Kanye West once claimed he was OG, but it seems his designs are not.
Photographer Jim Goldberg is accusing the rapper of ripping off a denim jacket that belonged to Tweeky Dave, a homeless, drug-addicted teen who was the subject of a book Goldberg published in 1995 entitled Raised By Wolves.
The jacket in question is being sold for $ 400 at Kanye’s pop-up shop in Manhattan and features handwritten messages that appear to have been penned in permanent marker all over the front, back and sleeves.
Goldberg included an iconic photo of Dave’s jacket in the book, and Kanye wore a replica of the garment at New York Fashion Week in February.
Both the original jacket (seen above on the left) and the one Kanye wore notably displayed the words “F**k off and die” in bold print underneath the back collar.
The piece Kanye wore was designed by Australian artist Pauly Bonomelli, who credited Goldberg and the now-deceased Dave for his design inspiration.
However, when Kanye released similar jackets as part of his line, no credit was given.
Goldberg, who now owns Dave’s original jacket, expressed his frustration with Yeezy in an interview with i-D magazine.
“For the jacket to become sold as fashion – it really put me over the edge,” he said.
“The spirit and intention of Kanye could be right, but the manner in which he is presenting it is wrong,” he added. “All meaning has been lost. [He’s] forgetting history – not acknowledging where that design came from is wrong.”
The photographer drove the point home even further when he shared a pic of the Yeezy replicas on a rack to Instagram.
“Tweeky Dave would be rolling over in his grave #yeezy #pablo #tlop,” he wrote in the caption.
