Donna Summer’s estate sues Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign for “illegal” use of ‘I Feel Love’
The estate of Donna Summer has sued Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign for the alleged illegal use of ‘I Feel Love’ on their collaborative album ‘Vultures 1’.
According to the Associated Press, the copyright infringement lawsuit was filed in federal court in Los Angeles, California yesterday (February 27) by Summer’s husband Bruce Sudano in his role as executor of the estate.
The suit alleges that representatives of West had asked permission to use the 1977 song on the track ‘Good (Don’t Die)’. However, it claims they were rejected because the Summer estate “wanted no association with West’s controversial history”.
Sudano claims that West and Ty then approached Summer’s record label, Universal Music Enterprises, in a bid to be granted permission, but the label also denied their request.
Ye and Ty have been accused of “shamelessly” including re-recorded parts of the hit on the ‘Vultures 1’ cut that were “instantly recognisable”.
The suit states: “In the face of this rejection, defendants arrogantly and unilaterally decided they would simply steal ‘I Feel Love’ and use it without permission.”
The lawsuit names both West and Ty as defendants, as well as Yeezy Record Label, LLC, the company Yzy Snd, and 10 Does. It seeks an injunction to prevent any further circulation of the song, with damages to be determined at a trial.
The defendants are yet to respond to the suit.
In a post on social media earlier this month, Summer’s estate wrote: “Kanye West asked permission to use Donna Summer’s song ‘I Feel Love’, he was denied.”
The message went on to allege that the artist had “changed the words, had someone re-sing it or used AI” to get the sample on ‘Vultures 1’. They claimed that this still constituted “copyright infringement”.
‘Good (Don’t Die)’ has since been removed from Spotify and other streaming services.
Back in December, it was claimed that West had used a Backstreet Boys sample on a ‘Vultures’ track called ‘Everybody’. The song was reportedly not cleared, however, and didn’t end up featuring on ‘Vultures 1’.
Ozzy Osbourne recently hit out at Ye over an alleged unauthorised sample of Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ on the cut ‘Carnival’. The Prince Of Darkness called West “an antisemite” who had “caused untold heartache to many”, adding: “I want no association with this man!”
Ozzy’s wife and manager, Sharon, said the rapper had “fucked with the wrong Jew this time” and claimed that he “represents hate”. It was reported that the Osbournes had sent a cease and desist to West.
The Sabbath sample was subsequently removed and replaced with a sample of West’s song ‘Hell Of A Life’, which features a legally-cleared sample of ‘Iron Man’. Ye has since responded to Ozzy, claiming that the comments may not have come from the musician himself.
Osbourne has since addressed confronting West, saying: “Well, nobody else would fucking do it, did they?”
In late 2023, West spoke out about Nicki Minaj not permitting him to use her verse on his track ‘New Body’, which was meant to appear on one of the ‘Vultures’ albums.
In a two-star review of ‘Vultures 1’, NME said that the collection was “mired in misogyny” and “dogged by degrading lyrics and messy mixes”.
It added: “Such misogyny is hardly new in hip-hop – or either artists’ catalogues or the broader musical landscape in general – but that doesn’t make it any less detestable.”
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Tom Skinner
NME
