Michael Jackson did buy the rights to some of Eminem’s songs, but not out of revenge as rumors suggest.
The purchase was part of a larger deal with Sony in 2007, where they bought rights to 125,000 different songs.
After Jackson’s passing, his estate decided to sell their stake in Sony-ATV, making Sony the sole owner of the music rights business.

After many years in the music business, Eminem has released a slew of popular songs and become one of the best-selling hip-hop artists. Eminem has also accumulated an incredible fortune that has allowed him to provide for his family.

Despite everything Eminem accomplished, another music superstar bought the rights to some of his music. Around the time that Michael Jackson dangled his baby from a balcony, Eminem dissed him in his music. After that, Jackson bought the rights to Eminem’s music.

This article will reveal the true story and the lies about how and why Michael Jackson bought Eminem’s music. The article will then reveal what has happened to the rapper’s songs since Jackson’s passing.

The Rumors About Michael Jackson Buying Eminem’s Music Are Full Of Deception

In 2007, a company that Michael Jackson co-owned with Sony called Sony/ATV bought some of Eminem’s music. That fact is absolutely true and there is also no doubt that this took place after Eminem angered Jackson by insulting the “King of Pop” in a hit song. However, a lot of the things that are claimed about this whole situation are factually untrue.

In order to get a full picture of what really happened, it is important to know what Jackson and Sony bought together. In 2007, the business partners bought a company called Famous Music as The Guardian revealed.

As a part of that deal, Jackson and Sony bought the rights to some of Eminem’s music and they came to own the rights to 125,000 different songs. To complete the deal, Jackson and Sony paid a staggering $370 million.

At the time of the deal, Sony put out a press release in which they listed some of the music rights they’d just gained. While Eminem is named in the press release so are a lot of other extremely popular artists.

“The catalogue includes contemporary hits such as “Bad Day” (Daniel Powter), “Hips Don’t Lie” (Shakira), “The Real Slim Shady” (Eminem), and “Beautiful” (written by Linda Perry – performed by Christina Aguilera). The company also owns the Bjork, Duke Ellington, Dave Grusin, Bush and Boyz II Men catalogues, and songs from smash Broadway shows such as A Chorus Line and The Producers.”

Sony also was proud to reveal that they’d gained the music rights to a slew of different movie themes as a part of the deal. Finally, they revealed that the company they just bought had relationships with many songwriters who were behind a slew of hits.

In short, it is accurate to say that Jackson bought the music rights to some of Eminem’s songs with his partners. On the other hand, it is incredibly misleading to pretend that Jackson did this as part of a scheme to get back at Eminem.

For that to be true, Jackson would have had to get Sony to go along with his elaborate and costly revenge plan. On top of that, Jackson would have had to not care about all the other music rights he bought as part of the deal. If all that wasn’t enough, Jackson would have had to hold a grudge against Eminem for years.

That said, it is easy to see why that story took hold. First off, The Daily Mail chronicled one of the many infamous stories of Jackson’s overspending. More importantly, Eminem definitely made Jackson really upset before the deal.

How many times has Eminem topped the Billboard chart, according to Billboard?

Song:
Weeks at #1:

“Lose Yourself”
12 Weeks

“Love The Way You Lie”
7 Weeks

“The Monster”
1 Week

“Not Afraid”
1 Week

“Crack A Bottle”
1 Week

Three years earlier, in 2004, Eminem released his song “Just Lose It” and recorded a music video for the song. In that video, Eminem can be seen dressed up as Jackson and making the pop star look foolish in a variety of ways, including having his hair light on fire.

If that wasn’t bad enough, “Just Lose It” also featured lyrics that took shots at Jackson’s past scandals. Most significantly, Eminem referred to the accusations several young people made about Jackson over the years.

After the song and music video were released, it didn’t take long for Jackson to respond. While talking to a Los Angeles radio station at the time, Jackson expressed how angry he was with Eminem.

“I am very angry at Eminem’s depiction of me in his video. I feel that it is outrageous and disrespectful. It is one thing to spoof, but it is another to be demeaning and insensitive. I’ve admired Eminem as an artist, and was shocked by this. The video was inappropriate and disrespectful to me, my children, my family and the community at large.”

At the time, a spokesperson for Jackson also suggested that he was considering suing Eminem over “Just Lose It”. It is unclear what grounds they had to sue.

Michael Jackson’s Estate Sold The Rights To Eminem’s Music To Sony

By the time Michael Jackson passed away, he had serious money problems and debt. Thankfully for Jackson’s estate, however, he still owned several valuable assets, including his stake in the music rights he co-owned with Sony.

In February 2023, Jackson’s estate announced they were seeking to sell their stake in Sony-ATV. At the time, Variety reported that the estate was seeking $800 million to $900 million for the very valuable asset.

Sony first got to buy half of the music catalogs that Michael Jackson owned in 2016. As The New York Times has reported, Sony paid Jackson $600 million for half of his and The Beatles’ music catalogs. Sony also owned half of all the other music rights Jackson had bought up until then as part of that deal.

A year later, in February 2024, Billboard reported that Jackson’s estate had reached a deal with Sony. That deal called for Sony to pay the estate at least $600 million to buyout Jackson’s half of Sony-ATV. That makes the company the sole owner of the music rights business.

Thanks to the blockbuster deal, Sony became the owners of two of the most important music catalogs in history. Sony now solely owns the music rights to Michael Jackson and The Beatles’ music catalogs.

The deal also allowed Sony to take sole ownership of all the other rights Jackson used to have an ownership stake in. That means Sony now owns the Eminem songs the former partnership bought as a part of the Famous Music deal.