Kanye West is known for the heavy use of samples in his production, particularly in his early days. The Chi-town rapper/producer is now being targeted for his role in sampling the 1974 song "Bumpin' Bus Stop", by Thunder & Lightning.
Trena Steward and Lorenzo Pryor, who are the children of David Pryor, a songwriter on the original recording, are suing Kanye for millions for his alleged illegal use of the sample in his song "Gold Digger".
While this appears to be Kanye's sole use of the sample in question, the lawsuit claims that the song has been sampled illegally for 15 years by various labels and artists, calling it an “illegal copyright infringement scheme and criminal enterprise involving the unauthorized, willful sampling of plaintiffs original copyrighted music on a massive scale."
Other labels named in the suit are Roc-a-Fella Records, Bad Boy Records, Stones Throw Records, Bomb Hip-Hop Records, Autumn Games, Activision, Caroline Distribution and The Island Def Jam Music Group.
Everyone from A Tribe Called Quest to Missy Elliott has sampled the immensely popular source. You can view a complete list here.
The sample appears in "Gold Digger" at the 0:32 mark and throughout, and in the original source at 0:12.
