Kanye West has claimed that his and Ty Dolla $ign‘s Vultures albums are being held hostage by Atlantic Records and may be taken down from streaming services.
On Thursday (August 8), Kanye shared screenshots of a text message from his manager John Monopoly, who appeared to suggest that Atlantic wanted renumeration from the projects as Ty is signed to their label.
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In the message, Monopolo wrote to Ye: “Co-head of Atlantic Julie Greenwald just called me. She just got fired. She said the new head is not going to give us a grace period to handle Atlantic’s compensation.
“She suggested that I let Too Lost and Create know that 40% of all revenue from V1 and V2 needs to be paid to Atlantic. She’s saying that if we don’t handle immediately Atlantic will issue take downs for both albums. Pls advise.”
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“This is what ‘they’ do to independent artists,” Kanye wrote over the screenshot on his Instagram Stories, although he didn’t share his reply to Monopoly’s message.
The Chicago rap legend then publicly asked who the new head of Atlantic is. It was announced earlier this week that Elliot Grainge, the son of Universal Music Group boss Lucian and founder of 10K Projects, will be taking over at the record company.
Kanye shares that 'VULTURES 1 & 2' is at risk of being taken down…
“THIS IS WHAT 'THEY' DO TO INDEPENDENT ARTISTS” pic.twitter.com/sQ5IJ1ARjA
— NFR Podcast (@nfr_podcast) August 8, 2024
Although Vultures 1 and Vultures 2 were both released independently through Kanye’s YZY imprint, Ty Dolla $ign is signed to Atlantic as a solo artist, meaning they have rights to his work.
As Audiomack co-founder Brian Zisook pointed out on X, “A record agreement gives the label permission to exploit their music — exclusively –during the full term. Atlantic hasn’t seen a dime from the albums… so of course they want to be paid.”
The change in leadership at Atlantic appears to have prompted the label to demand what they are owed for Ty’s participation in the albums.
The situation is somewhat similar to 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne‘s 2016 joint album ColleGrove, which was technically only released as a Tity Boi solo album through Def Jam due to Weezy’s issues with Cash Money at the time.
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Weezyy previously had issues releasing collaborative projects with the likes of T-Pain, Lloyd and Juelz Santana due to label disputes.
The project with T-Pain, T-Wayne, was later released nearly a decade after it was recorded following Wayne’s departure from Cash Money.
