You can't blame Kanye West for doing everything he can to walk away from his suffocating record deals.
Last year, he took EMI, his music publisher, to court over a stipulation in the paperwork that contractually forbade him from ever retiring. Kanye has been vocal about his disenchantment with the music industry's restrictive and controlling deals in recent days, even vowing to withhold new music until he is released from his contracts with Sony and Universal.
Just yesterday, Kanye publicly revealed news of his talks with executives from Universal Music Group's parent company, circumventing the executives at UMG he has taken issue with in the past. West has been trying to buy back his publishing from Sony since 2018 to no avail.
Ye followed up on his statements on Twitter this afternoon, sharing over 100 pictures of his record contracts.
Kanye airing out his contracts in such a public manner shouldn't come as a surprise. Yesterday, he tweeted his belief that "complicated contracts are how businesses, music companies and sports take advantage of talent," advocating for simpler "contracts in all industries."
Kanye also seemingly reneged on his vow to not release music until he was released from his contracts, teasing the name of a new song and writing "Ok all music coming next."
