Music creative Mykki Blanco spoke up today (July 17, 2020) on Twitter about not receiving royalties for “WTP,” a song featured on Teyana Taylor‘s 2018 album K.T.S.E., a projected produced by Kanye West. The album was launched under G.O.O.D. music, an imprint of Universal Music Group.
On one side of the battle, Blanco claimed she hadn’t been paid by Taylor’s label Universal Music Group and had also been treated poorly by her team. Taylor pushed back by arguing that Blanco should speak to West because he chose to put Blanco on the album, usurping Taylor’s original wish to have Vogue dancer and emcee Dashaun Wesley featured on the single.
Can you believe it’s been two years and Universal Music has still not paid me my feature fee for the song “WTP”.
— mykki blanco (@MykkiBlanco) July 17, 2020
Can you believe it took 1 year with the help of my lawyer to get credited on the song, because it did.
On Twitter, Blanco kicked things off with a Tweet reading: “Can you believe it’s been two years and Universal Music has still not paid me my feature fee for the song ‘WTP’. Can you believe it took 1 year with the help of my lawyer to get credited on the song, because it did.”
Blanco went on to explain that she co-produced the track and also wrote the verse West raps on K.T.S.E. single “Hurry.” She added that she hadn’t gone public with the information so as “not to bad mouth Teyana Taylor.”
In one of a stream of tweets, Blanco wrote, “But @TEYANATAYLOR ‘s ENTIRE team and Universal have treated me WITH SO MUCH DISRESPECT. It’s a pandemic, like so many musicians I’m completely out of work. I’m doing writing jobs here and there but almost all of my income like so many others stems from touring” and then asked her followers to strop streaming “WTP.”
Noting that delayed payments aren’t usual in the music industry, Blanco pointed out that Universal Music Groups’s behavior was much worse than others. “I’ve worked with so many artists, I’ve been in situations before where payment was delayed. That’s normal, But these people have been transphobic, homophobic, rude, dismissive and literally after 2 YEARS, THEY STILL DON’T CARE WHETHER I AM EVER PAID FOR MY WORK,” she added.
Taylor responded with a note on Twitter in which she put the blame on lack of royalties on West. She also used the moment to restate her frustration with the recording process for KTSE, which she also expressed when the album was released two years ago. In the note, Taylor misgendered Blanco, for which she apologized in a later tweet.
Taylor, who is seven-months pregnant, wrote, “All of it falls on Kanye because he put Mykki on the song. I had no clue he was on the song before they played it for me the day before the album release party.”
Despite having her agency stripped away from her, Taylor said she still reached out to Blanco to include they in the video and covered the cost of their transportation from London and all glam-related costs.
She also accused Blanco of attacking her rather than West because she has less clout in the industry, making her an easy target. Taylor wrote, “For you to email my mom & my team who are all part of the LGBQT community saying if UMG, key work UMG/GOOD MUSIC don’t pay you, you’re going to make it a PR nightmare is whack. But I guess Kanye is a bigger artist…you save his ass because you don’t want the smoke from the original man who my feature off to keep you on it without my approval.”
Blanco refuted her claims that all the responsibility lays with West’s team and label. She wrote, “IF YOU WANNA QUOTE EMAILS, I HAVE 2 YEARS WORTH OF EMAILS FROM YOUR SIDE LITERALLY IGNORING MY MANAGER, IGNORING MY BUSINESS MANAGER/ACCOUNTANT AND IGNORING MY LAWYER. Teyana don’t play me, this DOES NOT ALL FALL ON KANYE. Just own your side and move on.”
Okay this is clearly about a pandemic coin. you got my whole #. People who know, knows I’m a giver! Idk you well but I don’t have to know a person that well to give. I HAVE NOT received one text or even a dm about what you’ve been put thru. So as I said, u handling this is wack. https://t.co/OCN6ft1pWX
— TEYANA M.J. SHUMPERT (@TEYANATAYLOR) July 17, 2020
Taylor clapped back by accusing Blanco of coming for her because of COVID-19-driven financial issues. Taylor wrote, “Okay this is clearly about a pandemic coin. you got my whole #. People who know, knows I’m a giver! Idk you well but I don’t have to know a person that well to give. I HAVE NOT received one text or even a dm about what you’ve been put thru. So as I said, u handling this is wack.”
Blanco then fired back and alleged Taylor exhibited questionable behavior at the time of the video shoot when she discovered Blanco was HIV positive. Blanco wrote, “We not EVEN gonna get into the fact that you were very uncomfortable when you found out I had HIV, You tried your hardest to edit me out the music video and then gonna put Lena Waithe and a bunch more ‘palatable’ Black Queer people all in the shit.”
WHEW CHILLLEEEEE the delusion 🥴 We are not going to get into that because it’s simply a lie. I knew nothing of ya status prior to today. Baby please take a nap. I see what’s going on here. Leave me alone, I’m done with this. https://t.co/R3ThwtEdqG
— TEYANA M.J. SHUMPERT (@TEYANATAYLOR) July 17, 2020
Taylor denied knowing Blanco’s status at the time of the video shoot. She concluded, “WHEW CHILLLEEEEE the delusion. We are not going to get into that because it’s simply a lie. I knew nothing of ya status prior to today. Baby please take a nap. I see what’s going on here. Leave me alone, I’m done with this.
Check out Blanco and Taylor’s statements below.
