Kanye West’s EMI Contract Says He Is Not Allowed To Retire

Kanye West’s EMI contract states he is not allowed to retire.

A portion of West’s publicly released contract shows that the Chicago native is bound to an agreement that forces him to work forever. West’s EMI publishing contract, currently at the center of a wide-ranging lawsuit, states that West will “remain actively involved in writing, recording and producing Compositions and Major Label Albums, as Your principle occupation.” Furthermore, West must “at no time during the Term” initiate a retirement from those occupations or take an extended hiatus in which he’s not actively carrying them out.

The Hollywood Reported outlined the details on Monday. EMI has now filed a motion of removal in an attempt to move the case from California state court to a federal level. The label claims that its conditions go along with the Copyright Act, which would make it harder for West to fight against it.

According to Complex Media, West is suing both EMI and his label after he failed at buying back his publishing rights. Now, West is entirely focused on winning his “freedom” to retire, as well as release from his publishing and recording contracts. What may save him, his attorneys believe, is the California Labor Code section 2855, a.k.a. the De Havilland Law, which states personal service contracts, i.e., the same ones employed by those in creative fields, are limited to no more than seven calendar years in length.

“It makes no difference under section 2855 whether the contract is otherwise fair, or whether the employer has fulfilled its end of the bargain,” West’s complaint says. “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.” ”My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” West’s magnum opus, was released that November.

This has been a seven-year battle, which started in 2003 with ”College Dropout,” according to Complex.