Kanye West’s Album ‘Vultures 1’ Ignites Legal Battle with Donna Summer’s Estate

Donna Summer’s Estate is following through on their threats of suing rappers Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign for using one of the late singer’s songs. Their song “Good (Don’t Die)” samples Summer’s song “I Feel Love.”

However, Summer’s estate states they never gave the rappers permission to use the song. According to The Guardian, West and Ty Dolla $ign asked to used the song. However, ultimately the estate denied their request.

The cited reason was, “The immense commercial value of the I Feel Love composition. But also the potential degradation to Summer’s legacy. West is known as a controversial public figure whose conduct has led numerous brands and business partners to disassociate from him….The Summer estate sought to protect the valuable intellectual property … from any public association with the negative publicity surrounding West.”

According to the lawsuit, West and Ty Dolla $ign then sought permission to use the song from Universal Music Group. However, this organization also reportedly denied the rappers the use of Summer’s song.

The lawsuit continues, “In the face of these repeated denials, West and co-defendants attempted to get around this roadblock by instead making an unauthorised interpolation. West and his co-defendants used the song’s iconic melody as the hook for their infringing song and essentially re-recorded almost verbatim key, instantly recognisable portions of ‘I Feel Love’ using a singer soundalike to Summer, with slight changes to the lyrics (also done without permission).”

Kanye West Sued by Summer’s Estate

So far, West hasn’t responded to the lawsuit. Several music streaming sites have since taken down the album. In a social media post, West did respond to some of the controversy. He said, “As far as the system goes What yall gone do now Take my album down again Freeze my accounts again Threaten people to not work with me again All the new non approved 350’s are cooorny.”

Previously, Summer’s husband Bruce called out the rapper on social media, threatening to sue West. “Kanye Wes asked permission to use Donna Summer’s song ‘I Feel Love.’ He was denied. He changed the words, had someone re sing it or used AI but it’s ‘I Feel Love.’ Copyright infringement!!!” the statement read on the Instagram stories of the official Donna Summer account.

Likewise, Ozzy Osbourne also called out the rappers for sampling his song “Iron Man” on the album. The rocker explained his reasoning for why he did so.

“Well, nobody else would f—ing do it, did they?” he said. “There’s enough f—ing aggravation, and he shouldn’t say anything [like what he has]. It’s wrong if you don’t say anything about him. I don’t want any of my work in any shape or form to be associated with anything like that.”

[Photo by Kristian Dowling/Getty Images]