Pusha T has revealed, in a new interview with XXL, that he resigned as the president of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label. When explicitly asked if he was still the president of the company, Pusha T responded, “No, I’m not.” The interviewer then asked him to clarify that he’s “not tied with G.O.O.D. Music anymore in any way,” and the rapper confirmed that’s the case.
Pusha T originally accepted the presidential title back in 2015, but he’s since established a 50/50 deal with Def Jam for his solo music and his label, Heir Wave Music Group. His most recent album, It’s Almost Dry, is now his last for G.O.O.D. Music.
“He’s not speaking to me now,” Pusha T said of West in the XXL interview. “If you ain’t with it, you ain’t down. And I ain’t with it. I’m not budging on that. I’m not with it. I heard about this new stuff [on InfoWars]. I don’t know. It’s something that just sort of tells me he’s not well, at the same time. I will say that. It’s going to places where it’s no way to move around it.”
During the InfoWars episode to which Pusha T referred, West made a number of disturbing and hateful remarks while praising Adolf Hitler and Nazis. West also brought his new ally Nicholas J. Fuentes—a white supremacist, antisemite, and Holocaust denier—to the interview. Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Pusha T for additional comment.
West and G.O.O.D. Music’s partnership with Def Jam ended back in 2021, prior to his recent antisemitism and hate speech. His relationship with Def Jam and parent company Universal Music Group was contentious for a number of years before splitting, too. West sued UMG, Def Jam, and Roc-A-Fella Records, as well as publisher EMI in 2019. (The suit against EMI was settled the next year.) He also tweeted his label contracts in 2020 amid a dispute with UMG.
Last month, Pusha T formally disavowed West in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “It’s definitely affected me. It’s been disappointing,” he said. “As a Black man in America, there is no room for bigotry or hate speech. So yeah. It’s been very disappointing, let’s talk straight.”
Read about Pusha T’s “Diet Coke” at No. 89 on Pitchfork’s list “The 100 Best Songs of 2022.”
