Prominent talent manager Scooter Braun owns the rights to Swift’s first six albums after acquiring her former record label Big Machine.
A furious Swift said she was “sad” and “grossed out” by the deal, which came to light last year, and has spoken of her desire to control her music.
I’M GOING TO PERSONALLY SEE TO IT THAT TAYLOR SWIFT GETS HER MASTERS BACK. SCOOTER IS A CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND
— ye (@kanyewest) September 18, 2020
West used to work with Braun, whose clients include Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato, and said he wants to help Swift, despite their history of bad blood.
Writing in all caps on Twitter, the super star rapper said: “I’m going to personally see to it that Taylor Swift gets her masters back. Scooter is a close family friend.”
In a separate tweet, West referenced Drake, another musician he has feuded with, as he continued on the theme of reclaiming artists’ rights to their music.
He said he wants to “transparently” change every album, publishing, merchandise and touring deal, “except for Drake’s”.
West added he was joking about the latter part, saying: “I love Drake too… all artists must be free.”
WE’RE GONIG TO TRANSPARENTLY CHANGE EVERY ALBUM DEAL EVERY PUBLISHING DEAL EVERY MERCH DEAL EVERY TOURING DEAL EXCEPT FOR DRAKE’S DEALS 🤣 JUST KIDDING ... I LOVE DRAKE TOO ... ALL ARTIST MUST BE FREE
Advertisement— ye (@kanyewest) September 18, 2020
Master recordings are the original recordings of an artist’s music, from which all the later copies are made.
The owner of these exerts control over the use of a song and earns money from it.
It is rare for an artist to own their master recordings. Swift is determined to gain control of her entire back catalogue and has said she plans to re-record her first six albums.
She signed a record deal with Universal Music Group in November last year, an agreement which allows her to own her master recordings from the label.
West, who suffers from bipolar disorder, has returned to intense periods of tweeting in recent days.
Earlier this week, he ruled out releasing new music on his current record deal and compared the music industry and NBA to “modern day slave ships”.
