Kanye West is being sued for copyright infringement again over a sampling issue
nme.comKanye West has been accused of “blatant theft of musical property” in a new copyright lawsuit over a sample used on his 2021 album ‘Donda’.On Wednesday (July 17), Artist Revenue Advocates (ARA) filed a case on behalf of Khalil Abdul-Rahman Hazzard, Sam Barsh, Dan Seeff, and Josh Mease in Los Angeles federal court.
The company stated that Ye used elements from a song called ‘MSD PT2’ on ‘Moon’ and ‘Hurricane’ from his 10th studio record – both tracks peaked in the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2021.According to a Billboard report, ARA – the company that owns the copyrights to ‘MSD PT2’ – claimed that they refused to give West the license to use the song and called the rapper-producer’s actions “blatant theft of musical property”.“This lawsuit is about more than defendants’ failure to pay a fee,” Oren Warshavsky and the other attorneys at BakerHostetler (the law firm representing the plaintiffs) wrote in a statement.“It is about the rights of artists, musicians, and songwriters to determine how their works are published and used.
Intellectual property owners have a right to decide how their property is exploited and need to be able to prevent shameless infringers from simply stealing.”In the filing, they said Ye crediting the song’s original creators on his track was an act of “blatant brazenness” after they refused to work with him.
Hazzard, Barsh, Seeff and Mease enlisted ARA’s help after they “unsuccessfully attempted to collect their share of the proceeds from these songs” for nearly three years.At the time of writing, Ye nor a representative of his has commented on ARA’s lawsuit.This April, an underground producer named TSVI also claimed West used a sample of his song ‘12345678’ on ‘Believe What I Say’ from.
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