Kanye West sued over alleged unauthorised sample on ‘530’
Kanye West has been hit with another lawsuit over a song from his Vultures 2 album.
Ye was sued once again on February 12th over claims he used an unauthorised sample on the song ‘530’.
The track appears on his 2024 album Vultures 2, his second collaborative project alongside Ty Dolla $ign.
According to Billboard, R&B artist Swsh (real name Remy Quillin) has accused Kanye and Ty of sampling their 2018 song ‘Break the Fall’ without permission. The suit claims that Swsh’s outro vocals are looped under Ye’s verses in the first two minutes of the song.
The lawsuit reads, “By exploiting Swsh’s creative output without credit or compensation, defendants usurped the commercial and artistic value of their sound recording and underlying musical composition while misrepresenting its authorship to the public.”
It continues, “This unauthorised use deprived plaintiffs of rightful sales and licensing revenue, diminished the value of their work and interfered with their ability to control how that work is experienced and perceived.”
Swsh claims they sent demand letters to Kanye following the release of Vultures 2, but the issue was never sorted. Not only that, but they allege the rapper even included ‘530’ on Donda 2 after the fact, despite having no sampling licence.
The suit adds, “Such willful, knowing and deliberate conduct reflects a conscious decision to misappropriate plaintiffs’ intellectual property and to profit from it.”
Swsh and indie label Future Bounce are named as the plaintiffs, while also bringing Ye’s YZY label and the Label Engine service into the mix over digital distribution.
They’re seeking financial damages from alleged lost royalties, noting that ‘530’ has over 50 million streams on Spotify.