Ye’s Biggest Enemy Seems to Be UMG CEO Lucian Grainge

Over the past month, Ye has unleashed diabolical tirades on social media that are aimed at races, religions, his ex-wife and pretty much every artist he’s aligned himself with in recent years. However, through all the unpredictable hate he’s been spewing, one thing remains consistent: Ye apparently considers Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge his biggest enemy.

As Ye continues his anti-Semitic and anti-music industry rhetoric, Lucian Grainge has two things working against him in the eyes of the artist formerly known as Kanye West: he’s Jewish and perhaps the most powerful person within the music business. While the two have certainly had some semblance of a working relationship in the past, Ye has often criticized the UMG exec, claiming Grainge manipulates artists’ careers, specifically in hip-hop, at will.

The Chicago rapper-producer’s first public criticism of Lucian Grainge dates back over a decade. While referring to himself as a “slave” during his infamous interview with Sway on Sway’s Universe in 2013, Ye called out Grainge by name.

“I made music that made money,” Ye says in an animated rant. “But at the end of the day, Lucian Grainge still cuts my checks. As powerful as my voice is, Lucian still runs 50 percent of the music industry.”

After that first slight directed at the Universal Music Group CEO, Ye and Grainge seemed to come to some sort of mutual understanding, at least in the professional space. In February of 2015, Ye and Lucian appeared together alongside singer Lana Del Rey on the cover of Billboard‘s Power 100 issue, and in 2018, a viral selfie found the two posing together while Ye donned a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap.

Despite the popular magazine cover and the smiling selfie, it appears as though Ye’s view of Lucian Grainge once again took a sour turn in the summer of 2021, right around the time Ye was gearing up to drop his highly anticipated album, Donda. Just hours after the album was released that August, Ye hit up Instagram with claims that “Universal put my album out without my approval and they blocked ‘Jail 2’ from being on the album.”

By the next year, Ye was in full-on anti-Semitic rage mode, taking aim at Jewish executives within the industry, much like Grainge, who the polarizing artist claims had him blackballed. Since then, Ye’s jabs at Grainge have only become more pointed over the past year. Ironically enough, Ye has thrown shade at both Drake and Kendrick Lamar, two artists Ye seems to think are both pawns in what he perceives as Lucian’s overarching evil plan.

In an interview on internet personality Justin Laboy’s The Download podcast last April, Ye disdainfully referred to Lucian Grainge as Drake’s “Rich baby daddy.” He further called out the Universal Music Group CEO by name while dissing Drizzy on an unofficial remix of Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” featuring Kendrick Lamar.

“Where’s Lucian? Serve your master, ni**a,” Ye raps. “You caught a little bag for your masters, didn’t ya?/Lifetime deal, I feel bad for ni**gas.”

Now, it’s one year later, and Ye claims that the “Like That” remix was never made official by Future and Metro Boomin because of the line referencing Lucian Grainge.

Most recently, amid Drake’s federal defamation lawsuit against UMG over Kendrick Lamar’s diss record “Not Like Us,” Ye has flipped the script and now accuses K-Dot of being the one doing Lucian Grange’s bidding. He’s gone so far as to challenge Kendrick to put out a diss track on behalf of the record exec.

Even fans have been able to identify Lucian Grainge as the most likely impetus for Ye’s unwavering rage against the music industry.

Ye relationship with Lucian can definitely be placed in the complicated category. And like Ye’s behavior, it ebbs and flows. On March 19, 2025, Yeezy minimalized Lucian’s status in the big scheme of things to a middleman.

“Honestly Lucien is an employee,” Ye tweeted. “He’s a nice guy The Jews and ni**as money is owned by whites The Jews are just the middlemen for the slaves.”

This is relatively the nicest thing Ye has said about Lucian in years, but it won’t be surprising if Ye is going on another tirade against the kingmaker again soon. While any sort of evidence of having Ye blackballed or justification for the artist’s actions have yet to be seen, it’s clear that Lucian Grainge has himself a sworn enemy.

XXL has reached out to Universal Music Group for comment.

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