Kanye West – who claims to be all about artists rights – is being sued for using an unauthorized sample on a track from his “Donda 2” album. According to a complaint filed in US District Court in New York by Ultra International Music Publishing, he sampled Marshall Jefferson’s 1986 house track, “Move Your Body” (a.k.a. “The House Music Anthem”” on the song “Flowers.” He never asked permission or provided compensation for the clip, which is repeated at least 22 times throughout the song.
Also named as defendants in the suit are Alex Klein, who co-created the Stem Player – the MP3 device on which Ye exclusively released “Donda 2” – along with Alex’s company Kano Computing Limited and unnamed “Does 1-10.” As cited in the complaint, the Stem Player allows users “to isolate so-called ‘stems’ and then ‘customize’ songs by altering how those stems are used,” with the “Move Your Body” sample being one of the “stems” users can isolate with the device.