Kanye West has reportedly never received a single dollar from the publishing rights for his classic track "Through The Wire" 😳 Songwriter David Foster recently claimed that Ye technically has zero writing credits on the song: "I wrote that song with my friend Tom Keane, and the lyrics were... done by Cynthia Weil... He got nothing. We still remain the 100% writers." (Via And The Writer Is...)show more

"A white man get paid off all of that" 🔥

Firstly to the dumboes in the comments ye absolutely wrote every bar in that song . This demon here only wrote the original sample and decided they would screw ye over for the full credit after verbally agreeing to 50%. Now I understand why Ye was losing his mind in the industry

I can almost absolutely guarantee you this white man did NOT write “I drink a.. boost for breakfast a ensure for desssurttt.. somebody order pancakes I just sip da sizzurpp.

You really expect me to believe these two white guys wrote this

Apple said:

Not gonna lie if I was Ye I would take that song off every streaming services and not let be able to be purchase. Real niggas gonna get it some othere ways. Fawk that old lady.

Not surprising when you look at what "they" truly think of rappers

What part of it did they write? Just the "Through the Fire" sample? And they were able to get 100% writing credits off THAT? 😳 That's fucking fowl to me But also, probably a great example of how Kanye broke down barriers for sampling. Because that would be absolutely wild today

So Chaka Khan doesn’t even own the song and she was blocking it too 😂 Ye was committed to have a great single and creating a great song it wasn’t about the money.

Prince been told yall

He wrote the sampled song.

Its crazy cuz he put his soul in that song and told his story.

I see why Kanye be on y’all heads

This reminds me of the tenderism controversy

ain’t nothing funny about this

It's unfortunate, but the reality is that back when that song came out, its success pushed a LOT of physical sales of "College Dropout" which made Kanye a lot of money. It's only now in the streaming era where the balance has shifted more towards credits, because there's far less physical sales these days.

Me trying to figure out how David Foster and Tom Keane wrote the song together but Cynthia Weil did the lyrics? Aren’t the lyrics what you write?

More details here:

So Ye ain’t write “And I still won’t grow up, Ima grown ass kid”

In the music industry, sampling involves clearing rights for both the master recording (the actual audio) and the underlying composition (the songwriting, including melody, lyrics, and structure). This clearance process requires negotiation with the original rights holders, who can dictate terms like royalty rates, upfront fees, and publishing splits. The publishing side—tied to songwriting credits—determines how ongoing royalties from performances, streams, sales, and syncs are divided among credited writers. For Kanye West's (now Ye's) 2003 debut single "Through the Wire," which heavily samples Chaka Khan's 1984 hit "Through the Fire" (looping its sped-up chorus throughout), the original songwriters were David Foster, Tom Keane, and Cynthia Weil. During sample clearance, Kanye's team requested 50% of the publishing rights for his contributions, including new lyrics about his near-fatal car accident and jaw surgery. Foster was open to it, recognizing Kanye's rising star power, but Weil refused, insisting the original writers retain 100%. As a result, the deal proceeded with the original trio keeping full songwriting credits and publishing ownership for the composition. This means Kanye receives no writer's royalties from "Through the Wire," despite rapping original verses and producing the track. He still earns from it as the artist and through master rights (via his label deal), but the publishing pie—often the most lucrative long-term revenue stream—goes entirely to the originals. Such lopsided splits are possible when a sample is central to the new song's identity, giving the original holders strong leverage. Official credits on platforms like Spotify reflect only Foster, Keane, and Weil as writers, underscoring how negotiation dynamics can leave the sampling artist with zero percent.

I'm sure Cynthia is Jewish...only Jewish people take pride in robbing non Jewish people of what they deserve.

Worth it for Kanye. He didn’t got nothing. He got a single that launched him into super stardom

He shouldn’t be bragging about this the foul cunt

So?

He was NOT huge or getting huge. When he dropped through the wire he was widly unknown as an artist and only known as a producer. Even popular torrent sites had him listed as Kane West. People didn't know him.

If Ye was dumb enough to release the song knowing the stipulations of using that sample, that L is on him. He didn’t need to use that sample. He could have simply hired an orchestra and created a similar song to the sample. Chopped it and sped it up and did his own thing.

He’s a known Zionist fuck him, i don’t play that song to often but I’m never playing it again

Meaning they stole the writing credits lol they did not write that shit lmaoooo

Fraud ass rapper.

Maybe this is what West was talking about. Stay away from these bloodsuckers black men

If we talkin' joints, it's just me and David Foster / @Drake @djkhaled

So the Jews took all his money and he was wrong about it?