Rapper Kanye West and the music company EMI have settled their publishing dispute over West’s 2003 contract with the company out of court on January 13th. According to documents viewed by Pitchfork, West and EMI the parties have “reached an agreement in principle resolving all issues,” and the case is set to be closed on February 14, 2020, if neither party files a motion against this agreement.
Back in January West alleged that his contract with the company “amounts to servitude and claims he’s entitled ‘to be set free from its bonds'” and further explained that “…in California, personal services contracts cannot last longer than 7 years because they amount to ‘servitude.’” EMI then filed counter-suit against West for breach of contract, in response to this lawsuit. In September, it appeared that the publisher and West’s camp had reached a settlement agreement, however it was revealed that these plans had fallen through last December.
West had sued EMI along with Jay Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records, which had released every single one of his studio albums until his 2016 release The Life of Pablo. The performer was one of the most commercially and critically successful acts on the record label, which released his debut album The College Dropout back in 2004. Each subsequent album release since his debut has reached the top spot on the Billboard 200.
The rapper had a busy 2019, releasing his ninth studio album Jesus Is King in October, which was followed by the release of his Sunday Service Choir’s Jesus Is Born on Christmas. Between then he has debuted two operas, Nebuchadnezzar, and Mary respectively.
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