Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign’s ‘Vultures’ Song Removed From Spotify Following Donna Summer’s Estate Complaint
Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign aren’t feeling the Valentine’s Day love as their Vultures 1 track “Good (Don’t Die)” has been removed from Spotify after less than four days on the streaming service.
“Good (Don’t Die)” was taken down from Spotify on Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 14) but remains available on other streamers such as Apple Music. The electro-pop deep cut appears to interpolate elements of Donna Summer‘s 1977 hit “I Feel Love” on the pensive chorus.
Hours after Vultures landed on streamers over the weekend, Donna Summer’s estate claimed “copyright infringement” and disapproved of Kanye’s use of the alleged sample.
“Kanye West… asked permission to use Donna Summer’s song I Feel Love, he was denied… he changed the words, had someone re sing it or used AI but it’s I Feel Love… copyright infringement!!!” the estate wrote in an Instagram Story on the official Donna Summer account Saturday (Feb. 10).
“I Feel Love” reached a peak of No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977 and spent 23 weeks total on the chart. The track is one of 14 songs to reach the top 10 on the Hot 100 in Summer’s lifetime.
“Good (Don’t Die)” was far from the only sampling issues Kanye and Ty faced with Vultures 1.
A track tentatively titled “Everybody” was played at the New York Vultures listening event which appeared to sample the Backstreet Boys anthem of the same name, but was reportedly not cleared and didn’t make the first volume of Vultures on streaming.
Rockstar Ozzy Osbourne called out Kanye West and labeled him an “antisemite” after a former version of “Carnival” featured a live performance of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” West went back to the drawing board and swapped out “Iron Man” for an interpolation of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy‘s “Hell of a Life” on the final version.
“We get so many requests for these songs,” Sharon Osbourne told Billboard last week. “And when we saw that request, we just said no way… We’ve been in touch with his team … And it’s also an issue of having respect for another artist.”
Billboard has reached out to Spotify for comment. Listen to “Good (Don’t Die)” below.
Michael Saponara
Billboard