Kanye West Faces Copyright Trial Over Alleged Uncleared Samples in Donda Tracks

Ye (formerly Kanye West ) has been sued more than a dozen times throughout his career for using unlicensed samples and interpolations in his music. For the first time, one of these lawsuits is now going to trial, albeit in a very limited fashion.

A jury is convening in Los Angeles federal court on Monday (May 4) to hear a copyright case over early versions of the Ye songs “Hurricane” and “Moon,” which both charted in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 when they were released on his Billboard 200 No. 1 album Donda in 2021. “Hurricane” also went on to win a Grammy Award for best melodic rap performance.

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The plaintiff is Artist Revenue Advocates LLC, a business entity run by music producers DJ Khalil (Khalil Abdul-Rahman), Sam Barsh , Dan Seeff and Josh Mease . The four men created an instrumental track called “MSD PT2” in 2018, and they sued Ye in 2024 for allegedly interpolating the track on “Hurricane” and “Moon” without getting permission or paying proper royalties.

However, a judge dismissed the bulk of the lawsuit in February after determining that Artist Revenue Advocates owns only the “MSD PT2” master recording rights, not the composition rights. This means that while the company can sue over a sample , it does not have any standing to bring claims over an interpolation .

It’s undisputed that there is no direct sample of the “MSD PT2” recording on the final versions of either “Hurricane” or “Moon.” But Artist Revenue Advocates alleges that such samples did exist on early, unreleased demos of both songs before ultimately being switched out for interpolations. So, the judge is allowing a narrow trial to go forward, where the plaintiffs will seek a share of the money that Ye allegedly made playing these early demos at listening parties before Donda ’s official release.

Ye’s position is that he owes nothing to these four producers because his team did try to clear the “MSD PT2” sample, but that the men intentionally slow-walked the process and refused to approve industry-standard splits so that they could “maximize their negotiating power” and claim infringement after release. Ye also says the plaintiffs have collected some royalties already from various publishers.

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Ye Faces Another Copyright Lawsuit Over Sampling: ‘Blatant Theft of Musical Property’

This is far from the only copyright case that Ye has ever faced. The rapper was sued for the first time in 2008 for allegedly failing to clear a sample on his second studio album, Late Registration , and at least 16 similar lawsuits have been brought since then.

Ye has never before taken one of these cases to trial, historically opting to instead settle those that don’t get dismissed on procedural grounds. This time, however, his team has decided to defend Artist Revenue Advocates’ claims before a jury.

The trial is expected to last about a week and feature testimony from Ye himself, who took the witness stand at another trial in Los Angeles two months ago over construction work at his Malibu mansion.

Other names on the witness list include Ye’s chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos , and Donda producers Nascent , 88-Keys , BoogzdaBeast and Digital Nas . A rep from Apple Music might also be called to testify about the platform’s livestreams of Donda listening sessions in 2021, as well as reps from Balenciaga and Gap to discuss whether these sessions contributed to sales of Yeezy-branded merch.

The trial comes during a complicated moment in Ye’s career. In January, the controversial rapper took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal apologizing for his many antisemitic comments over the years. Ye then sold out two shows at SoFi Stadium and debuted his latest album Bully at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 last month — but the comeback was slowed after the U.K. government denied him a visa to perform at this summer’s Wireless Festival, leading to the cancellation of that event as well as a number of other upcoming Ye gigs.

Reps for Ye and Artist Revenue Advocates did not return requests for comment ahead of the trial.

_Originally reported by [Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/pro/kanye-west-trial-lawsuit-sample-donda-demos/)._