Kanye West, fresh off his widely panned defense of R. Kelly and Bill Cosby by way of conspiracy theory signaling, requested the absolutely impossible assistance of "every lawyer in the world" on Wednesday ahead of sharing the various contracts he has with Universal.
In an all-caps message, West told followers "this moment is going to change the music industry for good."
Prior to that, West had shared a smattering of bible verses, the aforementioned Kelly and Cosby defense, a number of points of criticism regarding the major label industry structure and its current relevance in the streaming era, and more:
Later on Wednesday, West began sharing what he said are screenshots of the contracts in question:
Universal Music Group is the parent company of a number of labels including G.O.O.D. Music, Def Jam, and the (no longer active) Roc-A-Fella Records. Jesus Is King, West's most recent studio album, was released via G.O.O.D. and Def Jam last October.
Last year, music fans both casual and scholar-level were given a publicly played out crash course in the importance of an artist owning their master recordings by way of Taylor Swift. She was in a position—as revealed publicly—that saw the masters ownership stemming from her first six albums going to Big Machine. All future recordings from there, however, would see Swift retaining that ownership.
In short, ownership of master recordings—and, for many artists, the absence of that ownership—is part of the admittedly complex legal side of making music for the masses. While masters deal with the literal recording of a performance, the composition side of the coin—namely, publishing—has its own unique intricacies and related agreements that could also find an artist in a less-than-desirable position.
After sharing the screenshots on Wednesday, West said matters of "all music" would be coming next. He also said he had "more ideas" regarding his Universal-related agreements.
"I will not stop," he said. "I PROMISE YOU ON GOD." Later, he urged Bono from U2—as well as Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar—to retweet his efforts.
Further addressing that he has "more ideas," West then shared a short video of himself apparently urinating on one of his many Grammy awards:
At the time of this writing, it was not immediately clear exactly which Grammy West had chosen to take a leak on.
He went on to refer to himself as "Baby Putin" before shouting out Hit-Boy. The latter recently expressed support for West's campaign against Universal while revealing that he and West had a falling out. After initially shouting out Hit-Boy for the words of support, West disputed the producer's account their relationship going sour over a Beyoncé beat.
