Kanye West’s dispute with Donna Summer‘s estate over one of his new songs has turned into a legal matter.
According to a report by TMZ on Tuesday (February 27), the late singer’s estate is suing Ye because the song “Good (Don’t Die)” from Vultures 1 features vocals that resemble Summer’s hit song “I Feel Love,” the use of which the estate claims to have rejected.
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According to court documents, the Yeezy boss tried circumventing their decision by using an interpolation instead of a sample. This, the estate says, still counts as copyright infringement. As a result, Ye, his collaborator Ty Dolla $ign, and the label through which the song was released are all being sued.
After several attempts at having the song removed from streaming platforms, the Queen of Disco’s team is seeking major damages as well as an injunction that would block the track’s distribution moving forward.
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HipHopDX attempted to reach out to Kanye West’s team for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
“Good (Don’t Die)” was originally taken down from Spotify due to issues surrounding the use of “I Feel Love.” Last week, the track was re-uploaded on the the Swedish streaming platform.
The credits on the latest version of the song, however, were quite confusing as they listed RichYeRich as the performer, Brian Jamoe as the writer, and no producer. Furthermore, the source was cited as DarkSide LLC, which there are no traces of online.
Since then, the song has once again been removed from all services, though it has already generated millions of streams.
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The news came after the cut was initially pulled from Spotify over a dispute involving its sample of the aforementioned hit song. The hook of Ye’s track prominently borrows from the late singer–songwriter’s 1977 disco anthem, which her estate took issue with.
Shortly after Vultures 1 dropped, the Grammy-winner’s team wrote on Instagram: “Kanye West asked permission to use Donna Summer song, ‘I Feel Love,’ [but] he was denied. He changed the words, had someone re-sing it, or used AI but it’s ‘I Feel Love’…copyright infringement!”
