“Kim Kardashian breaks the Internet,” was popular on the Web yesterday, causing quite a fervor. “Break The Internet,” was a trending topic since it was pegged to a startling visual of the reality TV millionaire mogul in the buff.
Meant to shock and awe people into copping numerous issues of Paper Magazine, seeing North West’s mother with her hair in a bun and a clear view of her behind left one question: What is Kanye West’s role in affecting her brand integrity?
Tuesday, Paper Magazine tweeted a link to its new dual covers (one pictured above left), but it was the NSFW version that made everyone break out their 140-character prose.
That image, which features the Kardashian showcasing her buttocks, was shot by Jean-Paul Goude, a renowned French artist known from his work with the “Champagne Incident” and with Grace Jones. Less than 24 hours since the reveal, people are flipping out over Kim K’s cover while her husband tweets nonchalantly about it all.
Let’s look at West’s dating track record: Before Kim, there was Amber Rose, and much like his famous wife, the Philadelphia stripper-turned-arm-candy was imbued to show off her assets in order to raise her celebrity profile. Don’t believe us? Take a look at the rapper’s history to see his imprint. The bombshell, at the time, was West’s girlfriend, and she gained fame from parodying Grace Jones’ cover in a shoot for Complex Magazine in 2010.
Fast forward to today and it is interesting to see how much influence the Louis Vuitton Don carries as head of his own household. Already credited with improving his wife’s sense of style and dress, the music artist seems to be making sure any and everything dealing with Kim is deemed as high-end art. Is it his place as the husband to ensure that this happens? Or does his latest move come at the cost of his wife’s brand integrity?
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The Kardashian Brand is in everything. From video games to clothing to television, the family, led by Kris Jenner, permeates pop culture at an exhilarating rate. According to Topsy.com, in the past hour, ‘Kim Kardashian’ has been tweeted about 7,300 times—which is more than what some websites get in that same timeframe. The hype is there and the attention is given en masse, but with Kanye clearly giving his two cents on the direction of where Kim’s portion of the brand should go – is he able to keep her name in the black?
For the past few years, Kanye West has been on a tear, attempting to rewrite the rules in pop culture. Through his rants, his branding deals with Nike (and now Adidas), the Roc Nation superstar is allowing his influence to dictate the trends that shape the greater culture. With Kim Kardashian West, a headline-seizing superstar who boasts 25.3 million
followers on Twitter, as his partner-in-life – it seems that the two are eager to even change the definition of what it means to be a mompreneur.Consider this: If people’s fascination on KimYe stem from their antics – could these moves be done to fuel the machine that pays them? Kim (thanks to the Internet) and her family became a key example of how to become infamous and rich without really doing anything. That blank canvas seemed prime for Kanye to imbue his level of creativity into her in order to make their family unit seem otherworldly from other famous celebrity couples.
If you don’t think that that is not beyond the Chicago MC realm of thought, look no further than the skit which follows “The Blame Game” off My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. No matter what you may believe, in the end, it only amounts to a less-than-140-character-tweet in the West household. “They say I didn’t have a talent,” Kim tweeted yesterday. “Try balancing a champagne glass on your [butt].”
There are a few outspoken detractors to the provocative nature of the Paper Magazine shots. Glee star Naya Rivera bristled at the cover, even as the Internet seemed unenthused about it all, and brought up Kim K’s motherhood status. “I normally don’t. But … you’re someone’s mother,” Rivera wrote on Kardashian’s Instagram page.
All in all, Paper Magazine addressed critics and disparagers, writing, “Kim Kardashian West [is] a pop culture fascination able to generate headlines just by leaving her house.” But are these signifiers that the Kardashian Empire could potentially suffer from Kanye West ad nauseam?
Check out what the rest of Twitter was saying on the next pages …
What’s your opinion on Kim Kardashian West’s recent stunt? Do you believe Yeezy is ruining her brand’s integrity? Speak your piece below!