'Fake News!' Kanye West DENIES He's Selling His $175 Million Song Catalog, Gives Archenemy Taylor Swift Shout-Out
No more bad blood? Kanye West shot back at reports he's selling his song catalog for $175 million and gave his biggest archenemy Taylor Swift a shout-out in the process. RadarOnline.com has learned that Ye is NOT offloading his publishing rights to the highest bidder.
The Donda rapper revealed that if his music catalog was being shopped around, then he does not know about it. In his denial, he also compared his situation to what Swift went through with Scooter Braun.
Scooter obtained control of Big Machine Label Group's recorded music assets, which meant he owned the master rights to Swift's first six albums. Despite trying to buy her music back, he told the rights to those albums for a reported $300 million.
Swift publicly accused him of using bully tactics on her, and to get him, she remade the music.
"Just like Taylor Swift my publishing is being put up for sale without my knowledge," her longtime enemy Ye wrote on Tuesday, adding, "Not for sale."
The rapper later shared a text message including one of his staff members squashing the rumors altogether.
DAILY. BREAKING. CELEBRITY NEWS. ALL FREE.
"Can you ask Gee who is selling my publishing," Kanye asked in a text, to which the other person replied, "From Gee fake news. Of course every publisher wants to pitch there (sic) hardest to buy. Smh."
Kanye's frantic denial comes on the heels of Billboard's report that his entire publishing catalog is being shopped around and could potentially be a huge payday for Ye.
The breakdown is complicated, but their sources value his catalog to be around $175 million and estimate he could bring in $5 million per year. Of course, he'll have to share with the rest of the singers and songwriters on his albums.
It's an interesting move to align himself with Swift, given their history. No one can forget when he stole her glory at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, interrupting her speech with the catchphrase that's continued to haunt her: "I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
Since then, the enemies have gone back and forth, with Kanye's soon-to-be ex-wife Kim Kardashian joining her husband's side of the feud. Ye's not just fending off rumors about his music catalog either.
He's in an all-out war with Gap after the business partners squashed their Yeezy collaboration.