Last night, Kanye West took to Twitter to express discontent with his current contract situation, proclaiming, “I’m not putting no more music out till I’m done with my contract with Sony and Universal.” He has apparently done some more thinking since then, and he appears to be exploring potential ways to get out of his contract.
It looks like Kanye is considering taking legal action against the labels. He shared a screenshot of a text conversation with an unidentified other person, presumably a lawyer or at least somebody with intimate knowledge of Kanye’s contract situation. Sharing the image, Kanye wrote, “No one from Universal or Sony has responded so it’s Go time.”
The other person wrote in their texts:
“Meaning that we can argue that Universal and Sony have not supported you fully. And that as a result they have breached. This is the lawsuit/termination nuclear option.
If we went that route we would litigate and ask for your masters as part of a settlement. This is a high risk but high reward strategy.
Re masters ownership we can look into buying. But if Taylor’s cost $300 million yours would cost a lot more I assume. Remember that if you re-recorded these songs you could own these new masters outright.
A much more radical consideration would be to propose an entirely new relationship or joint venture with Universal. One this is equal and not one sided. I am not sure you are interested in that. But if could be a Yeezy Media/Universal joint venture play but one where you have the power.”
To that, Kanye responded, “I’m not open to any form of business with Universal or Sony.”
No one from Universal or Sony has responded so it’s Go time pic.twitter.com/k5K0c1t4eF
— ye (@kanyewest) September 15, 2020
Now, it remains to be seen whether or not Kanye will take any of the steps outlined, or if he’ll actually get apologies from Drake and J. Cole.