With Kanye West dealing with a lawsuit for allegedly utilizing an uncleared pattern from the pioneering rap group Boogie Down Productions, his attorneys are making an uncommon argument: {That a} Boogie Down founder promised all future rappers that “you’ll not get sued.”
In a movement filed Friday, attorneys for West (who legally modified his identify to Ye) requested a Manhattan federal decide to toss out the November lawsuit, which claims West included an unlawful pattern from the 1986 music “South Bronx” on his personal his “Lifetime of the Occasion,” launched on 2021’s Donda.
In doing so, they pointed to a short second from a 2006 documentary referred to as The Artwork of 16 Bars, by which Boogie Down founder KRS-One “emphatically states” that he wouldn’t file such a lawsuit.
“I give to all MCs my complete catalogue,” he allegedly mentioned within the documentary, which is obtainable in its entirety on YouTube. “You’ll not get sued for those who pattern a KRS-One report or do an interpolation of my lyrics, something. My complete catalogue is open to the general public.”
The quote, West’s attorneys say, “calls into query” the possession of the copyrights that he allegedly infringed. They are saying the group that filed the case, Section One Community, should now show that it – and never “MC’s world wide” — really controls the Boogie Down copyrights.
The case over “Lifetime of the Occasion” is one in all a number of latest lawsuits that declare West illegally sampled or interpolated present music in his tracks. In Might 2022, a Texas pastor named David P. Moten accused the rapper of sampling from his recorded sermon in “Come to Life”; a month later, he was sued once more, for utilizing a snippet of Marshall Jefferson’s 1986 home observe “Transfer Your Physique” within the music “Flowers.”
Such allegations have been nothing new. In 2019, West and Pusha T have been sued for sampling George Jackson‘s “I Can’t Do With out You” on the observe “Come Again Child.” That very same 12 months, he was sued for allegedly utilizing an audio snippet of a younger lady praying in his 2016 music “Ultralight Beam.” Additional again, West was hit with comparable instances over samples utilized in “New Slaves,” “Sure 2,” and “My Pleasure.”
Launching its personal lawsuit in November, Section One claimed that West’s individuals reached out to clear the usage of Boogie Down’s “South Bronx” — however then launched it anyway when a deal was by no means struck. “Even if ultimate clearance to be used of ‘South Bronx’ within the infringing observe was by no means approved, the infringing observe was nonetheless reproduced.”
However in Friday’s movement to dismiss, West’s attorneys argued that West had solely ever used the Boogie Down pattern whereas experimenting within the studio, and had eliminated the clip from “Lifetime of the Occasion” when he was unable to safe a license.
Below these circumstances, West’s attorneys say his use of the clip was coated by copyright’s “honest use” protection. “Defendant’s use of South Bronx whereas creating the observe and experimenting with it with the intent to contact the license holder for approval, as proof by such act, is undoubtedly honest use.”
