Kanye West, 43, stunned his Twitter followers by posting a video of him urinating on one of his prized Grammy awards in a toilet bowl (see video HERE). This appears to be a culmination of his desire to be released from his recording contracts with his publisher, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and his label, Universal Music Group. “Trust me… I WON’T STOP” he captioned the footage which left millions in disbelief and shock. On Monday, in a now-deleted tweet, he announced his decision to not release any new music until said deals had run its course. He later compared the music industry to “modern day slavery” before posting his alleged ten contracts that he has with Universal.
He quickly received a ton of backlash for posting the shocking footage. “How vile and disrespectful of U,” songwriter Diane Warren, who has penned legendary songs including “How Do I Live” and “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”, wrote in response. “This was given to U by your peers out of respect for your work and U r literally pissing on them. I’ve won one Grammy and I’m forever grateful and humble that my peers found me worthy of it.”
Kanye also called on the likes of Bono, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and even his longtime enemy Taylor Swift, to help him in his cause by saying that “we need you right noooooow” after promising that “ALL THE MUSICIANS WILL BE FREE”.
The “Style” singer famously had her own music battle with her former Big Machine Records label head Scott Borchetta when it was announced that he had sold her masters to Scooter Braun and The Carlyle Group.
Kanye started attacking the structure of the music industry earlier in the week by declaring that artists had little to no power because record labels owned all their work. “In the streaming world master ownership is everything… that is the bulk of the income … in COVID artist need our masters,” he wrote. “Artists are starving without tours … Ima go get our masters … for all artists … pray for me.”