Kanye West is being sued in a New York court over a sample featured on his latest album, Donda 2.
Kanye is accused of using part of Marshall Jefferson’s 1986 hit ‘Move Your Body’ at least 22 times on the track ‘Flowers’.
A complaint was filed at New York’s US District Court yesterday, June 29, by Jefferson’s publisher, Ultra International Music Publishing. Kanye and his label have not commented on the lawsuit.
“I’ve been sampled thousands of times. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about it,” Jefferson told Radio 1 Newsbeat. “Getting done by another artist, a black artist, a fellow Chicagoan without acknowledgment is disappointing.”
House music pioneer Jefferson was performing at Glastonbury over the weekend.
The new lawsuit alleges that Jefferson’s and Kanye’s respective teams were in discussion over the sample, and that they admitted to using ‘Move Your Body’ for ‘Flowers’. Crucially, however, the complaint claims that the rapper didn’t take a licence for the sample, thereby monetarily compensating Jefferson.
“West advocates for artists’ rights with one hand, yet has no shame in taking away rights from another artist with the other,” the lawsuit reads. It is asking for profits and damages for Jefferson to be determined at a trial, with the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per infringement.
