Kanye West is being dragged to court by Donna Summer‘s estate — this after her estate claims he made an unauthorized soundalike of one of her biggest songs … after it denied his request to clear a sample of the real thing.
The late singer’s estate just filed suit against Ye, Ty Dolla $ign, Ye’s record label and others — and according to the docs, obtained by TMZ, they’re claiming Kanye wanted to sample Summer’s smash hit “I Feel Love” for a track on his first ‘Vultures’ album.
The song in question is called “Good (Don’t Die)” … and it was actually included in the tracklist at first when KW dropped ‘Vultures 1’ on Feb. 10 across different streaming platforms.
Indeed, those who’ve heard the song know quite well … it sounds a lot like Donna’s voice from ‘IFL’ in the new West track — but the problem, according to the lawsuit, is that Ye and co. never properly got permission to use it … and the estate claims they were very clear about rejecting the request.
In the suit, filed by attorney Larry Stein, Donna’s estate claims Ye and Ty approached them about a month ago — on Jan. 31, 2024, they say — to request clearance on her iconic hit … but the estate flatly denied them.
The estate says Summer’s estate still controls a portion of the copyright — and claims Ye and company approached them a little more than a week before the release date for the new song … with Kanye apparently wanting to drop the album on Feb. 9, with the song in the mix.
The estate says because of Ye’s rep lately — presumably the controversies surrounding his antisemitic comments and other public statements — Donna’s estate decided her song being used on his album wasn’t going to do them any good … so they say they passed, and rejected his ask for the sample.
Despite this, Donna’s estate claims Ye dropped the album anyway with “Good (Don’t Die)” on there … and it showed up on Apple, Spotify and other major streaming/music platforms.
They claim Ye attempted to get around the denial by creating an interpolation of Donna’s song instead of the actual track — but Donna’s estate claims the workaround doesn’t insulate them from copyright infringement.
Donna’s estate says they contacted Apple, Spotify and other streamers to ask they yank the song — which may explain why Kanye’s album briefly disappeared the weekend it was released. Eventually, it was re-uploaded — but “Good (Don’t Die)” is now removed from the list.
However, in the time it took for all this to happen … Donna’s estate claims the song had been streamed millions of times — and they allege they’ve been harmed as a result.
BTW, “Good (Don’t Die)” is still included in the track list for ‘Vultures 1’ for those who actually purchased the album when it first dropped, and it still plays in full … at least, we’ve confirmed that’s the case on Apple Music.
TMZ Studios
The estate is asking for major damages and an injunction blocking further distribution of the song with the infringing sample. We’ve reached out to Ye … no word back yet.
