It’s been a whirlwind of a ride for Kanye West, who finally unveiled his joint project with Ty Dolla $ign, Vultures 1, earlier this month. Already, the album proved to be monumental for Ye and Ty. However, Ye now faces a new lawsuit as a result of the project. The estate of Donna Summer has filed a lawsuit against Kanye over her single, “I Feel Love,” which he sampled on Vultures 1 single, “GOOD (DON’T DIE)” without proper authorization. According to the estate, he used a soundalike to interpolate one of her songs after initially being denied his request to sample “I Feel Love.”
You’ve likely heard the song already, even though it was later removed from the album days after its release. became one of the highlights of the project, though the familiarity of “I Feel Love” is undoubtedly part of the appeal. However, Donna Summer’s team made it abundantly clear in their suit that they already denied Ye permission to use the song (apparently, he reached to clear the sample on Jan. 31) yet he attempted to find a loophole around it. Still, Summer’s estate explains that the interpolation won’t protect Ye from copyright infringement.
Donna Summer's Estate Won’t Stand For Kanye’s Antics
It really isn’t difficult to understand why the estate of the late singer, who still controls the copyright of the song, didn’t want to off on the sample. TMZ reports that this is presumably due to the string of controversy that surrounds Kanye, from his comments on George Floyd to his pro-Hitler tirades. At the end of the day, they decided that Ye’s use of her song wouldn’t be beneficial and passed up on Ye’s offer.
As for why the song is currently unavailable to stream on DSPs in certain markets, Summer’s estate said they reached out to streaming platforms to remove the song. Though streaming platforms like Apple and Spotify removed the song, it eventually returned to the tracklist. However, the song already gained millions of streams and for those who purchased the album on Apple Music, it’s apparently still available to listen to. The estate of Donna Summer is seeking major damages, along with an injunction to prevent the song from being distributed.