Ye currently has a few lawsuits that he’s dealing with, one of them surrounding the exclusive Donda 2 album. If you recall, the project never landed on streaming services. Instead, Ye chose to exclusively make the album available on his Stem player, which launched alongside 2021’s Donda. Though it wasn't widely accessible, he’s facing a lawsuit surrounding a sample on Donda 2. “Flowers” uses Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body." However, the publisher, Ultra International Music Publishing (UIMP), said Ye never received permission to use it in the first place.
UIMP claimed Ye acknowledged the unauthorized use of the sample. They said he “continue[d] to willfully infringe in blatant disregard of UIMP’s rights of ownership.” As a result, UIMP believes Ye made significant profits from the use of the sample. However, the project wasn't available on streaming services. This could be based on a since-deleted post where Ye said he made millions off of the device. “To earn the $2.2 million we made on the first day on the stem player the album would have had to stream 500 million times," he wrote. "We did more revenue on stem player, without the album even being out, than we would have done with the album being out on streaming.”
Ye Says No Money Was Made From Stem Player
Per All Hip Hop, Ye denied the allegations while his attorney said the Stem Players didn’t make any profits. “[Kanye] specifically denies that he has received any profits from the sale of Stem Players,” his attorney wrote. “Ye admits that there were sales of Stem Players after February 19, 2022, some of which came with Donda 2 preloaded on them. [He] denies that he received any revenue from those sales.”
His attorney also addressed the allegations that he verbally acknowledged the use of “Move Your Body.” “Ye denies that he personally acknowledged in discussions with representatives for Mr. Jefferson and UIMP that ‘Move Your Body’ was sampled in Flowers’ without authorization or payment,” Ye’s lawyer wrote. “Ye further denies that he personally has not ceased distribution of ‘Flowers.’” We’ll see how this pans out for Ye as UIMP seeks $150K in damages for each infringement listed in their lawsuit. We’ll keep you posted.