The Donna Summer estate has sued Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign for “shamelessly” including an interpolation of her song 'I Feel Love' in 'Good (Don't Die)', a track on their new collaborative album 'Vultures 1'. The estate says that it explicitly denied permission to West when approached about licensing the interpolation because it didn't want Summer to be associated with the controversial rapper.
"Summer’s estate … wanted no association with West’s controversial history and specifically rejected West’s proposed use of Summer’s 'I Feel Love'", the lawsuit states. As a result, it "unambiguously denied defendants’ clearance request. This unequivocal denial was communicated not only in writing, but also twice verbally over the phone".
"Despite this denial", the lawsuit goes on, West and his collaborators "shamelessly used instantly recognisable portions of Summer’s hit song 'I Feel Love' on their recently released collaborative album 'Vultures 1' and in recorded live concerts".
The Summer estate owns a third of the publishing in 'I Feel Love', with the rest managed by Warner Chappell on behalf of co-writers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. The recording rights in the Summer track are controlled by Universal Music.
Representatives for West also approached Universal, seemingly hoping to sample Summer's track, according to the lawsuit. The label also declined permission, resulting in a new recording being made, utilising the distinctive melody of 'I Feel Love', but with altered lyrics. This “unauthorised interpolation” should still have been licensed, says the estate.
“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", says the lawsuit.
Both Spotify and Apple Music removed 'Good (Don't Die)' after being approached by the Summer estate. However, says the lawsuit, "By the time Spotify removed the infringing song 'Good (Don't Die)' from its music streaming platform on 14 Feb 2024, the song had garnered over eight million streams in just four days, contributing to West overtaking the number one spot on Spotify’s list of most streamed artists".
With all that in mind, the Summer estate would like some lovely damages.
The Summer estate isn't the only party annoyed at an uncleared sample on 'Vultures 1'. As the album was released earlier this month, Ozzy Osbourne hit out at the inclusion of a uncleared Black Sabbath sample in the original version of the track 'Carnival'.
After the version of that track with the sample was played at a pre-release listening party, Osbourne declared on X that, "Kanye West asked permission to sample a section of a 1983 live performance of 'Iron Man' ... and was refused permission because he is an antisemite and has caused untold heartache to many. He went ahead and used the sample anyway at his album listening party last night. I want no association with this man!"