Kanye West collaborated with numerous producers on February’s Vultures 1 with Ty Dolla $ign, but many of them say they have yet to receive payment.
According to an in-depth report from Billboard published on Wednesday (December 4), over 10 producers on the chart-topping album don’t have signed agreements, and thus have yet to make any money from their work. The same goes for Vultures 2, which arrived months later.
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“We have clients who’ve produced music on the Vultures album(s) and have still not been paid for their services even though both albums have been released,” music attorney Bob Celestin told the publication. “Presently, we have no idea when payment will be made, which is so unfortunate and unfair. You would think Ye would be more sensitive to this issue because he is a producer.”
Lawyers representing various producers have banded together in an effort to get their clients paid – but they say it is more challenging than usual because of all the changes in Ye’s camp.
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The rapper/producer is currently on his third attorney to assist in sample clearances for the album, while there has also been a change in distributors.
“We have no recourse besides to try to sue [Ye],” one attorney said. “But that’s costly.” Another lawyer also noted, “Legal claims against Ye don’t really seem to go anywhere.”
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The report states that Ye’s team did offer buyouts to some of the producers in the last couple of months – but this very unusual deal means they’d only receive a flat fee and wouldn’t get any royalties if the album recoups its costs.
Multiple lawyers have rejected the offers, though, according to Billboard.
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In related news, Kanye West collaborator Digital Nas is not happy about how the credits have been listed for the Vultures hit single “Carnival.”
In a heated rant on social media last month, the producer began by posting a screenshot of an email from A&R Matt Geffen, who informed Digital Nas that his contributions to the Vultures 1 track had not verified by fellow producers Traxster, 88-Keys and Morning Estrada.
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Digital Nas then said: “I’ma give you context to how these vulture-ass n-ggas work. Fritz [Owens, engineer] text me, ‘Ye and Carti need you.’ I go there. ‘Nas, what do we need done to ‘Carnival’?’ I tell them n-ggas everything that needs to be done, told Ye to change his verse.
“‘Carnival’ gets nominated for a fucking Grammy, it goes number one. They’re doing the paperwork, this fucking guy Matt Geffen comes out of nowhere, tries to regulate shit.”
He continued: “I’m showing y’all this to let y’all know how many vultures are in this music industry […] These n-ggas are fighting over crumbs. ‘Carnival’ made $47,000 publishing.
“These n-ggas is old as fuck, don’t have no talent. But they use young n-ggas’ sound and then they try to say they did something on the record when they didn’t do shit! But the n-ggas who actually did shit on the record, they take them n-ggas off!
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“When it’s small records like ‘Paperwork,’ ‘Oh yeah, leave Nas on that.’ But when it’s big records that went number one, ‘Nah, he ain’t do shit on that.’ Fuck all y’all n-ggas!”
Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign have yet to respond to the producer’s complaint.
