Kanye West Compares Himself to Taylor Swift Amid Reports That His Music Catalog Is for Sale
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Kanye West claims his music catalogue was put up for sale without his knowledge.
Kanye West is likening himself to Taylor Swift, despite having had bad blood with the pop star for years.
Following a new Billboard report that claimed West, 45, is quietly shopping his publishing catalog, the rapper took to Instagram to give his side of the story, which he believes is a lot similar to Swift's dispute over her masters that were sold twice without her knowledge.
"JUST LIKE TAYLOR SWIFT," West wrote in an Instagram Story on Tuesday, Sept. 20. "MY PUBLISHING IS BEING PUT UP FOR SALE WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE."
He then tried debunking the Billboard report, claiming that his publishing isn't available for purchase at all, writing "NOT FOR SALE" at the end of Tuesday's post.
The initial Billboard report about West's catalog claimed that representatives for the Donda artist have been meeting with prospective buyers for his music catalog over the past ten months, with sources estimating that West was seeking "as much as 35 times net publisher's share, or gross profit," for his catalog.
In a follow-up Instagram Story, the "Praise God" singer revealed a text message he sent to an unnamed person, which read, "Can you ask Gee who is selling my publishing," seemingly in reference to his manager Gee Roberson. The person responded with a message "From Gee" that read, "Fake news...Of course every publisher wants to pitch there [sic] hardest to buy. Smh."
While it is currently unclear whether his publishing is up for sale, West's situation isn't as similar to Swift's as he might think, as Variety pointed out. "The situations are drastically different, even if someone were shopping his publishing without his knowledge," the publication wrote.
Swift's publishing was never up for sale when her former record label Big Machine made a deal with talent manager Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings LLC, who acquired the songwriter's masters in 2019 for a reported $300 million, per Variety.
The "Lover" singer, 32, previously tried buying her own masters from Big Machine before Braun's deal closed but said she was offered unfavorable conditions. She also wasn't aware that her masters would be sold to Braun, who she accused of bullying her in the past.
Braun later sold Swift's masters, which included her first six albums, marking the second time the singer's catalog was sold without her knowing.
Instead of fighting further for her masters back, Swift has been re-recording her past albums, with Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) released thus far.
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