Tweets, Kanye West calls Steve Jobs a hero and claims his for-profit firm is actually a non-profit arm of Apple.

Rapper and fashion designer Kanye West has spontaneously tweeted a series of comments declaring that his clothing company YZY is effectively owned by Apple. But, it is not.

"YZY Is a for purpose (non profit) arm (branch) of Apple," he tweeted on September 30. "We unofficially work for Steve Johnny Tim and Lorraine. Everything we do at YZY is to be an arm (branch) of what our hero Steve has created. With love."

Spelling mistakes aside, he's referring to Steve Jobs, Jony Ive and Tim Cook. We can only guess that by "Lorraine" he means Laurene Powell Jobs, the businesswoman and widow of Steve Jobs.

West attempted to clarify matters a few minutes later by adding: "We also work for Eddie Q and all 123 thousand {Apple} crew members." Next to Eddy Cue's name, West placed a crying-with-laughter emoji.

We think West may then have wanted to be a little clearer that this bond with Apple was less contractual, more spiritual as he also said: "I will never be Steve. I will always be YE. We are here in service to Steve's vision. Let's make the planet {Apple} level."

Apple has yet to respond to requests for comment. However, according to AppleInsider sources inside Apple who are not authorized to speak on the record, there is a great deal of amusement inside Apple Park about the suggestion that YZY is somehow affiliated with the iPhone maker in any way.

YE Forever

He may well "be Ye forever" but he'd only been it for one day a the time of the proclamation. West tweeted "the being formally known as Kanye West I am YE" on September 29.

At the time he tweeted that, he would have been in rehearsals at "Saturday Night Live" where he performed as the season 44 opener's musical guest.

YE Olde History with Apple

Ye aka Kanye West may now be an Apple fan but previously he has had different views. He did boast in 2016 that his wife Kim Kardashian's Kimoji app "just shut down the app store, uh! And we made a million a minute."

Kardashian herself repeated that claim several times, despite Apple issuing a statement saying "there were absolutely no issues with the App Store."

At the same time, West criticized Nike, the only sportswear firm to have an official partnership with Apple, but he has long kept up this his praise of Steve Jobs. Speaking to Vogue magazine, he said in 2015 that: "One of my dreams was to be the head creative director of the Gap. I'd like to be the Steve Jobs of the Gap When I say Steve Jobs of the Gap, as I talk to the people at the Gap right now, I'm not talking about a capsule. I'm talking about full Hedi Slimane creative control of the Gap is what I would like to do."

Slimane is a photographer and fashion designer who at the time of that interview was creative director for Yves Saint Laurent.