Jay-Z took CBS Morning host Gayle King on a tour of his ‘Book Of Hov‘ exhibition at the Brooklyn Library for an interview aired on Thursday (October 26, 223), and the Billionaire rapper revealed that he would never sell the Master recordings for his 13 studio albums, compilations and singles.
The Brooklyn bread rapper who has sold more than 45 million albums worldwide released his debut album Reasonable Doubt in 1996, independently on Roc-A-Fella Records with distribution from Priority Records after being refused a record deal by several New York based labels. The album went on to sell 500,000, which at the time was considered low sales, but then he got a deal with Def Jam who owned his masters until he made a master chess move to reclaim ownership in the early 2000s.
Incidentally, ‘Reasonable Doubt’ is the only album Jay-Z does not own one hundred percent as he shares ownership with his previous business partners.
“Its, I get why people do it, I have been fortunate to make money in this place, but for me, it’s the fight of my life, from being an independent company, from the beginning 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 ‘ok I’ll do this job and then part of this job is my Masters have to revert back to me.” The D’Ussé owner explained.
“I want my kids to see my work, and if they decide to sell it then it’s up to them,” he continued.
Jay’s statement comes as several artists and rights holders from Iggy Azalea, John Legend, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Nelly, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber and more have sold their interest in music to Wall Street companies and Private Equity groups from the US to the U.K.
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Even the Church of England has invested in the newly assigned asset class of songs and music rights by way of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the company that is now under threat for liquidation, after a crucial shareholder vote that happened on Thursday to avoid a sale to a Blackstone owned company.
