It’s becoming increasingly common for artists with decades of hit songs and albums under their belt to sell the rights to their entire catalog. The payouts can often be pretty significant, often creeping into the tens of millions for the biggest artists around. For rappers like Future, Iggy Azalea, and Logic it allows them to make a significant chunk of change off their discographies while granting them some artistic freedom looking forward. One rapper who won’t be participating in the trend, at least not any time soon, is Jay-Z.
The rap legend recently sat down for an interview on CBS Mornings where he explained his train of thought. “I get why people do it. I’ve been fortunate to make money in this place. But for me, it was the fight of my life,” Jay-Z begins. “From being an independent company from the beginning, and then going through the Def Jam system, not really understanding how that works and them having my masters, then going back to Def Jam as the President, and then saying, ‘Okay, I’ll do this job, and part of this job is: my masters have to revert back to me,'” he concludes. He also clarifies that if his catalog does ever get sold it will be up to the discretion of his children. Check out the full interview below.
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Jay-Z’s Catalog Isn’t For Sale
While he discussed his old music quite a bit, fans also want to hear about new music from Jay-Z. Later in the same interview, he explained the criteria he’s waiting for to release a new album. “I’ll say I wanna make music, but it has to be something important. I don’t wanna just make a bunch of tunes. That’s not gonna serve me. It won’t feed me, first of all. I have to be saying something important. It has to mean something, you know? It has to mean something to a larger society.”
Recently Jay himself finally settled the viral $500k or dinner with Jay-Z debate. While he sees why people make the choices they do, ultimately he told fans to just take the money. What do you think of Jay-Z clarifying that he doesn’t want to sell his masters? Let us know in the comment section below.
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[Via]
