Anita Baker, the “Angel” singer, was occupied for the most part of 2021 to gain back control of the masters of her first five albums. Luckily, she has been successful in getting the masters back after struggling for almost six months. These albums were recorded between 1983 to 1994. As per the contracts made between her and her previous label, Elektra, the masters were to be returned to her after 30 years. However, the company refused to return them.
To celebrate she posted a picture on Twitter of the vinyl records of her first five albums. She also captioned the post,
All My Children Are Coming Home. Catalog. Impossible Things Happen… Every. Single. Day. Gratefully.
All My Children Are Coming Home
Catalog🎉
Impossible Things Happen🎁…
Every.
Single.
Day.
Gratefully❤️ pic.twitter.com/9OgYaxNmip— Anita Baker (@IAMANITABAKER) September 3, 2021
Baker has garnered massive international acclaim for her soulful and emotional delivery all through the ‘80s and ‘90s. She has been one of the most popular and legendary singers in the urban contemporary genre. The genre made her unique and helped define her place in the traditional-oriented soul and R&B singing.
She was supported by Taylor Swift, the Grammy-winning singer. After getting to know about the news, Swift cheered her on a tweet, stating,
What a beautiful moment, CONGRATULATIONS ANITA!!
What a beautiful moment, CONGRATULATIONS ANITA!! 🥲🥲👏👏 https://t.co/oUTjh8lGND
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) September 5, 2021
Baker responded by thanking her, writing,
Thank You, for Your *Fire & Support!! It Inspires us all, to move Mountains.
Thank You, for Your *Fire & Support!! It Inspires us all, to move Mountains🙌🏾 https://t.co/tMfu1XR30r
— Anita Baker (@IAMANITABAKER) September 5, 2021
Baker was determined to get her masters back and was ready to fight for it as she tweeted on 9th March,
Miraculously… i have out-lived *ALL, of my Artists Contracts. They no longer ‘Own’, My Name & Likeness. And, by Law…30 yr old, Mstrs are 2B Returned, 2 Me. Unfortunately, They’re gonna make me Fight 4 it. I’m Prepared, 2 do that. Please Dont advertise/buy them ABXO.
🎁Miraculously… i have out-lived *ALL, of my Artists Contracts🎈 They no longer "Own", My Name & Likeness. And, by Law…30 yr old, Mstrs are 2B Returned, 2 Me🎼 Unfortunately, They're gonna make me Fight 4 it. I'm Prepared, 2 do that. Please Dont advertise/buy them ABXO🎈💓 pic.twitter.com/PXe9xzsJK0
— Anita Baker (@IAMANITABAKER) March 9, 2021
Taylor also tweeted,
This Solidarity 🎼is a Beautiful Thing!🎁
Thank You💜— Anita Baker (@IAMANITABAKER) March 26, 2021
Even, Chance, the rapper posted a tweet supporting Baker,
DO NOT LISTEN TO NO ANITA BAKER TIL THEY GIVE HER HER MASTERS BACK
TELL YO MAMA
TO TELL A MAMA
DO NOT LISTEN TO NO ANITA BAKER TIL THEY GIVE HER HER MASTERS BACK
TELL YO MAMA
TO TELL A MAMA https://t.co/IrnNLn1eZW— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) March 20, 2021
Taylor Swift’s support in this matter counts in a lot as she also had to go through a similar situation when the recording company, Big Machine Records, was sold to recording mogul Scooter Braun.
She was barred to perform her older songs by Braun and the company’s C.E.O, Scott Borchetta. She was also not allowed to perform those songs at the 47th Annual American Music Awards and also in her documentary, Miss Americana, which was released in 2020.
Artists such as Iggy Azalea and Halsey, publicly voiced their support for Swift, while several of the manager’s clients, such as Justin Bieber, took his side on the matter. Last year in October, Braun sold the masters and other properties related to Swift to Shamrock Holdings for over $300 million.
As per Swift, she was given the opportunity to bid for her masters, but she refused and instead went on to re-record six of her older albums. The new versions of the songs were greatly met with critical acclaim and were praised for their improvision against the original studio albums.
I’m cheering you on in your fight to get back your work, and appreciate your support so much!! Thank you 🙏 💗
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) March 25, 2021
An updated version of Fearless, titled Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is expected to release in April and her other hit album, Red, is to be released on the 19th of November.
Swift spoke about the re-recorded versions,
In terms of production, I really wanted to stay very loyal to the initial melodies that I had thought of for these songs. And so we really did go in and try to create a ‘the same but better’ version. We kept all the same parts that I initially dreamed up for these songs. But if there was any way that we could improve upon the sonic quality, we did.
She added,
We just kind of took all the knowledge that we’ve acquired over decades of playing this music and applied that to it. But yeah, I did go in line by line and listen to every single vocal and think, you know, what are my inflections here. If I can improve upon it, I did. But I really did want this to be very true to what I initially thought of and what I had initially written. But better. Obviously.
