Kanye West is one of the most enigmatic figures in pop culture. Whether it be his contributions to the field of music or his meteoric rise in the world of fashion, there’s no questioning that Kanye West is a creative force. These things have culminated in him becoming the world’s highest-paid musician, as well as becoming the second-highest-paid celebrity overall.
When you consider all of his ventures, he is now worth a staggering $1.3 billion. It’s no surprise that Kanye West made it here, as he made a total of $170 million in 2019 alone. To put this into perspective, the second-highest-paid musician Elton John made $81 million in 2019. And while most people would be content with this, Kanye West is not like most people. This is why he’s set his eyes on an entirely new goal: changing the music industry.
Changing the Rules
Kanye West has always been a visionary. He always seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to his creative projects. This is due to his refusal to conform to the norms and his refusal to box himself in.
Whether it be the heavy use of fuzz pedals to produce the crunchy riffs on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or his liberal use of autotune on 808s & Heartbreaks, West has always been one to push back (if not straight up ignore) what people say is possible.
This, among other things, maybe what led to his decision to completely flip the music industry on its head. However, this has less to do with the music as Kanye West has set his eyes on the business aspect of the industry.
Kanye West has put the industry on notice in an exclusive interview where he claims that the music industry functions on a broken system. He highlighted the lack of balance when it comes to the relationship between artists and labels.
So much so that he even likened the relationship between artist and label to a mortgage: “Imagine a bank lending you money to buy a house and then when you’ve repaid that mortgage, them telling you they still own it”.
He’s been fighting this battle since March of 2019 when he got into a legal battle with EMI Publishing as he fought to terminate, in his eyes, what was a lopsided deal. This borderline predatory relationship is what Kanye West hopes to change.
Balancing Power
To prove that he isn’t just all talk, Kanye West started with his own label. After the interview was posted, he announced that he was giving all the artists signed to his label GOOD Music the 50% share he holds in their master recordings.
The artists affected by this include John Legend, Pusha T, Teyana Taylor, and Big Sean. Now, only time will tell whether or not Kanye West’s actions will have long-lasting effects on how things are done from now on but there’s no questioning that he’s opened up conversations that artists will now be having before signing with any major label.
Image Credit: Shahril Affandi Radzal