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Update: West’s team told XXL that the lawsuit against Def Jam is not new, and that the only new information in The Blast’s article is the unredacted complaint, which stems from an older suit. They also refuted a report that West is holding up his album ‘Yandhi’ due to the suit.
Kanye West hasn’t released an album on Roc-A-Fella Records since 2011’s Watch the Throne with JAY-Z, but the artist has reportedly filed a lawsuit against them, Def Jam, UMG Recordings, and Bravado International Group, per The Hollywood Reporter. West released five solo studio albums on the label from 2004 to 2010.
According to The Blast the issue is not between West and JAY, since the latter sold his shares in the company back in 2004. The exact nature of the lawsuit is still not public, but it is reportedly over “the parties’ rights and obligations to one another under the Recording Agreement and Extensions.”
One section of the lawsuit that is still readable features a recap of West’s work with the label, which highlights his production work on The Blueprint and credits him for “helping revitalize JAY-Z’s career.”
In his verse on Meek Mill’s “What’s Free,” JAY addresses the public perception of his relationship with Kanye. He raps:
No red hat, don’t Michael and Prince me and ‘Ye
They separate you when you got Michael and Prince’s DNA, uh
He later clarified in his first tweet since June 2017 that the line was meant to address those who want to drive a wedge between the pair.
West also filed a similar lawsuit against EMI, the company that has handled his publishing rights since 2003, also seeking financial restitution, though both suits are cryptic and heavily redacted.
Recently, West has been on the defendant side of several lawsuits pertaining to samples he’s used but failed to clear. He was sued over the samples on “Lift Yourself,” and accused of sampling a bass line without authorization on “I Love It,” his collaboration with Lil Pump.
Genius explored the lengthy and at times fraught relationship between Kanye and JAY-Z in the video below.
Read the full lyrics to Kanye West and JAY-Z’s discographies on Genius now.
