On Tuesday (March 25), singer-songwriter Alice Merton filed a lawsuit in opposition to Ye fka Kanye West in a federal court docket in California for utilizing a pattern of certainly one of her songs after she denied his request. Within the paperwork of the lawsuit, Merton states that West sampled her 2022 music “Blindside” to be used in his music “Gun To My Head” that includes Child Cudi and Ty Dolla $ign. She states that the invention left her “understandably shocked and humiliated” to be related to West after he previewed the music at a Vultures listening occasion in Miami, Florida, in December 2023.
West would later launch “Gun To My Head” as a part of a deluxe digital launch of Vultures 2 final August. The lawsuit alleges that West had requested approval from Merton’s writer, BMG, to make use of “Blindside” by way of Alien Music Companies. When denied, Kanye West’s representatives adopted up by asking the rationale for the denial. BMG responded that “the artist’s values are opposite to our values” and that Merton was “unwilling to compromise her private beliefs and wished to not be related to Ye in any method.”
The writer additional revealed that Merton has “shut ties to the holocaust by way of Jewish members of the family who survived its horrors” and that West’s “antisemitic, racist remarks” had been opposite to her beliefs. The lawsuit additionally shares that Merton sustained a barrage of on-line threats and abuse from followers who had been upset over “Gun To My Head” not being on the preliminary version of Vultures 2. BMG had despatched a stop and desist letter requesting written compliance to cease additional copyright violations to West, which had been then ignored. The German singer-songwriter even expressed that she has stopped performing the songs at her live shows and determined in opposition to touring to the U.S. “for worry of confrontation or potential violence in opposition to her.”
The lawsuit is the most recent motion in opposition to West for copyright infringement by different musical artists. The property of Donna Summer time sued West final February for sampling her music “I Really feel Love” with out permission, stating that it “wished no affiliation with West’s controversial historical past.” Legendary steel singer Ozzy Osbourne additionally threatened to sue the Bully rapper for attempting to make use of a Black Sabbath pattern after being denied, “as a result of he’s an antisemite and has precipitated untold heartache to many.”