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Kanye West up against Universal Group to end 'music slavery'

Kanye West up against Universal Group to end 'music slavery'

By Shubham Dasgupta
Edited by Pallabi C Samal
Sep 17, 2020
06:56 pm
What's the story

Rapper Kanye West has apparently taken a break from his Presidential campaign. He is utilizing this time to unleash himself through a Twitter ranting spree against Universal Music Group. Slamming the label for owning the mastered version of his songs released by them, Kanye now wants the company to give all those versions back to him so that he can secure his children's future.

Definition

But first, what is a mastered track?

A mastered track is the final outcome of all the labor that goes into fine-tuning the musical arrangement, feel and the entire production of a song. That track becomes the sole property of either the artiste (if they are independently producing it), or the music label that sponsors the artiste. Different formats of that track are released on platforms for streaming and/or purchase thereafter.

Twitter

He has sought help from his rivals like Drake, Taylor

Now, Kanye is demanding that Universal should give him back those versions. He has tweeted his contracts with the label page-by-page, and has sought support from other biggies and even his rivals in the music industry, namely Drake and Taylor Swift. He has asked all of them to retweet his posts and join him in the fight to own all rights of one's music.

Twitter Post

Kanye asks all: "Can I get a retweet?"

Rights

Def Jam, a subsidiary of Universal, owns Kanye's songs

Kanye's songs, under Roc-a-Fella Records, are owned by Def Jam, which is a subsidiary label of Universal Music Group. He even set up his own label titled GOOD Music under Def Jam, but trouble started brewing between the parties when Kanye reportedly wanted to know the price of the mastered versions of his songs owned by Universal and the latter refused to divulge it.

Twitter Post

UNIVERSAL WONT TELL ME WHAT MY MASTERS COST, he thunders

Wow!

And then Kanye said he is Nat Turner and Moses

Further, comparing himself with the legendary rebel Nat Turner, KanYe claimed, "I'm the new Moses," and that "The music industry and the NBA are modern day slave ships." He also demanded to "see everybody's contracts at Universal and Sony." In his tweets, Ye mentioned how he's "the only person who can speak on this because I made multi billions outside of music."

Twitter Post

"THIS IS GOING TO CHANGE THE MUSIC INDUSTRY FOR GOOD"

Social media

The rapper threatened not to make new music

The rapper had hinted of such a brawl when he stated he won't release new music until he is relieved from his contracts with Universal Music Group and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. He also shared a screenshot of a conversation with an unidentified lawyer, who says Kanye can sue the two for breaching contract and that his recorded-music catalogue can be worth over $300mn.

Twitter Post

Kanye posts law-related conversation implying breach of contract

Personal

Why Kanye's demand does not make any sense (as always)

The 21-Grammy award winner is struggling hard to overhaul decades-long regulation that each signed artiste complies with their music label before, during and after production of any song. As per usual norm, they earn revenue from the music label's promotional tactics; the mastered versions must be used as the label's property so that artistes earn royalty from streaming and/or sale of music.