Kanye West accused of ‘stealing’ parts of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love
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Kanye West has been accused of ripping off Donna Summer’s I Feel Love in a lawsuit filed by her estate.
Bruce Sudano, Summer’s second husband and the executor of her will, filed the copyright infringement lawsuit in which he claims West and Ty Dolla $ign did not receive permission to use I Feel Love for their song Good (Don’t Die).
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Los Angeles, states that West, 46, and Ty Dolla $ign reached out to Summer’s estate to confirm the song’s ownership and requested to sample it before the Feb 10 release of the album Vultures.
The estate turned down the request, saying “the Summer estate not only considered the immense commercial value of the I Feel Love composition, but also the potential degradation to Summer’s legacy”.
The complaint added: “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.”
In 2022, Adidas, Gap and Balenciaga were among the brands that cut ties with the Grammy winner after he made a series of anti-Semitic comments.
Mr Sudano alleged that after being denied by the estate, West and Ty Dolla $ign approached Summer’s record label, Universal Music Enterprises, for sampling permission but were also denied.
The estate of the late singer, who died from lung cancer in 2012, claimed that West tried a workaround by re-recording a part of I Feel Love to use in the song rather than the original, but the estate maintains that it is still a copyright infringement.
“In the face of this rejection, defendants arrogantly and unilaterally decided they would simply steal I Feel Love and use it without permission,” the lawsuit stated.
Summer’s estate is asking for maximum damages amounting to $150,000 (£118,000) “for each act of infringement” and an injunction blocking any further distribution of the song containing the sample.
Vultures was briefly pulled from Spotify and Apple Music, just five days after its debut on the platform, after being hit with copyright infringements.
Good (Don’t Die) does not currently appear on the version of the album now available on music streaming platforms.
Summer, known as the “Queen of Disco”, gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s as her music gained an international audience.
While Vultures is currently at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, it is one of Mr West’s least successful albums.
