Kanye West is demanding he be freed from his label contract with Universal Music Group and Sony. Following a Monday night (September 14) Twitter rant declaring himself the “new Moses” with the NBA and music industry disguised as “modern-day slave ships,” Kanye is promising his kids will one day own his lucrative masters.
My kids gonna own my masters
— ye (@kanyewest) September 15, 2020
After sleeping on it, Kanye posted a text message conversation with what seems to be his lawyer laying out the possible options of getting him out of his contract. His attorney discusses claiming Universal breached their end of the contract by not supporting his creative endeavors, buying his masters for hundreds of millions like Taylor Swift did or teaming with them on a joint venture, which Kanye is not inclined to doing.
No one from Universal or Sony has responded so it’s Go time pic.twitter.com/k5K0c1t4eF
— ye (@kanyewest) September 15, 2020
About an hour later Tuesday morning (September 15), Kanye clarified someone from the board at Vivendi, the media conglomerate which owns Universal Music Group, had reached out to set up a potential meeting.
“Hey everyone we’re making progress,” he wrote. “I’ll keep everyone updated on how this meeting with Vivendi goes… If Nikola Tesla had a Twitter the world would run off AC … Edison killed Tesla’s image to control the power LITERALLY… Tesla and I only mean well for the world.”
Hey everyone we’re making progress… I’ll keep everyone updated on how this meeting with Vivendi goes… If Nikola Tesla had a Twitter the world would run off AC … Edison killed Tesla’s image to control the power LITERALLY… Tesla and I only mean well for the world pic.twitter.com/mOp3fgKGEo
— ye (@kanyewest) September 15, 2020
The initial reaction to the first call seemed to be a positive one, as Kanye is continuing to climb the ladder at Vivendi in what should be a busy day and posted a text message of the contacts he needed at Sony to make changes.
Call with Katie Jacobs went great … this was a perfect first conversation … Speaking with Arnaud De Puyfontaine next … I’ll keep everyone updated ? pic.twitter.com/wQC8UxWz5f
— ye (@kanyewest) September 15, 2020
This all comes on the heels of Monday’s (September 14) tweetstorm, most of which has been deleted, where he demanded apologies from Drake and J. Cole for subbing him on certain tracks, made an ultimatum he wouldn’t release any music until his contract situation was figured out and his plea to finally reunite with JAY-Z.
View this post on Instagram#KanyeWest calls out #Jcole, #Drake, Sony and Universal in his latest Twitter rant ?⠀ ⠀
Kanye’s record deal has been an issue he’s been trying to resolve for years now. There’s even a clause in the EMI publishing contract that essentially doesn’t allow him to ever retire.
Back in September of 2019, he reportedly reached a settlement with EMI but reneged on the agreement by December, which set the lawsuit into action once again.