Kanye West may be heading to court.
The superstar rapper’s Roc-A-Fella Records and Universal Music Group have been sued by record label TufAmerica (the same company that filed a lawsuit against the Beastie Boys back in May only a day prior to the untimely death of band member Adam Yauch) over the alleged illegal use of samples in two songs on West’s platinum-selling 2010 album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” according to Billboard. The tracks in question – “Who Will Survive in America?” and “Lost in the World” – both include a sample taken from late New Orleans R&B pianist Eddie Bo’s hit 1969 single “Hook and Sling, Part 1,” which TufAmerica asserts they own the rights to.
In the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, TufAmerica claims that while Roc-A-Fella and Universal Music paid the label a license fee of $62,500 for use of the sample on the album, they “failed and refused to enter into written license agreements that accounted for their multiple other uses of [‘Hook and Sling’].” The “multiple other uses” referred to include the “Lost in the World” music video and West’s 35-minute short film “Runaway,” which featured a compilation of songs from “Dark Twisted Fantasy.”
TufAmerica is seeking unspecified damages.