by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton
January 23, 2026
As successful as ‘Through the Wire’ was, Ye does not earn any money on the publishing side.
One of Ye’s earliest and most recognizable songs in his vast catalog, which appeared on his debut 2004 album, “The College Dropout,” “Through the Wire,” was a hit for the then-young music producer, who was known at the time as Kanye West. Since its release, he has made zero from publishing.
In a recent interview, one of the songwriters of the sample he used, the 1985 Chaka Khan hit, “Through the Wire,” David Foster, revealed that during the negotiation for the man now known as Ye, when Ye’s team contacted him, he had no problem giving the burgeoning rapper a 50% stake in the publishing rights. Yet the woman who wrote the song’s actual lyrics, Cynthia Weill, nixed that idea and refused to give Ye any percentage.
Foster admitted that “Through the Wire” is the biggest sampled song in his catalog.
“He got nothing,” Foster states in the interview. “Funny story about that. I wrote that song with my friend Tom Keane, and the lyrics were done by Cynthia Weil, and when Kanye’s camp is like, ‘Hey, we want to use your song all the way through this record, and he wants 50 percent of the writing,’ or whatever. I was like, ‘OK.’”
However, Weill made it clear she would not give up anything, and her decision stood, so they still own 100% of the publishing rights to the original AND Ye’s version.
Cynthia was like, ‘F**k that.’ No, he gets nothing. We still remain the 100% writers.”
Foster did admit that he would have given Ye 50% of the publishing.
“I mean, I would have given it to him.”
— Henri Fjord (@henri_fjord) January 20, 2026
That song, recorded after Ye had been in a car accident in October 2002, where he almost lost his life, was produced while his jaw was wired shut, which explains the title.
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