Kanye West Faces Lawsuit Over “Life of the Party” Sample

Kanye West is being sued for a sample used on his André 3000 collaboration, “Life of the Party.”

Kanye West is facing a lawsuit over a Boogie Down Productions sample used on his collaboration with André 3000, “Life of the Party.” The song is featured on the tracklist for West’s 2021 album, Donda.

Notably, BDP leader KRS-One didn’t file the lawsuit, but instead the company that owns the rights to their iconic 1986 track “South Bronx.” The unnamed company claims Ye and his team reached out to request permission to use the song; however, an agreement on terms was never reached.

Drake ended up leaking the song prior to the release of Donda, as a part of his beef with Ye at the time. The track was later included as a bonus song on the deluxe edition of the album.

On the leaked version of the song, Ye took shots at Drake in his verse.

“Thought we was the new Abu Dhabi / Told Drake ‘Don’t play with me on GD’ / And he sent that message to everybody / So if I hit you with a ‘WYD’ / You better hit me with, ‘Yes sir, I’m writing everything you need,’” he rapped.

André 3000 disavowed the diss in a statement released after the song was leaked, explaining that he was unaware West dissed Drake with his portion.

“I was inspired by his idea to make a musical tribute to his mom,” the Outkast wrote. “It felt appropriate to me to support the Donda concept by referencing my own mother, who passed away in 2013. We both share that loss. I thought it was a beautiful choice to make a clean album.”

He added: “But, unfortunately, I didn’t know that was the plan before I wrote and recorded my verse. It was clear to me that an edited ‘clean’ format of the verse would not work without having the raw, original also available. So, sadly, I had to be omitted from the original album release.”

[via]