By Dan Gallagher and Jacob Bunge
PepsiCo pulled its sponsorship of a planned London music festival, which booked Kanye West as the headline performer.
West, who now goes by Ye, was announced last week as the marquee act for Wireless Festival, scheduled for July at London's Finsbury Park. The rapper has been promoting a new album as he tries to move past years of controversies that have included praising Adolf Hitler, denying the Holocaust and calling slavery a "choice."
West's announcement as the festival's headliner has drawn criticism from U.K. politicians, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who told the Sun newspaper that the booking was "deeply concerning."
West is slated to headline all three days of the festival, which had been marketed as "Pepsi Max Presents Wireless" in promotional materials. "Pepsi has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Wireless Festival," the company said.
Representatives of West and Wireless didn't immediately comment.
West has been striving to repair his image. The rapper in January took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal. The ad -- couched in the form of a letter "to those I hurt" -- said he was "deeply mortified" by his actions, which he blamed on his bipolar disorder. He said he was working to find a new "baseline" through a regime of medication, therapy, exercise and clean living.
West's controversies prior to that letter destroyed much of the corporate empire that had made him a billionaire. Adidas and Gap cut their ties with the rapper in 2022, costing him a lucrative income stream from branded apparel and footwear.
The footwear alone was significant; Adidas was left with more than $1 billion of unsold stock of Yeezy shoes after terminating the deal. The two sides settled their legal dispute over the terminated partnership in 2024. That settlement involved no payments to West.
West has maintained a huge following, with 73.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 19.7 million followers on Instagram. His new album "Bully" was released on March 28.
Before releasing that album, West signed a mid-to-low seven-figure deal with the music company Gamma, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
Write to Dan Gallagher at dan.gallagher@wsj.com and Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 05, 2026 12:16 ET (16:16 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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