Kanye West may have to temporarily suspend his outpouring of religious media to go back to court. According to TMZ, a judge has granted EMI’s request to reopen the lawsuit the label filed against West. Kanye started the legal battle, alleging that his contract would lock him into a lifetime of “servitude.†He also sought control of his work published after 2010. His lawyers pointed out that in California, contracts can only be for seven years. EMI countersued, claiming that Ye had no grounds to get out of his contract in New York state. In September of this year, the two parties seemed to have reached a settlement. Both sides could petition to reopen the case until December 27, and it looks like EMI exercised that option right under the wire.
According to Consequence of Sound, there’s language in Ye’s 2003 contract that seems to bar him from ever retiring. In part, it states that West must “remain actively involved in writing, recording, and producing compositions and major label albums, as [his] principle occupation.†Does that mean he has to stop designing shoes and geodesic domes? If Kanye’s lawsuit is successful, he will own everything he’s made since 2010, from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to Jesus Is Born.