Kanye West has been involved in a few unfortunate legal situations over the past six weeks and things don’t appear to be getting better for the Chicago producer and rapper. At the end of January, it was reported that West was suing Roc-A-Fella Records. A few weeks later, reports surfaced that West was the victim of identity theft at New York Fashion Week. This week, we got more news about his latest law suit and the details did not paint a joyous picture.
As stated previously, Kanye West is suing Roc-A-Fella Records and EMI. This week, we received more details about the contract West allegedly agreed to with the two entities. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, West’s contract states, “At no time during the Term will you seek to retire as a songwriter, recording artist or producer or take any extended hiatus during which you are not actively pursuing Your musical career in the same basic manner as You have pursued such career to date.” As a result, West is contractually forbidden to retire in his lifetime.
In response to this contract, West’s legal representation has cited California Labor Code section 2855, which limits personal service contracts in the state for more than seven years. Furthermore, West’s legal representation argues, “It matters only whether the services began more than seven years ago. There can be no dispute that this happened here. The seven-year period ended under this contract on October 1, 2010. For more than eight years thereafter — more than double the maximum seven-year period California law allows.”
As it is easy to see, this legal battle is going to get messy and it will get messy very quickly.
