DONDA

Kanye West Defaults In “Donda” Sample Lawsuit From Boogie Down Productions

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Kanye West faced default judgement in court after he failed to respond to a sample clearance lawsuit from Boogie Down Productions over the Donda track “Life of the Party” featuring André 3000. Moreover, he took the hip-hop pioneering group’s 1986 cut, “South Bronx.” Furthermore, the song’s copyright holders (Phase One Network) sued Ye and Kano Computing (who created the Donda-affiliated Stem Player). Also, they targeted Def Jam Recordings and others last year for copyright infringement in the case. They claimed the Chicago rapper never cleared the sample and sent a post-facto request in July 2021. Then, his team retracted it November of that year, and released it on the Stem Player anyway.

According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, the Clerk of Court for New York’s Southern District submitted an entry of default on Wednesday (March 8). In addition, Phase One had requested such actions back in January. “I, Ruby J. Krajick, Clerk of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, do hereby certify that this action was commenced on November 7, 2022 with the filing of a summons and complaint, a copy of the summons and complaint was served on defendant Ye … by delivery of a true copy of each to Defendant Ye, and proof was therefore filed on January 26, 2023,” the documents stated.

Kanye Wests Defaults In Lawsuit From Boogie Down Productions “Donda” Sample

“I further certify that the docket entries indicate that Defendant Ye has failed to plead or otherwise defend the action,” they added. “The default of Defendant Ye is hereby noted.” Not only that, but Phase One elaborated on their qualms in its suit. “The West parties retracted the licensing request despite having already incorporated ‘South Bronx’ into the Infringing Track, distributed the infringing track through the Stem Player and its associated website, and incorporated the Infringing Track into the Infringing Advertisements.”

Meanwhile, the Yeezy mogul also faces a sample lawsuit over a track from Donda 2. This time, Ultra International Music Publishing (UIMP) sued him for an unauthorized sample of Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body.” Moreover, the 1986 track in question appeared on Kanye’s “Flowers.” What’s more is that they claim he knew he sampled it without permission. Instead of clearing it, UIMP claims he “continue[d] to willfully infringe in blatant disregard of UIMP’s rights of ownership.” Regardless of your take, log back into HNHH for the latest news and updates on Kanye West.

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Denzel Curry Is Disappointed In Drake And Kanye West For Making ‘Subpar Work With The Resources They Have’

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Denzel Curry Governors Ball 2022
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Back in mid-May, Denzel Curry stirred the pot by expressing his disappointment in Drake’s Certified Lover Boy and Kanye West’s Donda, tweeting, “Donda and CLB could’ve been better yall n****s rich and got the greatest musicians at your disposal.” Not only is Curry not backing down on that take, but in a new Spin interview, he actually doubled down by going into more detail about what he meant.

Citing Take Care and If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late as example of the sort of Drake level of quality he hopes for with a new album, Curry said:

“I was looking forward to Drake’s album, ’cause Drake always got something. But then, when you get them albums, you’re like, ‘What the f*ck are you doing?’ […] We don’t even really need to talk about Kanye West, it’s Kanye West. But for them to go out and go against each other and make that subpar work with the resources they have. These are the same producers it’s hard for me to reach out to because they don’t see the return. You’ve got all these resources and y’all made subpar albums. I had limited resources and I made a great one. That shouldn’t happen.”

Read the full feature here.