September 20 ------ Kanye West pushed for the ownership of his masters in a series of tweets that includes a video of him pissing on his own Grammy award. In tweets posted on September 15 and 16, the rapper called out the music industry, saying that artists need to own their masters and that contracts with labels need to be more transparent. “I need to see everybody’s contracts at Universal and Sony. I’m not gonna watch my people be enslaved. I’m putting my life on the line for my people,” he said. “The music industry and the NBA are modern day slave ships. I’m the new Moses.”
He went on to say that he spoke to Katie Jacobs, a board executive at Vivendi, the parent company of Universal Music Group. He said that they “decided to create a ‘y combinator’ for the music industry so artists have the power and transparency to be in control of our future… no more shady contracts…no more life long deals.” Kanye then demanded ownership of his masters (the original recording of a song or performance), saying that Universal won't tell him how much his masters cost because they're afraid he can afford to buy them.
“When you sign a music deal you sign away your rights. Without the masters you can’t do anything with your own music. Someone else controls where it’s played and when it’s played. Artists have nothing accept [sic] the fame, touring and merch," he said. Kanye implied that he would be taking legal action against Sony and Vivendi. "EVERYONE AT UNIVERSAL AND VIVENDI PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I WILL DO EVERYTHING IN MY LEGAL POWER AND USE MY VOICE UNTIL ALL ARTIST CONTRACTS ARE CHANGED STARTING WITH GETTING MY MASTERS FOR MY CHILDREN I WILL NOT STOP I PROMISE YOU IM AM PETTY AND VERY PERSONAL," he tweeted.
He said that he was 10 contracts with Universal, and went on to upload each page, calling on “every lawyer in the world” to look at it. After uploading his contracts, Kanye asked his fellow artists to retweet him, including U2 frontman Bono, Paul (presumably, Beatles legend Paul McCartney), Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Taylor – presumably Taylor Swift, who Kanye had an infamous feud with, and who also called out her former label in 2019 over the sale of her master recordings. Towards the end of his Twitter rant, Kanye posted a video of him peeing on his Grammy Award, which was placed in a toilet. "Trust me…I WONT STOP," he said. Universal has yet to publicly respond to Kanye's tweets.
Source: rappler.com/entertainment
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