Kanye West, now Ye West is a famous rapper, producer and entrepreneur. He is sued for illegally sampling without permission.
Highlights
- Ye West, formerly known as Kanye West is a famous rapper, producer and entrepreneur.
- He is reportedly sued for illegally sampling another artist’s music without permission.
- The artist whose song was illegally sampled was Marshall Jefferson.
- Kanye sampled Jefferson’s 1986 song ‘ move your body’ at least 22 times in his album ‘Donda 2’.
Kanye West, now known as ye west is allegedly sued for illegally sampling another artist’s song. He sampled it in his album called ‘Donda 2’. He sampled the song called Move your body by Marshall Jefferson. It is a dance song released in 1986.
Donda 2 was released in February. It was released just six months after he dropped Donda which hit the top of the album chart as the no.1 release. Donda was his 10th and Donda 2 is his 11th album. This album was special as Kanye decided to release it on his stem player website exclusively. It was only available for those who purchased the stem player device. The British company who made the device is also included in the lawsuit.
There were 16 songs and it featured Future, Migos, The late XXTENTACION, Vory, Alicia Keys, Soulja boy, Jack Harlow, Fivio Foreign, Sean Leon, Travis Scott, Baby Keem and Don Toliver.
Kanye west did not respond immediately
Representatives for Kanye did not respond to the request immediately for comment nor did West’s label, Universal Music Group, which is not a part of the suit. An attorney from Ultra International, the group which owns the rights to Jefferson’s song, said the company has no comment and believes that the lawsuit speaks on its own.
Marshall Jefferson is a pioneer of house music from Kanye’s hometown in Chicago. The lawsuit states that West and his representatives acknowledged during talk with Jefferson that he sampled in his song ‘flowers’. But he didn’t take a license. The lawsuit further adds that West advocates for artist’s rights and yet he has no shame in taking rights from other artists.
The lawsuit reportedly states that Flowers is about West’s ex wife Kim Kardashian, whose petition for divorce was approved in march.
This is not the first time Kanye has been alleged of illegal sampling. Texas pastor David Paul Moren had also sued west in may for using his sermons without permission. Previously, he has also settled lawsuit over samples of a Hungarian singer in his 2013 song “New Slaves”, a child’s prayer in the 2016 song “Ultralight Beam” and a work of theater about Markus Garvey on “Freee(Ghost Town Pt.2). It was a collaboration with rapper Kid Cudi in 2018.
