Ye (formerly Kanye West) has apparently dropped more than 10 producers who worked on his albums. Vultures 1 and Vultures 2 hung to dry. According to a Billboard reportseveral of those collaborators' attorneys have banded together in an effort to get their clients to pay.
Vultures 1the first of West's collaborative albums with Ty Dolla $ign, has sold 817,000 album-equivalent units since its release in February, but nearly a dozen producers have been unable to get deals signed for their work on the album. As a result, they are missing out on collecting fees or potential royalties from producers and publishing income. Billboard reports several Vultures 2 Producers are in the same boat.
“We have clients who have produced music in the vultures album(s) and I still have not been paid for their services even though both albums have been released,” said music attorney Bob Celestin. Billboard. “We currently have no idea when the payment will be made, which is very unfortunate and unfair. “You would think West would be more sensitive to this issue because he is a producer.”
The situation highlights an industry-wide problem in which “in nine out of 10 deals, the producer hasn't been paid the day the music comes out,” said Jason Berger, a partner at Lewis Brisbois. Billboard.
Celestin added that sometimes producers don't get paid for more than a year after an album's release due to the sheer volume of new releases, the long list of collaborators on some projects, and the unpredictability of superstars having to approve deals with producers. producers.
In West's case, he allegedly “used at least two attorneys to help him with clearances and is now relying on a third,” the attorneys said. Billboard. On top of that, he recently changed distributors of his music from Create Music Group's Label Engine to Too Lost.
And while the vultures The albums are credited to ¥$, West's group with Ty Dolla $ign, the first installment alone lists more than 10 producers total on some tracks, including contributions from artists such as Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, James Blake, KAYTRANADA, JPEGMafia, DJ Mustard, and London on da Track.
West's propensity to abandon projects and cut losses also offers little comfort to unpaid producers. Earlier this year, he sold a Malibu mansion that he gutted at a loss of about $36 million. This came after he was reportedly “determined” to enter the porn industry, only for the ad posts to be published. felled just a few weeks later.
Meanwhile, West is reportedly preparing to release Vultures 3potentially creating a situation where he has released three albums without guaranteed producer deals.
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