Lyrics and lawsuits may have Kanye West hemmed up before a justice of the peace for two entirely different reasons. The rapper sings about marriage on his upcoming collaboration with RZA entitled “White Dress” prompting speculation that he has nuptial notions. Meanwhile, a New Orleans singer has slapped West with a lawsuit claiming that two tracks on the artist’s 2010 album feature snippets from a 1969 tune.
The multiplatinum-selling West, nor his lawyers, have yet to comment on either topic. However, during the recent BET awards, RZA told MTV that West was dropping lyrics “basically talking about some of these girls, you know, you maybe want to make a wife out of them, but they gotta get it together.” The “White Dress” single will appear on the soundtrack for the upcoming RZA kung-fu film “The Man with the Iron Fists.”
What is more likely to have West appearing before a court, however, is the lawsuit filed in Federal Court in Manhattan alleging that the rapper paid a licensing fee of $62,500 for the right to sample “Hook and Sling” then “failed and refused to enter into written license agreements that accounted for their multiple uses of [the song].” The original agreement gave West license to use bits of the 1969 song by Eddie Bo for his “Who Will Survive in America” and “Lost in the World” singles, both of which appear on the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for unlicensed use of the song in a music video and short film made by West. This is the second time the rapper has been sued for a copyright dispute. In 2010, musician Vincent Peters sued West over his song “Stronger”. Peters said the song was similar to one he had sent to a business associate of West’s in 2006. The court ruled in West’s favor.
