Ownership was a hotly discussed topic at the REVOLT Summit in Los Angeles. Roma Khanna, the REVOLT CEO, highlighted its importance when she told the crowd, “We’re trying to be a platform for you to connect, to learn, to hear from those people who have succeeded, but also how they succeeded and their journey.”

Mustard, alongside Ty Dolla $ign, appeared for a Big Boy-led West Side Story panel on Sunday (Oct. 27). The mega-producer shared the major ways that ownership has contributed to his success.

First, Mustard remembered his breakout hit, “Rack City” featuring Tyga, which was released on Tyga’s Careless World: Rise of the Last King album in 2012.

“That’s what got me on my feet,” he said. “That’s what got me to take care of my son and my fiancée.”

He revealed that he signed a co-publishing deal for “Rack City,” and ended up signing two more co-publishing deals after that. Although the hit gained him success, Mustard was stuck in the deal.

“What you don’t know about co-pub deals is you don’t get that percentage back that you sold to them for the next ten years and sometimes you don’t get it back at all,” he told the crowd. “So what I did recently, as of earlier this year, for the last two years I’ve had admin deals, which means I own everything, all those songs that I would never get back… I sold all of them.”

“For me, the better thing to do was to bet on myself and sell that piece of that catalogue for 15 times multiple,” he continued. “So if you’re making a million dollars a year off of that, you’ll make 15 million dollars multiple.”

Mustard is one of several hip hop artists now speaking out about the importance of ownership. Nipsey Hussle famously championed self-ownership in many aspects of his independent music career.

“I sold that and I got a pretty big check, and what I did after that is I bought myself out of every contract I ever had,” Mustard continued. “So I own everything now, from my publishing to my record label. I still have a 50/50 share with Universal [Music Group] and that deal is up so we finna renew that one as well.”

Check out the clip from Mustard and Ty Dolla $ign’s panel at REVOLT Summit L.A. below.