Rapper Kanye West has sued Universal and EMI over his record and publishing contracts. In a free-form rant posted online in October 2018, West said he had tried to purchase his publishing catalog from Sony/ATV Music and they declined.

"I have the money to buy (back) my publishing," West said in the video, and added: "And they told me that I couldn't buy my publishing…. It's like the control." While the terms of his contract are not public, music publishing deals typically do not allow artistes to simply buy back their publishing whenever they want.