According to reports, Kanye West is being sued by a US pastor over a sampled audio track from his latest album Donda.
Bishop David Paul Moten is suing the rapper, alleging that sections of a religious sermon he gave were exploited without his permission on the track Come To Life.
The bishop claimed in court records that his voice and speech were used continuously throughout the song, from beginning to end, and that the lines accounted for more than 20% of the song.
According to the court docs, elements of the sermon were replayed throughout the song and used for 70 seconds in the entrance.
The action also cited UMG Recordings, Def Jam Recordings, and G.O.O.D Music, in addition to Kanye.
It was the latest incident of the Grammy Award winner and his connected businesses ‘willfully and egregiously sampling sound recordings of people without authorization or license,’ according to Bishop David Paul.
The action was filed when Universal Music Group was mentioned in a filing in the UK High Court for Kanye’s 2010 song Power, which features samples from King Crimson’s 1969 song 21st Century Schizoid Man.
Declan Music LTD, who owns the mechanical rights to 21st Century Schizoid Man, claims that UMG hasn’t been paying them enough streaming royalties for Power.
According to reports, DCM, Ye, and his production business Rock The World earlier agreed to enable the musician to sample the track in exchange for a 5.33 percent fee on each copy of Power sold or ‘otherwise exploited,’ and that they should earn royalties on the’same terms’ as Kanye.
‘The royalty figure for a streaming track was comparable to that of a track on a physical CD,’ according to his contract at the time.
DCM, on the other hand, alleged that Sony “failed, and continues to fail, to comply with its royalty accounting duties in respect of one manner of exploitation, namely the making available of the Power [r]ecording to consumers through so-called “streaming” services.”
With the addition of the streaming platforms, DCM claims that UMG is only paying them a small percentage of what they are owed, and that they are now seeking ‘all sums owing.’
Meanwhile, Kanye’s supporters have spoken out in support of the rapper following Pete Davidson’s new neck tattoo.
Pete appeared to have gotten a tattoo of his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, who is Pete’s lover.
On Friday night, the Saturday Night Live comedian returned to the stage for the first time in three years at the Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival in Los Angeles, and was joined by Kim, 41, who cheered him on as he joked about her estranged husband.
Pete, 28, appeared to have a previously unknown tattoo on his neck when departing and getting into their waiting car.