Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign have settled their lawsuit with the estate of Donna Summer after they were sued for using the singer’s hit “I Feel Love” without permission.
The hook of the classic song was sampled on Vultures 1 track “Good (Don’t Die),” leading to the late singer’s estate alleging copyright infringement.
The matter has now reached a confidential settlement with the case being dismissed with prejudice.
A settlement had been in the works for months after the song was removed from streaming platforms. It’s not known if the settlement will allow it to return to services such as Spotify.
According to the lawsuit, Kanye West applied to sample “I Feel Love” but was rejected by Summer’s estate and Universal Music Group.
Court documents show West attempted to get around the rejection by using an interpolation instead of a sample. This, the estate says, still counts as copyright infringement.
Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign have not publicly commented on the lawsuit.
Shortly after Vultures 1 dropped, Donna Summer’s estate addressed the use of her signature song on the album: “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!”
West had other sample problems on Vultures 1 after Ozzy Osbourne criticized him for using Black Sabbath’s classic song “Iron Man” on the album.
In an Instagram post, Osbourne wrote: “@KANYEWEST ASKED PERMISSION TO SAMPLE A SECTION OF A 1983 LIVE PERFORMANCE OF “IRON MAN” FROM THE US FESTIVAL WITHOUT VOCALS & WAS REFUSED PERMISSION BECAUSE HE IS AN ANTISEMITE AND HAS CAUSED UNTOLD HEARTACHE TO MANY.
“HE WENT AHEAD AND USED THE SAMPLE ANYWAY AT HIS ALBUM LISTENING PARTY LAST NIGHT. I WANT NO ASSOCIATION WITH THIS MAN.”
Kanye West would later remove the original “Iron Man” sample and change it to an interpolation of his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy track “Hell of a Life,” which was cleared to use the iconic hard rock song.
Ye also allegedly failed to receive permission from the Backstreet Boys to sample their song “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”.
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