Kanye West told an LA court yesterday that he “prides himself of giving people what they deserve” when he collaborates with and samples other artists on his releases.
The rapper was testifying in a copyright infringement case, where he is accused of sampling a track called ‘MSD PT2’ on early versions of his tracks ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Moon’, and then showcasing those versions to the public at a live-streamed listening party in 2021 without the necessary approvals being in place.
According to Billboard, he told the jury that his team “went through the normal process” when trying to clear the ‘MSD PT2’ samples, but licensing talks with the producers of that track stalled, mainly because they rejected what would have been pretty standard royalty splits.
Of course, there have been more than a dozen lawsuits accusing West of using uncleared samples in his records, so you might question whether his team’s “normal process” of clearing samples is exactly the same as the wider industry’s “normal process”. Although West reckons he’s subject to more lawsuits than most simply because “a lot of people try to take advantage of me”.
‘MSD PT2’ was produced by DJ Khalil, Sam Barsh, Daniel Seeff and Josh Mease. They say they tried to get payment for the sampling of their track for three years before transferring control of the rights in the recording to Artist Revenue Advocates, which then began this legal action.
The copyright litigation only relates to the original versions of ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Moon’ that were showcased at West’s listening party, because the ‘MSD PT2’ samples were not included in the final versions that appeared on his ‘Donda’ album.
ARA originally claimed that the final versions had still interpolated ‘MSD PT2’, so the melody from the original work had been incorporated into West’s songs, even though he had taken the actual samples out of the mix.
However, that part of the dispute was dismissed earlier this year because it wasn’t clear that ARA actually owned the rights into the ‘MSD PT2’ composition, which would be necessary to make the interpolation claim.
Nevertheless, the case relating to the actual samples in the earlier versions of ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Moon proceeded, mainly on the basis that West made so much money out of the listening party where they were played thanks to ticket sales, a $750,000 deal with Apple and a stack of merchandise sales.
Disputes over uncleared samples, even those involving West, are usually settled out of court, but this one has got all the way to trial.
Along the way West’s lawyers have claimed that the producers of ‘MSD PT2’ “lured” their client into creating and releasing tracks that sampled their work before voicing any objections.
And while the producers may have felt the royalty splits they were offered were unfair, West told the court yesterday that he considers himself “very generous” when it comes to making agreements with his musical collaborators.
Also key to this dispute is the extent to which the versions of ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Moon’ with the ‘MSD PT2’ samples added to the value of the 2021 listening party and accompanying livestream.
Not much, West unsurprisingly reckons. “People came to hear whatever I was going to play that was new”, he testified, adding, “often people buy merch before they even hear the music".
The trial is continuing today with testimony from Milo Yiannopoulos, the former Yeezy Chief Of Staff and, according to court filings, “current consultant on complex matters” for the rapper.
We await to see what complexities he’ll cover, though - on the up side - Yiannopoulos is one of the few people who comes across as being even more ridiculous than West himself, so he might make the rapper’s own testimony seem more genuine by comparison.