US rapper Ye must pay musicians for using sample without permission

LOS ANGELES – A jury in Los Angeles found Ye, the American rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and three of his companies liable for more than US$400,000 (S$509,000), for having played a sample of music for his fans without permission.

At a listening party in Atlanta in July 2021, Ye included music created by other artistes in two songs – Moon and Hurricane – that he played for the 40,000 fans in attendance. The jury on May 12 found that he had used that music, MSD PT2, without permission and that he had failed to compensate the artistes for their work.

The party at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was live-streamed by Apple Music and was one of several events promoting the release of Ye’s album Donda (2021). Hurricane went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance in 2022.

The jury found Ye, who testified at the trial, liable for US$176,153 in damages, and his companies Yeezy LLC, Yeezy Supply and Mascotte Holdings liable for roughly US$260,000 in damages.

Ye, 48, has been accused of copyright infringement before. In 2024, he reached a settlement with late American singer Donna Summer’s estate for sampling her song I Feel Love (1977) without permission.

Around the same time, Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath said on social media that Ye had inappropriately sampled a 1983 performance of the heavy metal band’s song Iron Man (1970). The English singer died at age 76 in July 2025.

MSD PT2 was recorded by musicians Sam Barsh, Dan Seeff, Josh Mease and Khalil Abdul-Rahman, who is known as DJ Khalil. The lawsuit involving the song was brought by Artist Revenue Advocates, a company created in 2024 to bring forward copyright cases on behalf of artistes. The case was the company’s first.

Mr Britton Monts, manager and general counsel of Artist Revenue Advocates, said the artistes would not have otherwise had the financial means to challenge Ye. Before the trial, the artistes sold the copyright to MSD PT2 to the company.

“A jury considered the evidence and found him guilty of copyright infringement,” Mr Monts said. “I do think it is significant in that sense.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Ye called the verdict a “failed shakedown”, adding: “There is a cost attached to thinking you can take advantage of Ye.” The spokesperson said the jury had found Ye and his three companies collectively liable for only US$176,153.

The original complaint in the case, which was filed in 2024, focused on several revenue sources: royalties from Moon and Hurricane; profit from collaborations ahead of the release of Donda, including partnerships with Gap and Balenciaga; and sales of a music playback device, the Donda Stem Player, which came pre-loaded with the album’s songs.

A judge narrowed the scope of the case to focus on the music Ye had played at the Atlanta event, and not the versions of Moon and Hurricane included on Donda, which do not use the precise sample in question.

Still, in expert testimony ahead of the trial, Dr Joe Bennett, a professor of musicology at the Berklee College of Music, asserted that the final tracks included similarities to MSD PT2 that “could not be ascribed to coincidence or commonplace elements”.

In April, Ye released his latest album, Bully, and began a comeback tour after publicly apologising for a series of anti-Semitic comments and actions.

The tour started with sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles, but faced challenges in Europe. Shows were cancelled in Britain and Poland, and he postponed one in France after the government considered banning him from the country. NYTIMES