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Kanye West pees on Grammy award after putting it in toilet, says 'won't stop' till he owns his songs' masters

'A standard record deal is a trap to NEVER have you recoup, and there’s all these hidden costs like the distribution fees'

On Wednesday, September 16, rapper Kanye West shared a video of himself urinating on his Grammy Award that he had dumped into his toilet. West wrote, along with the video, “Trust me... I won't stop.”

Over the course of a couple of days, the 43-year-old ‘Stronger’ rapper has been on a tweeting spree, talking about the music business. After deleting a tweet on Monday, September 14 which reportedly declared that he would not release new music until he was released from his contracts with Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Universal, West shared a screenshot on September 15 of what appeared to be a text message conversation with an unnamed advisor who claimed West’s masters were worth more than Taylor Swift’s. “But if Taylor’s cost $300 million yours would cost a lot more I assume,” the advisor reportedly told West, referring to Scooter Braun’s 2019 acquisition of the label Big Machine Records from Scott Borchetta. West shared the screenshots of this conversation, writing, “No one from Universal or Sony has responded so it’s Go time.”

He further tweeted on September 15, “We need Me J Cole Drake Kendrick all in a room 2gthr... it’s time to get free... we will not argue amongst each other while somebody we don’t know in Europe is getting paid and putting that money in a hedge fund,” adding, “When I spoke to Katie Jacobs who is on the board of Vivendi we decided to create a “Y combinator” for the music industry so artist have the power and transparency to to be in control of our future... no more shady contracts... no more lifelong deals.” West also said, “Contracts in all industries need to be simplified now.  Complicated contracts are how businesses, music companies and sports take advantage of talent. We will expose these contracts and make them transparent now to support new talent, startups and amend all old contracts.”

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

He also said, “We’ve gotten comfortable with not having what we deserve... they allow us to have a little money from touring get some gold chains some alcohol some girls and fake numbers that feed our egos... but we don’t own our masters,” adding, “We are supporting other people’s kids... we could spend our whole life in the music industry but our kids gotta go work for another company when they grow up.”

West said, “We sat back and watched Nick Cannon get canceled and we go to play ball in a bubble with Black lives matter on our backs... brothers let’s stand together for real... there is no NBA or music industry without Black people... fair contracts matter... ownership matters.” Following this, he began his tirade against Universal once again. He said, “Universal won't tell me what my masters cost because they know I can afford to buy them.”

He added, “Everyone please cover me in prayer... I am one of the most famous people on the planet and Universal won't tell me what my masters cost because they know I can afford them... Black masters matter.” He also said, “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  I am petty and very personal.”

Following this, West, in a string of tweets about his recording deals, uploaded his Universal Records contracts, while once again referring to the music industry as “modern day slavery”. He said, “Here are my ten Universal contracts ... I need every lawyer in the world to look at these.” His latest tweet says, “90% of the record contracts on the planet are still on a royalty A standard record deal is a trap to NEVER have you recoup, and there’s all these hidden costs like the “distribution fees” many labels put in their contracts to make even more money off our work without even trying.”