Kanye West Declares Himself ‘New Moses,’ Says He Won’t Release New Music Till Freed From Universal and Sony/ATV Deals
UPDATED: Kanye West took a break from his presidential campaign to make some declarations about his music career Monday, saying that he will refuse to release any new music until his record company, Universal Music Group, and his publisher, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, free him from their deals...
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UPDATED: Kanye West took a break from his presidential campaign to make some declarations about his music career Monday, saying that he will refuse to release any new music until his record company, Universal Music Group, and his publisher, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, free him from their deals.
He quickly followed that up by saying that Drake and J. Cole must apologize to him — although whether this was a further condition for releasing new music was unclear — and asking for a meeting with Jay-Z.
“I’m not putting no more music out till I’m done with my contract with Sony and Universal,” he tweeted. “On God … in Jesus name … come and get me.” The statement was followed by an emoji of a skier.
“Vivendi family I’m in Calabassas,” he added. “Come holla at me.”
On Tuesday morning, he added to his comments, posting a text exchange with an unidentified business adviser on his options for his catalog. The adviser says he and West can argue that Universal and Sony Music, with whom West has longstanding recorded-music and publishing deals respectively, did not support him fully and can be sued for breach of contract. They then explore the potential price of his recorded-music catalog (the adviser claims, without citing evidence, that West’s catalog would be worth more than the $300 million that Scooter Braun’s investment company paid for Big Machine Records and Taylor Swift’s master recordings) or the possibility of a joint venture with Universal Music, which owns West’s masters. West tweeted, “No one from Universal or Sony has responded so it’s Go time.”
West has publicly stated that he wants to get out of his label and publishing deals in the past, and even sued the companies in January of last year. However he signed the deals with attorneys present, and such contracts typically do not allow artists to withdraw from the deals whenever they want, so his options would seem limited. Reps for Universal and Sony did not immediately respond to Variety‘s requests for comment.