Why is Kanye West being sued for copyright infringement? Lawsuit filed on behalf of DJ Khalil and others explored

Kanye West, also known as Ye, faces yet another copyright infringement lawsuit after DJ Khalil and three other artists claimed the rapper used their music without permission and compensation on his 2021 album Donda.

On July 17, 2024, Artist Revenue Advocate (ARA) filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles Federal court on behalf of Khalil Abdul-Rahman Hazzard, bassist Dan Seeff, keyboardist Sam Barsh, and multi-instrumentalist Josh Mease.

The lawsuit stated that the four artists denied Ye permission to sample their music for his album. Despite this, the rapper decided to use the music anyway. Kanye West even credited the artists as songwriters in what the lawsuit described as "an act of blatant brazenness" while refusing to pay them for their music.

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Kanye West used DJ Khalil's music in Hurricane and Moon

The court documents reviewed by All HipHop revealed that DJ Khalil, Seeff, Barsh, and Mease created a "composer pack" in 2018 with a set of tracks available for potential buyers. They alleged that Kanye West approached them to use their track for his songs but was denied permission.

Despite this, Ye incorporated elements from the track MSD PT2 into his songs Hurricane and Moon, even after being refused the proper license.

The four artists have “unsuccessfully attempted to collect their share of the proceeds from these songs” from Kanye West for the past three years, but to no avail. The lawsuit was filed on July 17 by Artist Revenue Advocate (ARA), which owns the copyrights to the track after the artists turned to it for help. Oren Warshavsky, an attorney from BakerHostetler representing the plaintiffs, said:

"This lawsuit is about more than defendants’ failure to pay a fee. It is about the rights of artists, musicians, and songwriters to determine how their works are published and used. Intellectual property owners have a right to decide how their property is exploited and need to be able to prevent shameless infringers from simply stealing."

According to Variety, ARA requested a trial by jury. While no monetary compensation has been stated in the lawsuit yet, the suit noted that Ye's songs were widely successful, earning at least $15 million on streaming platforms as of March 2024. Both songs were on the top 20 of the Billboards Hot 100 list when they came out in 2021, and Hurricane won a Grammy for Best Melodic Rap Performance in 2022.

The lawsuit was also filed against Universal Music Group, Yeezy Music LLC, and G.O.O.D. Music.

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Kanye West's other copyright infringement lawsuits explored

Ye faced another copyright suit earlier this year. The rapper was involved in a legal battle with Donna Summer's estate barely a month before the new lawsuit. In February 2024, her estate sued Ye and Ty Dolla $ign for using an interpolation of the singer’s I Feel Love on their track Good (Don't Die) from their collaborative album Vultures 1.

The lawsuit noted that Kanye West was denied permission to sample the song as the estate “wanted no association with West’s controversial history.” It added:

"Despite this denial, Defendants shamelessly used instantly recognizable portions of Summer’s hit song, ‘I FEEL LOVE,’ on their recently released collaborative album, ‘Vultures 1,’ and in recorded live concerts."

The lawsuit, settled on June 20, agreed that both parties would pay their legal fees and the track would be removed from all streaming services.

Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne also threatened legal action against Kanye West after the rapper reportedly sampled the band's Iron Man in Carnival during the Vultures 1 listening party at the UBS Arena in New York on February 9, even after being denied permission. Regarding this, Osbourne tweeted:

". @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!"

The sampling was replaced when Vultures 1 was released on February 10, 2024.