Kanye West and music publishing company EMI notified the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on January 13th that they have “reached an agreement in principle resolving all issues" regarding their lawsuits over a publishing contract signed by Kanye in 2003. This legal battle began last January, when Kanye sued EMI for allegedly attempting to force him into essentially never retiring. He argued that, because it is illegal in California for a company to lock in an artist in a personal service contracts for more than seven years, EMI had enforced rights in violation of California law for more than eight years following the end of his contract. EMI has overseen Kanye's catalogue since 2003, when Kanye was making College Dropout. The company retaliated two months later in March with their own counter-suit, however, citing Kanye's claims as invalid because he had signed multiple contract extensions with them.
This past September, it appeared as though the two parties had reached a settlement, but EMI requested to re-open the case at the last minute in December. The judge assigned a deadline of January 13th, 2020, to reach an agreement, which both parties have succeeded in doing so. As long as neither Kanye nor EMI file motions to the contrary, the case will officially be closed on February 14th, 2020.
