Kanye West is no stranger to copyright infringement lawsuits against his work, which reflect his frequent sampling and his unorthodox creative process when it comes to release. According to an exclusive report from AllHipHop's Grouchy Greg Watkins, a Los Angeles lawsuit over some 2021 Donda tracks just hit Ye with some hefty legal fees.
For those unaware, plaintiffs Artist Revenue Advocates, LLC claim that he stole material on "Hurricane" and "Moon" from DJ Khalil and two other musicians. Although they appeared as credited producers and songwriters, the 2023 lawsuit alleges that they never cleared this use of their music. As such, they filed suit and made 65 document requests in the discovery process. But Ye's legal team refused, and the plaintiffs asked the court to hold them accountable.
The judge in this case agreed with the plaintiffs and ordered Kanye West and his companies to pay $52,015 in attorney fees, as well as provide the requested discovery documents. To be clear, this is not a ruling on the lawsuit itself; just on the accusation that the defense team stalled discovery. While his lawyers reportedly called this decision "excessive," the court did not budge. The plaintiffs claim these tracks with allegedly infringed copyrighted material generated at least $15 million in revenue.
Kanye West Documentary
We will see in due time what comes of this legal battle, which has been going on for a while now. It's also one of many controversies Kanye West keeps dealing with, some more frivolous than others. A lot of conversations around his beefs and industry relationships came about thanks to some recent comments from Consequence against former collaborator Pusha T. Elsewhere, Ye's sociopolitical leanings definitely died down in public discourse recently, but they remain highly divisive and damaging.
Many of these elements and other important narratives will come up in the upcoming Kanye West documentary, In Whose Name? The film will cover the turbulent period in between the The Life Of Pablo and VULTURES eras in Ye's career.
We will see just how deep it goes in all its pursuits. Despite all the media firestorms around him and the legal challenges he continues to face, it seems like he remains quite comfortable with his staggering level of celebrity and notoriety.
