Kanye West is being sued for copyright infringement for allegedly sampling a song without permission on his Donda 2 track Flowers.
The rapper, who also goes by his legal name Ye, has been accused of using Marshall Jefferson’s 1986 house track Move Your Body on Flowers without getting permission or providing compensation.
In the complaint, filed by Jefferson’s publisher Ultra International Music Publishing in New York on Wednesday, they allege that West and his representatives acknowledged that Move Your Body was sampled in Flowers without authorisation or compensation. They claim the sample is repeated “at least 22 times throughout” Flowers.
“Defendants’ conduct is willful and deliberate,” the complaint reads, according to Billboard. “Defendants know and have been informed that they do not possess a license to utilize the Composition in the Unauthorized Work, and yet continue to willfully infringe in blatant disregard of UIMP’s rights of ownership.”
Ultra executives are seeking an injunction to stop West and the other defendants from continuing to infringe on Move Your Body. They also want profits and damages to be determined at a trial or the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 (£124,000) per infringement.
West released Donda 2 in February exclusively on his Stem Player, a music device that allows users to isolate parts of songs. Alex Klein, the co-creator of the Stem Player, has also been named as a defendant along with his company Kano Computing Limited.
This isn’t the first time the Stronger rapper has been sued over a sample. Most recently, he was sued by Bishop David P. Moten in May for allegedly sampling one of his sermons on Come to Life, a track on his 2021 album Donda.
West has yet to publicly respond to the legal action.
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