Kanye West has settled a lawsuit with his publisher, EMI, for an undisclosed amount, Billboard reports.
According to court documents West and EMI Publishing “have reached an agreement in principle to settle the above-captioned action in its entirety. The Parties expect to draft and finalize a settlement agreement within 90 days.”
A representative for EMI Publishing declined to comment. A representative for West did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
The settlement comes eight months after West sued the Sony/ATV-owned EMI Music Publishing, along with Universal Music Group, Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam. The rapper was effectively seeking a way out of the contract he’d signed with EMI back when he was working on his 2004 debut, The College Dropout, citing a California labor statute that limits personal service contracts to seven years.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, other musicians have filed similar lawsuits based around the California statute. And while fully severing ties with a publisher or record company may be the stated goal, often such suits resolve with a renegotiation of contract and royalty terms (as likely happened with West).
Last October, months before he filed the lawsuit, West posted several videos on social media, including a nine-minute one dubbed “Mind Control,” in which he claimed Sony-ATV rebuffed his attempts to buy back his publishing. “I went to go buy my publishing from Sony/ATV and they said, ‘It’s $8 million [or] $9 million’ and when I went to buy it, they told me ‘No,’ I couldn’t buy my publishing,” he said. “I have the money to buy [back] my publishing. And they told me that I couldn’t buy my publishing… It’s like the control.”
West is set to release his new album, Jesus Is King, Friday, September 27th.