Rapper known as Ye must pay six-figure sum to four plaintiffs who successfully argued he infringed copyright
Kanye West has lost a lawsuit which alleged he infringed on other artists’ copyright by playing an uncleared sample of their work during a live event.
In July 2021 the artist, now legally known as Ye, played his then-unreleased album Donda to 40,000 fans at a listening party held at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The version of the song Hurricane featured a sample of MSD PT2, an instrumental composed by four musicians: Khalil Abdul-Rahman, Sam Barsh, Josh Mease and Dan Seeff. They had made the instrumental in 2018, and it made its way to Ye via another producer.
Ye removed the sample from the finished version of Hurricane when it was released to the public, instead interpolating elements of it. The four men were added to the songwriting credits, acknowledging the interpolation. But the plaintiffs argued that they were owed compensation for the sample being used in the earlier version broadcast at the listening party, because the event made money for Ye via ticket sales, merchandising and more. “There was no deal, no agreement, no licence, and no clearance,” their lawyer Irene Lee argued in a Los Angeles court.
