Birdman Says He's Got "Love & Respect" For UMG For Letting Him Own Masters, But Fans Think Somethings Not Adding Up

BYCole Blake30.9K Views
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BET "Music Moguls" Premiere Event
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 27: Rapper Birdman attends BET "Music Moguls" Premiere Event at 1OAK on June 27, 2016 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images for BET)
Birdman praised the label while speaking with Steve-O.

Birdman explained how his relationship with Univeral Music Group has helped him become rich and continue owning his masters during an interview with Steve-O on his Wild Ride! podcast. Despite the comments, many fans aren't fully buying into everything he had to say.

The conversation began with Steve-O congratulating Birdman on Cash Money Records selling over one billion albums throughout its run. From there, they discussed the ownership of masters and Birdman admitted that he didn't know anything about that side of the music industry when he first got into hip-hop. He said he was already caught up in "bullsh*t" by the time he understood the business side of things. "I did own everything," he clarified. "I never allowed none of the labels to own anything. Universal never owned nothing. We owned all our own music and publishing. So, when I figured out and found out, I went and established what was missing and what was lost because we always owned everything. Still today, I own 100% of my company. I own 100% of my masters."

Birdman Attends Lil Wayne's "Funeral" Album Release Party

MIAMI, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 01: Birdman and Lil Waune attend Lil Wayne's "Funeral" album release party on February 01, 2020 in Miami, Florida (Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images for Young Money/Republic Records)

From there, he added: "I've got nothing but love and respect for Universal because they never tried to take that from me. That was my consent that this is what I wanted to do and they never tried to take that from me. I know early on in other artists' and other people's careers, not to say Universal, but they took that from them. I never experienced that." When The Art of Dialogue shared the clip on Twitter, fans expressed doubt at Birdman's comments. "Something ain’t adding up birdman. Took you years to pay back lil Wayne," one user wrote. Another added: "Bro robbed everybody that made him rich (and famous) don’t care what he owns as it’s probably ill gotten gains anyway." Check out the full comments below.

Birdman Discusses Relationship With Universal Music Group

The interview arrives as Birdman has been feuding with Rick Ross on social media due to his beef with Drake. Be on the lookout for further updates on Birdman on HotNewHipHop.

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About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.
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