Shortly after the release of Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s collaborative album Vultures 2 back in August, Portishead’s Geoff Barrow said that the duo's song "Field Trip" used a sample of his band's "Machine Gun" without permission. Now Ye has been hit with a lawsuit regarding another sample on that same album, from an artist who'd like to stay far, far away from his antisemitic and otherwise xenophobic nonsense.
German singer-songwriter Alice Merton, known for her 2017 alt-radio hit "No Roots," filed the lawsuit in California on Tuesday. She claims that West sampled her 2022 song “Blindside” without her permission on the Vultures 2 track “Gun To My Head,” which also features Kid Cudi. After West previewed the track at a listening party in December 2023, Merton was “understandably shocked and humiliated” by being associated with him. But according to the suit, it wasn't until the following February that West reached out to Merton's publisher BMG for sample clearance. Through BMG, Merton said no, and West's team somehow felt the need to ask for further clarification. BMG responded explaining that West's "values are contrary to our values," and that Merton, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, was "unwilling to compromise her personal beliefs and wanted not to be associated with" a self-identifying Nazi.
"Gun To My Head" didn't appear on the original Vultures 2 tracklist. Merton's suit further claims that she received threats from Ye's fanbase when they noticed the song's omission; it was later included on the album's digital deluxe edition. "Gun To My Head" has since been removed from DSPs, but plenty of fans have re-uploaded rips of it online. West's team has also apparently been ignoring a cease and desist letter from BMG.
Sample clearance issues have long marred Kanye's career, but his insistent affiliation with right-wing ideologies certainly hasn't made clearing samples any easier. Last year, Ozzy Osbourne threatened legal action against West for sampling a live recording of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," calling the rapper "an antisemite [who] has caused untold heartache to many.” Donna Summer’s estate also sued West for interpolating “I Feel Love” on the first Vultures album, stating that they “wanted no association with West’s controversial history.”
