“My kids gonna own my masters,” Kanye West tweeted in the early hours of Sept. 15, hours after demanding to “see everybody’s contracts at Universal [Music Group] and Sony.” It appears that Kanye, 43, wanted to make good on that promise of completely owning the rights to his music. Kanye later shared a screenshot of a text conversation with someone who discussed the price tag on his discography, and it contained a slight dig at Taylor Swift. “[Regarding] masters ownership, we can look into buying. But if Taylor’s cost $300 million, yours would cost a lot more, I assume.”
That was a weird flex, but okay. Kanye probably didn’t mean to bring Taylor’s name into the conversation. However, by sharing this text message, he subtly suggested that his discography is worth more than what Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings reportedly paid to acquire Big Machine Records and Taylor’s first six albums. This unnamed person also told Ye that — like Taylor has said she was going to do, it would be cheaper for him to “re-record these songs” because then Ye “could own these new masters outright.” When this person suggested Kanye forming a new “Yeezy Media/Universal joint venture,” Kanye said he’s “not open to any form of business with Universal or Sony.”
It seems there’s a legal storm brewing between Ye, Universal Music Group (his record label), and EMI (his publisher, who is owned by Sony/ATV.) Ye tweeted-and-deleted on Monday night (Sept. 14) that he’s “not putting no more music out till I’m done with my contract with Sony and Universal.” He then tweeted, “Vivendi family I’m in Calabasas,” referencing the French media conglomerate that owns Universal. All of Kanye’s output – from his records with Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam, and on his own GOOD imprint – is owned by Universal.
“I need to see everybody’s contracts at Universal and Sony,” tweeted Kanye. “I’m not gonna watch my people be enslaved. I’m putting my life on the line for my people. The music industry and the NBA are modern day slave ships. I’m the new Moses.” During this Tweetstorm, Kanye also demanded a public apology from J. Cole, Drake, and Jay-Z.
Kanye sued EMI and Universal in January 2019, according to Rolling Stone, as a way to get out of the contract he signed with EMI when he was working on 2004’s The College Dropout. Ye cited a California labor statute that limits personal service contracts to seven years. He and EMI reportedly settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount. In October 2018, Kanye posted several social media videos where he claimed Sony/ATV shot down his attempts to buy back his publishing. “‘It’s $8 million [or] $9 million’ and when I went to buy it, they told me ‘No,’ I couldn’t buy my publishing,” he said, per RS. “I have the money to buy [back] my publishing. And they told me that I couldn’t buy my publishing… It’s like the control.”
