Famous male rapper Kanye West, who has been commercially successful for the past 20 years, has “burned” his business and career after a series of anti-Semitic statements.
Currently, no record label or music publishing company wants to cooperate with Kanye West . Universal Music ‘s Def Jam record label and Sony Music Publishing both ended their contracts with the male rapper. Many other business partners have broken off their relationships after his recent behavior was condemned by public opinion. In purely music-business terms, Kanye West’s case is unprecedented.
Def Jam, which owns the rights to Kanye West’s mid-2010s recordings and distributed subsequent releases up to 2021’s Donda album, has confirmed that the rapper’s deal with the company company ended last year.
Sony Music Publishing also confirmed that the male rapper’s contract with the company ended earlier this year despite continuing to manage his affairs under the terms of the contract for an indefinite period.
So what happens when Kanye West wants to release a new song? He released three collaborations with other artists this year (all in response to anti-Semitic comments) but all three were labeled as his collaborators. Releasing music at Kanye West’s level requires major business partners. Who will work with him when major companies like Universal, Sony and Warner Music Groups are likely out of reach for the foreseeable future?
Any company that accepts to cooperate with Kanye West will face serious failure. “It would have to be a company that was willing to be boycotted,” said one veteran music industry executive. Other artists or distributors, not to mention their employees, will not support this.”
In a statement provided to Variety , a representative for performance company BMI said: “Anti-Semitism, racism and hate have no place in society. We condemn the harmful and dangerous statements from Kanye West. According to the terms of our contract, BMI accepts all musicians who want to collaborate. But we do not tolerate any hate speech by any individual.”
The most likely scenario would be Kanye West acquiring an existing music publishing company to provide the infrastructure for him, or even more likely, hiring a small company to handle that task. .
Another option: sell your song catalog. More information emerged a few weeks ago suggesting that Kanye West’s representatives were exploring that possibility, and although the rapper denied it, The New York Times cited sources earlier this week saying it was true. . For example, star Bruce Springsteen sold all his songs for 600 million USD.