Kanye West, now known as Ye, has testified in federal court that he followed the correct steps to clear a sample for his chart-topping 2021 album. Donda.
The rapper on Wednesday took the stand in a Los Angeles lawsuit over an early version of his song hurricane, according to Billboard.
The song, which featured The Weeknd and Lil Baby, won the Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance.
Four music producers, DJ Khalil, Sam Barsh, Dan Seiff and Josh Meese, are alleging that Ye included an obscure sample of their instrumental track. msd pt2 one in hurricane demo played on one Donda Pre-release listening party in July 2021.
Ye says the lawsuit is baseless because his team made a sincere effort to clean the samples, and notes that he was generally “very generous” in giving credit to colleagues.
He insisted that the four manufacturers deliberately dragged their feet and refused to approve the industry-standard split.
“We went through the normal process to take care of it,” shared Ye, who wore a gray suit. “I take pride in giving people what they deserve.”
“I feel like a lot of people try to take advantage of me,” he told the jury. “As I sit in this courtroom today, I think people are trying to make more than they otherwise would because it’s me.”
The lawsuit is one of over a dozen copyright cases Ye has faced throughout his career for allegedly using unlicensed samples and interpolations in his music.
