Music icon Donna Summer’s estate has come to a settlement agreement with the rapper Kanye West over his alleged “illegal” use of her disco classic “I Feel Love” in his 2024 album with Ty Dolla $ign, “Vultures 1”. The late singer’s husband, Bruce Sudano, filed a lawsuit in February citing that the two rappers did not have permission to sample the hit, which representatives for West had previously asked for and were denied. The case accused West and Ty Dolla $ign of “shamelessly” using “instantly recognisable” re-recorded parts of “I Feel Love” in the song. After the lawsuit emerged, “Good (Don’t Die)”, which also featured the sample, was removed from Spotify.
According to US outlet Rolling Stone, a “global settlement” was reached between the Summer estate and West and Ty Dolla $ign on May 3 after the lawsuit was filed in federal court in Los Angeles. The parties involved have begun gathering signatures and a final settlement agreement is set to be executed soon. The estate lawyer in the case, Stanton L. Stein, said in a recent filing that “plaintiff requests that dismissal not be entered at this time” in case the settlement is not concluded before 14 June, 2024.
This is not the only claim of copyright infringement surrounding “Vultures 1”. In December last year, it was alleged that West used a Backstreet Boys sample on a track called “Everybody”, which was not cleared and did not feature on the album. In a separate case, Ozzy Osbourne hit out at West over an alleged unauthorised sample of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” on the song “Carnival”. West removed the sample and replaced it with a legally-cleared sample of “Iron Man”.
West has had a series of legal woes lately, including being sued for racial discrimination by a former security guard, and reports of having scrapped plans to set up his own adult film company called Yeezy Porn. However, Universal Music Group recently settled a lawsuit with King Crimson over a sample used in West’s “Power”
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