Kanye West once claimed that he “can’t be managed” but that’s not the case these days as sources tell Billboard on Monday (March 11) that John Monopoly is back as Ye’s manager.
A fellow Chicago native, Monopoly played an integral role at the onset of West’s career in the early 2000s as his manager.
After splitting for over a decade, Monopoly found his way into the Ye zeitgeist in recent years. Sources confirmed that Monopoly is now West’s manager in an official capacity as the multi-hyphenate showered John with praise and recalled their history during a Vultures private listening event in Los Angeles over the weekend.
West has been without a manager since parting ways with Izvor Zivkovic in March 2018. Izzy had been Ye’s longtime partner for nearly a decade. Scooter Braun was brought into the fold as a co-manager in late 2015 but they would split in April 2018.
With John helping West, Kanye is putting together a world tour that is set to begin in a few months, sources add. The global trek will feature “full production and performances” as opposed to the listening events Ye is currently playing.
The tour will be Kanye’s first since 2016’s Saint Pablo Tour, which was cut short in November 2016 following West’s hospitalization. Ye appeared to have trouble booking the trek due to his string of recent controversies, but sources say West is “preparing” to hit the road this summer.
The 46-year-old has hit the stage at rare one-off opportunities during the last few years. He joined Travis Scott’s UTOPIA Tour stop in Orlando on Jan. 31 as a special guest. He surprised Rolling Loud fans in 2021 and 2022 when joining Future and Playboi Carti’s sets, respectively.
West’s last full concert came when he performed in December 2021 in support of Larry Hoover’s freedom as he ended his feud with Drake to spread awareness of Hoover’s incarceration for a benefit show at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign are coming off of the independent release of Vultures 1, which topped the Billboard 200 in back-to-back weeks last month.
The duo is currently on the road to Vultures 2 — which was originally supposed to arrive last Friday — as they took over Phoenix’s Footprint Center on Sunday night (March 10) for another listening party before heading to San Francisco’s Chase Center on Tuesday (March 12).
They are slated to debut a live performance of the Vultures series with a joint set at Rolling Loud California on Thursday night (March 14).
Billboard reached out to Ye’s camp for comment.
