Following the proper steps to clear a sample for his chart-topping 2021 Donda LP, Kanye West has testified in federal court.
As part of the ongoing Los Angeles trial over an early version of his Grammy Award winning song ‘Hurricane,’ – featuring The Weeknd and Lil Baby that went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance – on Wednesday (5.06,) the embattled rapper took the stand.
According to the lawsuit filed by music producers’ DJ Khalil, Sam Barsh, Dan Seeff and Josh Mease, West included an uncleared sample of their instrumental track ‘MSD PT2’ in a ‘Hurricane’ demo played at a Donda pre-release listening party in July of 2021.
Stating that the lawsuit is baseless because his team made an earnest effort to clear the sample, and noted he was generally “very generous” with giving credit to collaborators, the 48-year old controversial rapper insisted that the four producers intentionally dragged their feet and refused to approve industry-standard splits.
Donned in a grey suit, the Atlanta-born native stated:
“We went through the normal process to get it taken care of.” “I pride myself on giving people what they deserve,” and adding that creators sometimes try to extract undue money from him, and this trial is one such example, the defendant told the jury “I feel like a lot of people try to take advantage of me.” “As I sit in this courtroom today, I just think people are trying to make more than they otherwise would because it’s me.”
Not the first time his practices after been called into question, the current lawsuit is one among more than a dozen copyright cases Kanye West has faced throughout his career for allegedly using unlicensed samples and interpolations in his music. It’s the first time he’s taken one of these lawsuits to trial.
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: LittleO2