Kanye West loses lawsuit over uncleared sample played at stadium fan event

Rapper known as Ye must pay six-figure sum to four plaintiffs who successfully argued he infringed copyright

Kanye West has lost a lawsuit which alleged he infringed on other artists’ copyright by playing an uncleared sample of their work during a live event.

In July 2021 the artist, now legally known as Ye, played his then-unreleased album Donda to 40,000 fans at a listening party held at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The version of the song Hurricane featured a sample of MSD PT2, an instrumental composed by four musicians: Khalil Abdul-Rahman, Sam Barsh, Josh Mease and Dan Seeff. They had made the instrumental in 2018, and it made its way to Ye via another producer.