Rapper, a producer and entrepreneur Kanye West, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, was sued for allegedly sampling a song by musician Marshall Jefferson without permission on Wednesday.
According to the reports, Ultra International Music Publishing LLC informed that ‘Flowers’ from West's album ‘Donda 2’ includes a sample from Jefferson's 1986 dance song ‘Move Your Body’ that is repeated at least 22 times.
Meanwhile, West’s representative did not respond to the allegations, and neither did his label Universal Music Group, which is not a party to the suit.
An attorney for Ultra International, which owns the rights to Jefferson's song, used a statement and said that the company had no comment and believes the lawsuit speaks for itself.
His song Move Your Body was released by Trax Records in 1986 and peaked at No. 34 on Billboard's Dance Singles Sales chart.
"I've been sampled thousands of times. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about it," he tells Radio 1 Newsbeat. "Getting done by another artist, a black artist, a fellow Chicagoan without acknowledgement is disappointing," reported BBC.
Marshall Jefferson is known to be a pioneer of house music from West's hometown of Chicago.
As per the lawsuit, West and his representatives acknowledged that during talks with Jefferson they said that ‘Flowers’ sampled ‘Move Your Body,’ but did not take a license. "West advocates for artists' rights with one hand, yet has no shame in taking away rights from another artist with the other," the lawsuit said.
Kanye West’s ‘Donda 2’ was released in February exclusively through his Stem Player, a handheld device that allows users to isolate and recombine song parts.
In addition, Kano Computing Ltd, a British company that developed the Stem Player with West and is also named in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the lawsuit, ‘Flowers’ is reportedly about West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian, whose petition to end their marriage was approved in March.
Previously, Texas pastor David Paul Moten sued West in May for allegedly sampling one of his sermons without permission.
Earlier, West had previously settled lawsuits over samples of a Hungarian singer on the 2013 song ‘New Slaves;’ a child's prayer on the 2016 song ‘Ultralight Beam;’ and a theatre work about activist Marcus Garvey on ‘Freeee (Ghost Town Pt. 2),’ a 2018 collaboration with rapper Kid Cudi.
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