Jay didn't do it from out the kindness of his heart. He saved Def Jam more money by releasing X. Because X wasn't leaving if he still owed money and would even want to start his projects back up. So rather go back and forth, jay released him to Sony.
This doesn’t make sense. Artists get shelved all the time without being able to get out of their contracts. And I’m not an accountant but $12 million is $12 million to the shareholders of a company.