EMI Lawsuit Against Kanye West Reopened As Settlement Falls Apart

For renowned producer/hip hop artist Kanye West, his legal troubles seem to be returning with the major music industry company EMI stemming from a lawsuit against West reopening over a contract dispute. As previously reported by TMZ, earlier this year West contended that “…his contract with EMI amounts to servitude and claims he’s entitled ‘to be set free from its bonds.'” At that time West had noted “…in California, personal services contracts cannot last longer than 7 years because they amount to ‘servitude.'” However EMI responded back, when the story broke earlier this year, “saying Cali’s ‘servitude’ law doesn’t apply because NY laws — not Cali’s — govern the deal.”

As previously reported, TMZ‘s latest developments say that, “According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ … the judge in the case has signed off on EMI’s request to officially reopen the case. EMI — which has been battling Kanye in federal court over his publishing deal since earlier this year — back in September told the court it and Kanye had struck ‘an agreement in principle’ to settle the case.” However, the reported brokered deal did not come to fruition and the deadline to reopen the case, as of late, was December 27th. At that point in time, EMI’s lawyers drew up a letter to the judge that relays the fact that the deal fell apart saying, “unfortunately the parties have been unable to finalize the terms of the settlement agreement.”

In the aforementioned initial TMZ article, West had wanted the judge at that time to cut off his contractual obligations with EMI as of 2010, reverting all of the rights to his songs back to him. The year 2010 was crucial to West due to it noting the 7-year mark of his contract with EMI. The TMZ article furthered that “Some songs of note Ye released in 2010 and after include megahit ‘All of the Lights,’ along with ‘Power’ and ‘Monster’ from his ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy‘ album, ‘Otis’ and ‘Ni**as in Paris’ from the ‘Watch the Throne‘ album, ‘Bound 2’ from Yeezus and “Famous” from ‘The Life of Pablo.'”