It’s a question but what the f*** ever man. I’m not gonna be mad about something just cause kanye is

What I don’t understand is why sign anything that gives the label the option to keep re-upping...

And if we can look through and pick s*** like this out why couldn’t he and his lawyer?

I would say his issue is that he signed a contract in 2002 when he was desperate

then he became a star and he was/is still tied up because of how long the contract in 2002 allowed the label to extend

basically the label just kept extending the contract and its not a contract thats particularly favorable for an artist like him

hes basically getting around 20% of royalties AFTER the advances are recouped and they are massive advances and hes not getting ownership of the masters - for the early albums at all it seems and for yeezus and Pablo not for 20 years

ye and JiK are more favorable though but its still nothing on what someone like Drake has now

Yall throwing contracts at me , you know that n cant read

Cause he can’t complain about it later and try to prove some odd point

Love he didn’t give up merchandising

He would have lost a lot of money there

It makes sense bc Kanye came into the game saying he was going to do a clothing line

Visionary

Well, what leverage did he have when he signed it?

Cant help but think of

the advances are absolutely absurd

like they just throw money at him every album

but then they dont give him any royalties until they've made that money back

You don’t need leverage to say sign a deal for just a set amount and not give the label the option to keep you under contract as long as they want.

Artists have to pay back the advances righ?

So they havent gotten their cruel summer money back? 🤣

never gonna forget how someone described cookies as "the local crackhead break dancing" of ktt

It’s Safe to say that this is a great thread

Great work Safe. Shocking how low his cut is even after all this time. Music industry needs to be reset.

every time the NBA goes on strike, players get a better cut - either an even split of the revenue, or better amenities / whatever it is. seems like music industry - you cant have a strike to level the playing field.

yea its wild
all of the advances are huge - LR was $3.5m I think

but the thing is that sure he gets that money. but the label won't pay him s*** back until they've recouped all the advances AND costs
and the costs is a ton of stuff - marketing, distribution costs etc

so basically he will have seen very little in terms of royalties over the years
and I suspect the 50% profit share thing is bogus in that the label basically structures the accounting so that the 'profit' is very small

It just seems to me that if you're an artist who wasn't wealthy before signing the deal, you're going to get a s***ty one because you have no negotiating power. If you won't sign the contract, someone else will.

Great thread OP

Isn’t that standard for advances? Well old about the royalties part, but you have to pay that money back somehow.

Is there a clause that allows him to buy out of the deal?

Why does Ye pontificate the whole situation as if some of this isn’t his fault? How much blame can we put on him really? How much on the label?

The initial Yeezus budget on the label side was $12M.

looking at it the deal doesn't seem that crazy ? idgi whats the problem here

That's such a great thought. I think it occurs because of the leverage the different parties have. In the entertainment industry you're a lot more replaceable. Also players are organized better

So I’m curious did he just figure this out a few years ago back when he started ranting about being under contract forever? Or did he always know and just have it pent up for so long until his episode that it just came out? I’m not sure if you’re able to answer those just curious. And is that his obsession with being a billionaire to finally feel like he’s free?