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Kanye West continues master recordings rant, says Prince and Michael Jackson were victims of music industry

Kanye West has expanded his tirade against label ownership of musicians’ master recordings, this time adding that Prince and Michael Jackson were “killed” by the music and media industries.

“We used to diss Michael Jackson the media made us call him crazy…then they killed him,” West wrote in one Tweet. In another he posted a photo of Prince, writing: “Let’s get it big bro…you and Michael passed so we can live.”

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Yesterday (September 15) West said he wouldn’t share any new music until he is released from his contracts with music publishers Sony and Universal.

In Tweets, he compared himself to Moses and the music industry to a “modern day slave ship”. EMI (owned by Sony/ATV) has controlled the rights to West’s work since 2003.

In other messages West claimed that he’s the “only person” who can speak on the issue of masters ownership without being cancelled (HotNewHipHop notes that some artists have managed to buy back their masters, including Jay-Z, Frank Ocean, and Rihanna).

“The artist deserve to own our masters…artist are starving without tours…Ima go get our masters…for all artist…pray for me,” West wrote.

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The artist also claimed that Universal won’t tell him how much his masters cost “because they know I can afford to buy them”.

He then went on to say he will stop at nothing, and proceeded to share PDFs of his apparent contracts.

“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 added.

After sending that tweet, he later posted a video clip of him appearing to urinate on a Grammy award stuck in the bowl of a toilet.

Yesterday, the billionaire rapper claimed that artists have no control of their actual music after signing a deal, writing: “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 the fame, touring and merch.”






In January last year, West sued EMI in an attempt to be released from his 2003 contract, which includes an agreement that he “remain actively involved in writing, recording and producing Compositions and Major Label Albums” without retiring. EMI was also given rights to West’s songs that he wrote prior to the agreement.

In response, EMI sued West the following March for allegedly reneging on his “bargained-for contractual obligations to the company”. The dispute was eventually settled in January, as reported by Billboard.

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