Kanye West Insists ‘JAY-Z Is My Brother’ & Begs Industry Not To ‘Pit’ Them Against Each Other

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Kanye West went back on Twitter in the early hours of September 18 to address alleged beef between himself and longtime friend and fellow rapper, Jay-Z. In the tweet, which you can see here, Ye shared a screen grab of a post that alleged “Jay-Z sold the masters to first 6 [Kanye West]’s albums just so he could get his own back.” The post also alleged that Jay “did so knowing Def Jam won’t sell them back to Kanye in the future. That’s BEEF!”

But Kanye wasn’t having any of it. The rapper took to Twitter, sharing the screenshot of the claim, and tweeting his own response. “Don’t let the system pit us against each other … JAY IS MY BROTHER,” he said. “I have eternal love for all artist that have been through and are still trapped this crooked system,” he continued, calling out the music industry.

Kanye also alleged that “Jay still doesn’t get his own masters back for ten years,” and promised the he “will see to it that we all get our masters.” This latest tweet comes during a week where Kanye has been seemingly calling out the music industry over ownership of his work. On September 15, he told fans on the social media site that his kids will “own [his] masters.”

In a text message exchange that Kanye shared to Twitter, the “Famous” rapper also offered a new dig at Taylor Swift. “[Regarding] masters ownership, we can look into buying. But if Taylor’s cost $300 million, yours would cost a lot more, I assume.” However, the unnamed person in the text exchange assured Ye that, much like Taylor was planning to do, it would be cheaper for him to “re-record these songs,” so that Ye “could own these new masters outright.”

Just one day later, Kanye doubled down on his assertions with a graphic tweet on September 16. This one featured Ye literally peeing on his prized Grammy award, as he continued to voice his desire to be released from his recording contracts with his publisher, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and his label, Universal Music Group. “Trust me… I WON’T STOP” he captioned the footage, leaving fans shocked.

In terms of his latest call-out to friend and frequent collaborator, Jay-Z, the tweet comes as a new development in a years-long complicated friendship. Back in 2016, after Jay and Beyonce did not attend Kanye and Kim Kardashian‘s 2014 wedding, Kanye called out Jay for not visiting him and his wife following their Paris robbery. Jay returned the dig by seemingly referencing Kanye on his album 4:44, in which he alleges to giving the rapper $20 million to stay with Tidal, only to see Ye diss him during his Saint Pablo tour.

In 2017, Kanye split from Jay’s Tidal venture around the same time that the documentary, Public Enemies: Jay-Z vs. Kanye, aired, detailing their tumultuous professional and personal relationship. In the years since, however, the two have seemingly mulled over their strains. By December 2019, the two were seen at Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs 50th birthday party together, enjoying their time like old confidants.

Prior to his latest tweet, Kanye spoke with Nick Cannon on his Cannon’s Class podcast, sharing that he wanted to show Jay that he has worth. “So I’m thinking people call me crazy so I’m going to show them, I’m gonna even show my big bro I’m not crazy,” Kanye said. “I’m going to show Jay-Z, I’ma, you know, I’m gonna show him that, you know, that my value, that you could be diagnosed and people could point fingers at you, and you could still be a citizen and you could still have value.”