Kanye West is currently focusing his life mission on freeing musicians from their record label contracts. The G.O.O.D Music founder specifically railed against the major label system not letting him own his master recordings.
After some observers questioned if West was treating the acts signed to his own record company fairly, Ye promised to give back the 50% share he owns of G.O.O.D. artists’ masters back to the artists. Big Sean responded by tweeting, “Thank you!!! This would help so much.”
Thank you!!! This would help so much 🙏🏾 https://t.co/6yR3fAKlwB
— Sean Don (@BigSean) September 23, 2020
According to Charlamagne Tha God of The Breakfast Club, Sean had already asked for ownership of his masters and West blocked that from happening. The radio host also reported that West owes Sean $3 million, assumingly from unpaid royalties for his music.
“The restraint that Big Sean shows to Kanye West is remarkable. That lets me know he really is a healed individual… I hope one day Big Sean tells his story. Just know Kanye West owes Big Sean a whole lot of money,” said Charlamagne during Angela Yee’s “Rumor Report” segment. “And he got Big Sean in a very terrible contract to be out here screaming about giving folks their masters back.”
CTG added, “Kanye West owes Big Sean $3 million. Kanye West gets half of Sean’s profits and half of Sean’s royalties. And Kanye wouldn’t agree to Big Sean getting his masters back from Def Jam. Kanye needs to do right by Big Sean.” He also claimed that Sean tried to negotiate a deal with Def Jam and Universal Music Group to get full ownership of his masters but West would not sign off on the agreement.
Big Sean has released several albums and mixtapes under G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam, including 2020’s Detroit 2 which dropped on September 4. The Michigan representative was also part of the collaborative projects Twenty88 with Jhené Aiko and Double or Nothing with Metro Boomin as well as the G.O.O.D. compilation project Cruel Summer.